Harry Potter and Downton Abbey Actress Maggie Smith Dies at 89

Dame Maggie Smith, the beloved actor recognizable for her roles in the Harry Potter and Downton Abbey franchises, has died. She was 89 years old. Smith, who for decades has been one of the most prolific and acclaimed British actresses on the planet, earned an Academy Award as well as a BAFTA for her role in 1969’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, announced her passing today, saying that she had died at a London hospital on early Friday local time.

“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” Larkin and Stephens said in a statement issued through their publicist (via The Daily Mail).

Smith began her career on the stage, and drew acclaim for her performances on London’s West End and Broadway for years. Besides making a name for herself in Mary, Mary, Othello, Private Lives, and more, she dove into screen work, where she did not only Miss Jean Brodie, but other hits like California Suite, A Room With a View, Gosford Park, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. 

Already one of the most esteemed performers of her generation, Redgrave had a late-career renaissance, with millions of new fans encountering her for the first time as Countess Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey and Professor Minerva McGonagall in Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter films.

In 1990, she was named Dame Commander of the British Empire, a rare honor.

Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, in 1934, and attended the Oxford School for Girls, and then the Oxford Playhouse School, where she studied theatre. In 1952, she started appearing in stage productions at Oxford University, and eventually was asked to join New Faces of 1956, a Broadway variety show. The next year, she made her film debut in Nowhere To Go, before moving back to the stage and joining the cast of The Old Vic. There, she appeared in plays like “As You Like It,” “Richard II,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “What Every Woman Knows.”

In 1963, she starred alongside legendary celebrity couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in The V.I.P.s, then the next year she went head to head with Ann Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eaters. From that point on, Smith would split her time between stage and screen, earning acclaim from both industries.

Smith joined the National Theatre Company, playing the role of Desdemona in “Othello,” a part for which she later earned an Academy Award nomination when the show was adapted to film. For the National Theater, she also appeared in “Hay Fever,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Hedda Gabler,” for which she won her second Evening Standard Award in 1970 (the first came for “The Private Ear/The Public Eye” early in her career). She would go on to win a third in 1981 for the title role in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and a fourth for 1984’s “The Way of the World,” giving her Evening Standard Awards in three decades. She was also nominated for two Tony Awards (one for “Night and Day,” and another for “Private Lives”).

She earned a second Academy Award nomination for Travels With My Aunt, and then dove into comedy with not only California Suite (which earned her an Oscar), but the cult classic Murder By Death (which will play on October 12th at Quentin Tarantino’s Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles as a double feature with Clue). In 1981, she also had her first memorable “genre” role, as Thetis in Clash of the Titans.

She delivered a series of memorable performances in the 1980s in movies like A Private Function (which got her a BAFTA Award for best actress (A Room With a View, which netted her an Oscar nomination, and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, which got her another BAFTA.

Chronic illness slowed her pace, but didn’t reduce the quality of her work, and Smith won a Tony Award for “Lettice and Lovage,” a role that was actually written for her. She went on to appear shortly after in Hook, The Secret Garden, and both Sister Act movies. She appeared alongside Ian McKellen in Richard III, and Cher in Tea With Mussolini.

She won an Emmy Award for the 2003 HBO movie My Life in Umbria, then two more a few yeas later when she joined Downton Abbey. She also battled breast cancer during production on the Harry Potter films, but went into remission about 15 years ago. 

Smith is survived by two sons, actors Christopher Larkin and Toby Stephens, and grandchildren. Our condolences go out to her family, friends, collaborators, and fans.