British Acting Legend Dame Maggie Smith Has Passed Away at Age 89
Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downon Abbey"
(Photo: Courtesy of ©Carnival Film & Television Limited for MASTERPIECE)
Dame Maggie Smith, titan of stage and screen, has left us. The Oscar-winning actress, who starred in everything from A Room with a View to Downton Abbey, passed away in London at the age of 89. The news was announced this morning by her two sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin via Smith's longtime publicist Clair Dobbs.
"It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith," they said in a statement. "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."
She also leaves behind a legion of equally devastated fans. For so many of us, Smith epitomized the idea of British entertainment and culture. A charismatic scene-stealer gifted with wry wit and perfect comedic timing, her array of bon-mots and one-liners was enough to power a cottage industry of GIF and meme makers in the latter part of her career. And what a career it was.
A remarkably prolific performer, Smith won two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and a Tony Award for her work. She was a six-time Olivier Award nominee, though she never won. Smith is one of only fourteen actresses to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, denoted by having won a competitive Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award for mastery of screen, television, and stage performance.
Smith's array of notable roles is seemingly endless, from her Oscar-winning turns in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite to major roles in popular film franchises like Sister Act and Harry Potter. She was essentially a gateway drug for an entire generation of Anglophiles, largely thanks to period films like Gosford Park, Tea with Mussolini, Ladies in Lavender, and The Secret Garden. Her resume is littered with underrated gems (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel! Quartet!), but in recent years two performances have likely cemented her forever into the pop culture zeitgeist.
Though Transfiguration professor Minerva McGonagall never had all that much to do in any of the Harry Potter movies, Smith's presence was a force throughout the series. Alongside other acting greats like Alan Rickman and Michael Gambon, the mere fact of Smith's involvement granted this franchise a heft and gravitas it never would have been able to achieve otherwise. (And if you don't get just a bit of joy watching Smith's McGonagall face off against Rickman's Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, I don't know what to tell you.)
But for PBS viewers and Masterpiece fans, Smith will forever be Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham. A role that took the actress from beloved to iconic, the Dowager's caustic witticisms and Edwardian-era sick burns were so good they ended up on T-shirts and tote bags. But beyond the cutting and acidly delivered dialogue, Violet also served as the quiet, unspoken heart of Downton, whose spine of steel steered her family through storms ranging from social embarrassment to outright tragedy. Smith's Dowager died at the end of the most recent Downton movie, and though the franchise is set to continue on next year, it's still rather impossible to imagine a version of this universe in which she is not present.
The same can be said for Smith herself. The world of British entertainment will continue to turn, and rightfully so. But goodness, it is hard to imagine it without her.
