In Memoriam: Maggie Smith

On September 27, 2024, Dame Maggie Smith’s two sons shared the news that their mother had passed away at the age of 89. “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,” her sons shared in a statement released through Smith’s publicist.

Over her storied career, Smith won two Academy Awards, received numerous kudos and nominations, and was universally beloved. In the 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era, Smith’s iconic character, the Dowager Countess, dies surrounded by her grieving family.  Even in death, her hilariously sharp tongue was present. “Stop that noise; I can’t hear myself die,” she exclaims among the loud tears and carrying on. This image is a comfort to viewers everywhere who will miss Smith. 

Smith’s career-defining role in Downton Abbey brought her to a whole new generation of fans and featured a performance that launched thousands of memes. But Smith was a legendary actress with countless memorable performances. It’s hard to pick just ten of our favorites, but we did our best. We stuck to movies and TV shows available to stream, which means we could not include 1969’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which is still not available anywhere. 

Below are our picks of our favorite Smith performances, along with her best quotes, because Smith was the master of a droll delivery!

Forget Kenneth Branagh's terrible version full of unworthy A-listers; the 1978 Agatha Christie adaptation of Death on the Nile is superior in every way, and not just because Smith was nominated for a BAFTA award for her role as Miss Bowers. As the reluctant companion to a wealthy woman, Smith had most of her scenes with the legendary Bette Davis. Two icons for the price of one movie! (Smith also starred in the 1982 follow-up, Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun, though in a totally different role.)

Best Smith Quote: “If there’s two things in the world I can’t abide, it’s heat and heathens.” 

Death on the Nile is available to stream on Tubi. 

In the 1996 comedy The First Wives Club, Smith plays Gunilla Garson Goldberg, a first (and second, third, and fourth) wife who lives a life of luxury due to her multiple marriages. Though she's not one of the main leads (who were played by Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton), as this high society New Yorker, she memorably dupes Midler's nemesis, Shelley (Sarah Jessica Parker), into making a major decorating faux pas. 

Best Smith quote:  “Fork!”

The First Wives Club is available to stream on Paramount+ and Hulu.

Smith was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Golden Globe for her role in Merchant & Ivory's seminal 1985 film, A Room with a View. Set in 1907, Smith plays Charlotte Bartlett, the uptight chaperone on Lucy Honeychurch’s (Helena Bonham Carter) trip to Italy. There, she must stifle the blossoming (and scandalous for the era!) romance between Lucy and George (Julian Sands). 

Best Smith Quote: “I shall never forgive myself.”

A Room with a View is available to stream on BritBox.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie may not be available (save for purchasing on DVD), but Smith's other 1969 release, the film version of the stage musical Oh! What A Lovely War is, thankfully, on streaming. Richard Attenborough made his directorial debut in this star-studded adaptation, which puts a surprisingly comic spin on World War I. Smith has a cameo role; however, she steals the whole dang thing with her showstopping burlesque-light number, “I’ll Make a Man of You,” which mocks the army recruitment process. 

Best Smith quote: “On Saturday, I'm willing, if you'll only take the shilling, to make a man of any one of you."

Oh! What a Lovely War! is streaming as an Amazon Prime rental.

Amid a murderer’s row of beloved British actors (Judi Dench! Bill Nighy! Tom Wilkinson! Celia Imrie!), Smith shone in the 2011 film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of senior citizens who move to a hotel in India. The movie was a surprise hit, spawning the sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel four years later, which found Smith's character, Muriel and Sonny (Dev Patel), trying to get funding from American investors to open a second hotel. In one memorable scene, Muriel is particularly not a fan of how Americans prepare their tea. 

Best Smith Quote: “There's no such thing as an ending; just a place where you leave the story.”

Both Exotic Marigold Hotel films are available as streaming rentals from AppleTV and YouTube.

As Professor Minerva McGonagall in all eight Harry Potter films, Smith wasn't just introduced to a new generation of viewers, she embodied the beloved Hogwarts teacher who was kind but strict with the students in her care. As the school’s headmistress as well as a mother figure for Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), McGonagall consistently helped him and his friends save the day and ward off the movie’s many, many evil doers. Her close work with all the child actors from the franchise can be seen in their hit careers that followed. 

Best Smith Quote: “I always wanted to use that spell.”

All the Wizarding World films are streaming on Max.

Much like The First Wives Club in the 1990s, Sandra Bullock technically headlines 2002's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. A movie about a group of lifelong childhood friends who reckon with their upbringing and how it affected them, the film received very mixed reviews when it was initially released. But Smith, as always, steals the show (mostly); more importantly (and this is key!), it’s your chance to hear Smith with an American Southern accent.

Best Smith quote: “Why doesn't somebody go to the bathroom? It always makes the food come.”

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is available as a streaming rental on Amazon Prime.

Oh! What a Lovely War! wasn't Smith's only high-profile musical performance. She also co-starred in 1992's Sister Act as the Reverend Mother, who winds up reluctantly hiding Whoopi Goldberg’s Deloris Wilson when she's put in witness protection in the surprise smash hit. The sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit soon followed in 1993, and by 2006, there was even a stage version. 

Best Smith Quote:  “Go with God, Crispy.”

Sister Act & Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit are both streaming on Disney+.

Maggie Smith and Michael Caine were the central couple in the “Visitors from London” vignette in the 1978 film adaptation of the Neil Simon stage play comedy California Suite. Consisting of four stories starring everyone from Jane Fonda to Richard Pryor, Smith played a fading actress nominated for an Academy Award whose marriage to a closeted gay man is about to be blown wide open. Smith is simultaneously sardonically hilarious and heartbreaking in a standout role.  

Best Smith Quote: “Discreet! You did everything but lick his artichoke.”

California Suite is available to stream on Tubi.

Unlike many of her British counterparts, Smith didn't perform much Shakespeare, at least not on film. She starred in the 1965 BBC Othello; she did the voice of the Nurse for 1990's animated Romeo & Juliet. However, in Ian McKellen's 1995 adaptation of Richard III, Smith stepped into the role of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, who saw two of her sons take the throne: Edward IV and Richard III. However, as her performance makes clear, she would have preferred the latter to die in childhood than ever see such a thing.

Best Smith Quote: "Forbear to sleep the nights and fast the days. Think that your babes were sweeter than they were, and he that slew them fouler than he is!"

Richard III is streaming on Roku.

You may have noticed that every entry up until now has been feature films. That’s because Maggie Smith didn’t do television until Downton Abbey, and she only agreed to the Julian Fellowes series because she’s worked with him making Gosford Park. (Sadly, Gosford Park is unavailable on streaming except as a rental, but as the Fellowes forerunner to the PBS series, it’s highly recommended for Downton fans who haven’t seen it.) As the matriarch of the Crawley family, Smith’s Dowager Countess Violet suffered exactly zero fools and could bring anyone to their knees with her cunning wit and well-placed eye roll. Smith went on to reprise her role in two Downton Abbey movies. 

Best Smith Quote: Far too many to choose from but we have to go with the iconic “What is a weekend?”

All six seasons of Downton Abbey and Smith’s final Downton film, A New Era, are streaming on Prime Video, and the first Downton film is on Netflix.