Actor Maggie Smith who played the dowager Countess
of Grantham in Downton Abbey and Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter
films died on Friday.
Maggie Smith,
who won an Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969 and won new
fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton
Abbey, has died, her publicist said Friday. She was 89.
Her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith
died early Friday in a London hospital. “She leaves two sons and five
loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their
extraordinary mother and grandmother,” they said in a statement issued
through publicist Clair Dobbs.
An enviable legacy
To millennials worldwide, Maggie was known for playing the dowager
Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey, a role that seemed tailor-made
for an actress known for purse-lipped asides and malicious cracks, and
Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter
movies. She's one of the few actors to win the treble of an Oscar
(two), Emmy (four), and Tony, Maggie's long career started on the stage
in the 1950s.
Her first Academy Award nomination was for her turn playing Desdemona
opposite Laurence Olivier's Othello in 1965, before winning the Oscar
for her role as an Edinburgh schoolmistress in 1969's The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie.
She won her second Oscar for her supporting role in the 1978 comedy
California Suite, a performance that prompted co-star Michael Caine to
say: “Maggie didn't just steal the film, she committed grand larceny.”
Other critically acclaimed roles included Lady Bracknell in Wilde's The
Importance of Being Earnest on the West End stage, a 92-year-old
bitterly fighting senility in Edward Albee's play Three Tall Women, and
her part in 2001 black comedy movie Gosford Park.
In 1990 Maggie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth and became a Dame. She
was frequently rated the preeminent British woman actor of a generation
that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench.
Witness Hindustan Times' 100-Year Legacy in stunning motion projection
at HT House,CP, Delhi, from 23rd-28th Sep' 2024, between 7PM-11PM.