Background

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, on 28 December 1934. Her father, Nathaniel Smith (1902–1991), was a public health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne who worked at Oxford University; her mother, Margaret Hutton (née Little; 1896–1977), was a Scottish secretary from Glasgow.

During her childhood, Smith's parents told her the romantic story of how they had met on the train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She had older twin brothers, Alistair (died 1981) and Ian. The latter went to architecture school.

Education

Smith attended Oxford High School until age 16. After graduating from high school, she attended the Oxford Playhouse School from 1951 to 1953.

Career

Maggie Smith made her professional stage début in 1952, playing Viola in an Oxford University Dramatics Society production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. After a brief detour to New York’s Broadway, where she performed in the comedy revue New Faces of 1956, Smith also began to act in film. Her first role was a short, uncredited appearance in Child in the House in 1956, followed by a larger part in the crime drama Nowhere to Go in 1959.

In the 1960s, Smith was active in the National Theatre of Great Britain. She played Desdemona to Laurence Olivier’s Othello in 1964; the two of them reprised their roles in a film version of Othello the following year. While at the National Theatre, she acted in classic dramas by major authors such as Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov.

Smith has received two Academy Awards. She received the first (for best actress) in 1969, for her portrayal of an idealistic, unorthodox schoolteacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She won the second (for best-supporting actress) in 1978, in honor of her performance in Neil Simon’s California Suite. She has also received British Academy Film Awards for her work, including for her roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1984's A Private Function, 1985's A Room with a View and 1987's The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. Additionally, she has received several accolades for her stage performances, including a Variety Club Award for her performance in Noël Coward’s Private Lives in 1972, and a Tony Award for Lettice and Lovage in 1990.

Throughout the 1990s, Smith acted in a diverse range of projects, from the 1993 comedy Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit with Whoopi Goldberg, to the 1997 literary adaptation Washington Square and the 1999 ensemble drama Tea with Mussolini. Her appearance as a snobbish aristocrat in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park (2001) received especially positive notice.

Smith captured the attention of a new generation when she played the strict witchcraft teacher Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). The movie was a huge hit, and Smith reprised the role for six of the seven Harry Potter sequels.

Since 2010, Smith has been acclaimed for her performance as the grandly irrepressible Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the period drama Downton Abbey. She has received three Emmy Awards for the role in 2011, 2012 and 2016.

The esteemed and busy actress has also continued her prolific film career. In 2012, she joined the ensemble cast of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and was featured in the Dustin Hoffman-directed Quartet. In 2015, she returned for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and starred in the comedy-drama The Lady in the Van, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination.

Achievements

• 

  Smith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1970 New Year Honours, and was raised to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1990 New Year Honours, for services to the performing arts. Smith was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to drama in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours, becoming the third actress to receive the honour, after Sybil Thorndike (1970) and Judi Dench (2005).
  
  In 1971, Smith was conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by University of St Andrews. In 1986, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Bath. In 1995, Smith received an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Cambridge. In October 2017, Smith was conferred with an Honorary Fellowship of Mansfield College, Oxford.
  
  She was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Hamburg Alfred Toepfer Foundation in 1991. She was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. On 10 April 1999 Smith received the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre (The Will Award) presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in recognition of her significant contribution to classical theatre in the US. On 9 February 2014 she was inducted into the Actors Hall of Fame. Smith had a star on the London Avenue of Stars until all of the stars were removed in 2006.
  
  In 1993, she was awarded with the BAFTA Special Award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 1996, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented her with the BAFTA Fellowship, the highest honour the Academy can bestow. At the 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards, she was celebrated with the Society of London Theatre Special Award. In 2013, she was awarded with the Evening Standard Icon Award.
  
  On 10 September 2012, she was honoured with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Legacy Award. She accepted the award, presented to her by Christopher Plummer, in a ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. In March 2016, Smith was awarded the Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts. In April 2016, she was awarded the Bodley Medal by the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the performing arts.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Pumpkin Eater

    (Academy Award winner, Anne Bancroft, plays Jo Armitage a ...)

    1964
  • Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang

    (Nanny McPhee arrives to help a harried young mother who i...)

    2010
  • Lily in Love

    (In this suggestive romantic comedy, iconic Broadway star ...)

    1984
  • Curtain Call

    (A bachelor afraid of marriage angers his long-time girlfr...)

    1999
  • The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

    (In this poignant drama, based on the celebrated novel by ...)

    1987
  • Oh! What A Lovely War

    (A movie about the First World War based on a stage musica...)

    1969
  • Quartet

    (At a home for retired opera singers, the annual concert t...)

    1981
  • Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

    (As Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, he dis...)

    2007
  • The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

    (A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s E...)

    1969
  • Ladies in Lavender

    (Aging spinster sisters Ursula (Judi Dench) and Janet (Mag...)

    2004
  • The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

    (Check in again for more love and laughter as new arrival ...)

    2015
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

    (When Harry Potter's name emerges from the Goblet of Fire,...)

    2005
  • Agatha Christie's Poirot: Death on the Nile

    (Death on the Nile is a 1978 British mystery film based on...)

    1978
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

    (An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he...)

    2001
  • The Secret Garden

    (Sweet, beautifully told story based on the classic story ...)

    1993
  • The Honey Pot

    (In Venice, a millionaire hires an actor to help him prank...)

    1967
  • Evil Under the Sun

    (Trying to find how a millionaire wound up with a phony di...)

    1982
  • Travels With My Aunt

    (Travels with My Aunt is a 1972 American comedy film direc...)

    1972
  • My Old Lady

    (Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas star i...)

    2014
  • Clash of the Titans

    (Harry Hamlin portrays the Greek hero Perseus who battles ...)

    1981
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

    (It's Harry's third year at Hogwarts; not only does he hav...)

    2004
  • Keeping Mum

    (A pastor preoccupied with writing the perfect sermon fail...)

    2005
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

    (Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission...)

    2011
  • Murder By Death

    (An eccentric millionaire (Truman Capote) invites the worl...)

    1976
  • The Lady In The Van

    (Maggie Smith plays Miss Shepherd, a woman who "temporaril...)

    2015
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

    (Lord Voldemort has returned, but the Ministry of Magic is...)

    2007
  • Hook

    (Superstars Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Rober...)

    1991
  • A Private Function

    (In post-war Britain, food rationing continues, leading a ...)

    1984
  • A Room with a View

    (In a Florence pensione circa 1900 with English guests, Ge...)

    1985
  • The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

    (British pensioners on a tight budget move to a retirement...)

    2012
  • The First Wives Club

    (Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton portray mid-li...)

    1996
  • Othello

    (A General's marriage is destroyed when a vengeful Lieuten...)

    1965
  • Richard III

    (Overcome by ambition and jealousy, the duplicitous Richar...)

    1995
  • Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing

    (Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing is a 1973 American...)

    1973
  • Child In The House

    (Young Elizabeth is left with her relatives, a married cou...)

    1956
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

    (Harry returns to Hogwarts, still famous and a hero, when ...)

    2002
  • California Suite

    (California Suite is Neil Simon's laugh-drenched adaptatio...)

    1978
  • Young Cassidy

    (The misadventures of a young idealist man in the Dublin o...)

    1965
  • Washington Square

    (A lonely young woman in search of happiness is finally sw...)

    1997
  • Sister Act

    (Whoopi is a singer forced to hide out from the mob in a c...)

    1992
  • Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit

    (Whoopi goes undercover as Sister Mary at an inner-city sc...)

    1993
  • From Time To Time

    (A haunting story spanning two worlds, centuries apart. A ...)

    2009
  • The VIPs

    (Fog delays a group of travelers headed for New York. They...)

    1963
  • Becoming Jane

    (Meet twentyish Jane Austen: in love...and on a path that ...)

    2007
  • Hot Millions

    ("Any fool can steal. I've been embezzling." Peter Ustinov...)

    1968

• TV series

  • Capturing Mary

    (A young man ushers an older woman into a dark exploration...)

    2004
  • Downton Abbey: The Complete Collection

    (A chronicle of the lives of the British aristocratic Craw...)

    2010

Views

In September 2011, Smith offered her support for raising the $4.6 million needed to help rebuild the Court Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the earthquake in 2011 which caused severe damage to the area. In July 2012, she became a patron of the International Glaucoma Association, hoping to support the organization and raise the profile of glaucoma. On 27 November 2012, she contributed a drawing of her own hand to the 2012 Celebrity Paw Auction, to raise funds for Cats Protection.

Quotations: "If you're lucky, I think you know what you want to do with your life. I think that's a greater gift that any of the gifts you might have when you do know if you know what I mean. It must be awful to not know what to do."

"There's a difference between solitude and loneliness."

"Listen, I must be 110 by now. Granny is going to kick the bucket at some point."

"People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all."

"Old people are scary. And I have to face it. I am old and I am scary."

"Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes."

Membership

Smith was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film culture in 1992.

• 

  International Glaucoma Association

• 

  British Film Institute

Personality

The actress Judi Dench is Maggie’s old friend. She was a good friend of "Carry On" star Kenneth Williams.

Smith has always been charmingly modest.

Physical Characteristics: Height: 5 Feet 5 Inches

In January 1988, Smith was diagnosed with Graves' disease, for which she underwent radiotherapy and optical surgery.

In 2007, the Sunday Telegraph disclosed that Smith had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was subsequently reported to have made a full recovery.

Interests

• Reading

• Writers

  Jane Austen

Connections

Smith married actor Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967 at Greenwich Register Office, ten days after the birth of their first child. They had two sons, actors Chris Larkin (born 1967) and Toby Stephens (born 1969), and were divorced on 6 April 1975.

Smith married playwright Beverley Cross on 23 June 1975 at the Guildford Register Office, and they were married until his death on 20 March 1998. When asked in 2013 if she was lonely, she replied that "it seems a bit pointless, going on one's own, and not having someone to share it with". Smith has five grandchildren.

Father:

Nathaniel Smith

(1902 - 1991)

Mother:

Margaret Hutton-Smith

(1896 - 1977)

Spouse:

Beverley Cross

(13 April 1931 – 20 March 1998)

He was an English playwright, librettist and screenwriter.

Brother:

Ian Smith

Brother:

Alistair Smith

ex-spouse:

Robert Stephens

(14 July 1931 – 12 November 1995)

He was a leading English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. He was one of the most respected actors of his generation and was at one time regarded as the natural successor to Laurence Olivier.

Son:

Toby Stephens

(born 21 April 1969)

He is an English stage, television, and film actor who has appeared in films in both the UK and US as well as in India.

Son:

Chris Larkin

(on 19 June 1967)

He is an English actor.

Friend:

Judi Dench

(born 9 December 1934)

She is an English actress.

colleague:

Michael Caine

(14 March 1933)

He is an English actor, producer and author.

colleague:

Elizabeth Taylor

(February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)

She was a British-American actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian.

colleague:

Dustin Hoffman

(born August 8, 1937)

He is an American actor and director

colleague:

Rupert Grint

(born 24 August 1988)

He is an English actor and producer.

Friend:

Kenneth Williams

(22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988)

He was an English actor, best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist.

References

• Maggie Smith: A Biography
• Maggie Smith: A View From The Stalls
• Maggie Smith: A Bright Particular Star