Maggie Smith, the venerable British actress whose profession on stage, movie and tv spanned greater than 60 years, has died. She was 89.
Her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, confirmed she had died in an announcement to the Press Affiliation.
Having appeared in additional than 50 movies, Smith was thought of one in every of Britain’s finest recognized actresses and was beloved by latest generations for her roles as Professor Minerva McGonagall within the “Harry Potter” movies and the Dowager Countess of Grantham on tv’s “Downton Abbey.”
Actress Dame Maggie Smith arrives on the Royal Movie Efficiency and World Premiere of the movie, “The Second Greatest Unique Marigold Resort”, in London Feb. 17, 2015.
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British actress Dame Maggie Smith poses in London, Dec. 16, 2015.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Along with successful two Academy Awards, Smith earned 5 BAFTA Awards, 4 Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, 5 Display Actors Guild Awards and a Tony Award. In 1990, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Born in Ilford, Essex, Smith moved together with her household to Oxford when she was 4 years outdated. Her father, a public well being pathologist, labored at Oxford College. Smith attended Oxford Excessive College till age 16 when she left to review performing on the Oxford Playhouse.
In 1952, she made her stage debut with the Oxford College Drama Society. A decade later, she was performing reverse Laurence Olivier and incomes her first Oscar nomination for 1965’s “Othello.”
English actress Maggie Smith together with her son Chris Larkin, Apr. 21, 1970, in London.
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Actress Dame Maggie Smith within the dressing room of The Outdated Vic, in London, Oct. 24, 1967.
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By 1979, she had gained her first Oscar for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” One other adopted in 1979 for “California Suite.”
Smith appeared in quite a lot of movies all through the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, together with 1985’s “A Room with a View” and the 1993 comedy “Sister Act 2: Again within the Behavior” with Whoopi Goldberg. However she turned a worldwide star within the autumn of her profession after starring within the “Harry Potter” movie franchise, which ran from 2001 to 2011.
In 2010, she was solid because the witty Dowager Countess in “Downton Abbey,” incomes her a slew of awards, together with three Emmys and a Golden Globe.
The actress battled and beat breast most cancers whereas starring within the “Harry Potter” movies.
She welcomed two youngsters, Larkin and Stephens, from her first marriage to actor Robert Stephens. Smith’s second husband, the playwright and screenwriter Beverley Cross, died in 1998.
Smith is survived by her sons and 5 grandchildren.
