Maggie Smith, Renowned Actress of ‘Downton Abbey’ and ‘Harry Potter,’ Dead at 89
Maggie Smith, the Oscar-winning British actress who starred in Downton Abbey and the Harry Potter series, has died at the age of 89.
Smith’s sons announced her death Friday morning in a statement. No cause of death was revealed, but the actress was at a British hospital at the time of her death.
“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith,” her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin said in the statement to Rolling Stone. “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. 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.”
“Dame Maggie Smith introduced us to new worlds with the countless stories she acted over her long career,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on social media Friday. “She was beloved by so many for her great talent, becoming a true national treasure whose work will be cherished for generations to come. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones. May she rest in peace.”
Smith, who received damehood for her contribution to the British stage and screen, won two Academy Awards during a career that spanned over 70 years. Following her first Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar nomination in 1966 for Othello, Smith won Best Actress in a Lead Role award four years later for 1969’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She received four more Oscar nominations over the ensuing decades, winning once more for Best Supporting Actress for 1978’s California Suite. Her final Oscar nod came in that same category for 2001’s Gosford Park.
One of the U.K.’s most decorated actresses, Smith also won five BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globes, and four Emmy Awards, with the latter largely coming for her portrayal of Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in the beloved Masterpiece series Downton Abbey.
Hugh Bonneville, who played Smith’s son Robert Crawley on the series, called Smith a “true legend of her generation” in a statement to the BBC Friday. “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.”
Already a star of the British stage, Smith became known to American audiences in the 1970s with roles in Agatha Christie adaptations like Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun, the all-star 1976 murder-mystery spoof Murder by Death, the Neil Simon-penned California Suite, and the epic Clash of the Titans.
Smith also appeared as the strict Mother Superior in Sister Act, as the elder Wendy Darling in Steven Spielberg’s Hook, A Room With a View, The First Wives Club, and Tea With Mussolini. However, on the cusp of her seventies, Smith was cast in what would become her most enduring and visible role: Professor Minerva McGonagall, the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, in the massively successful Harry Potter franchise.
Over the next decade, Smith would play McGonagall in all eight Potter films, from 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. That same year, Smith segued into her role on Downton Abbey, helping that acclaimed series reach an unlikely audience significantly greater than the usual PBS fare.
“We’re saddened to hear that actor Dame Maggie Smith, best known for the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey, has died at the age of 89,” the BAFTAs said on social media Friday. “Dame Maggie was a legend of British stage and screen, winning five BAFTAs as well as a BAFTA Special Award and BAFTA Fellowship during her highly acclaimed career.”
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