For persons of a similar name, see Margaret Smith.
Dame
Maggie Smith
CH DBE
Smith c. 1970
Born
Margaret Natalie Smith[1][2]
(1934-12-28) 28 December 1934 (age 89)
Ilford, Essex, England
Occupation
Actress
Years active
1952–present
Works
Full list
Spouses
Robert Stephens
(m. 1967; div. 1975)
Alan Beverley Cross
(m. 1975; died 1998)
Children
Chris Larkin
Toby Stephens
Awards
Full list
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith[2][3]CH DBE (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. Known for her wit in comedic roles, she has had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and is one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses.[4] She has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Laurence Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.[5]
Smith began her stage career as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. Over the following decades, Smith established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and David Hare's Night and Day (1979), and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990).
She won Academy Awards for Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). She was Oscar-nominated for Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985), and Gosford Park (2001).[6] She portrayed Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011). She also acted in Death on the Nile (1978), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Quartet (2012), and The Lady in the Van (2015).
Smith received newfound attention and international fame for her role as Violet Crawley in the British period drama Downton Abbey (2010–2015). The role earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards; she had previously won one for the HBO film My House in Umbria (2003).[7][8] Over the course of her career she has been the recipient of numerous honorary awards including the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1993, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996, and the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010.[9][10][6] Smith was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.[11]
This article is part of a series about
Maggie Smith
Filmography
Awards
Gallery
Jean Brodie
Minerva McGonagall
v
t
e
^"Maggie Smith | British actress". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 July 2023. Maggie Smith, in full Dame Margaret Natalie Smith
^ ab"Maggie Smith". Biography.com. 29 June 2020. Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Ilford, Essex, England
^"Maggie Smith | British actress". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 July 2023. Maggie Smith, in full Dame Margaret Natalie Smith
^"Maggie Smith | Biography, Movies, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 7 September 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
^"Triple Crown of Acting Winners". GoldDerby. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
^ ab"Maggie Smith BAFTA Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
^O'Neil, Tom (9 July 2010). "What do Al Pacino and Maggie Smith have in common?". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
^Croggon, Alison (10 June 2009). "Jewel in the triple crown". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 14 August 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
^"Dame Maggie Smith's BAFTA Special Award Acceptance Speech in 1993". Youtube. 28 December 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
^Spears, W. (30 December 1989). "Queen Honors Naipaul, Maggie Smith". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
Dame MaggieSmith is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. Smith made her professional theatre debut in 1956 playing Viola...
by MaggieSmith, whose acting career in motion pictures, television, and on stage spans over 6 decades. Among her major competitive awards, Smith has...
Margaret Smith or MaggieSmith may refer to: Margaret Smith Court, known as Margaret Court (born 1942), Australian tennis player Margaret A. Smith, superintendent...
story by Jimmy Smallhorne. The film stars Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, MaggieSmith, and Stephen Rea. Its plot follows a group of working-class women from...
to: Maggie Adamson, Scottish musician Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock (born 1968), British scientist Maggie Alderson (born 1959), Australian author Maggie Alphonsi...
British comedy-drama film directed by Nicholas Hytner, and starring MaggieSmith and Alex Jennings, based on the memoir of the same name created by Alan...
consisting of Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup, MaggieSmith, Tom Wilkinson and Penelope Wilton, as a group of British pensioners...
Cilento, Edith Evans, and Joyce Redman Othello (1965) -- Joyce Redman and MaggieSmith Airport (1970) -- Helen Hayes and Maureen Stapleton The Last Picture...
Jackson and the Olympians. Stephens, the younger son of actors Dame MaggieSmith and Sir Robert Stephens, was born on 21 April 1969 at the Middlesex Hospital...
Stephens on 19 June 1967 in London, Larkin is the elder son of actors Dame MaggieSmith and Sir Robert Stephens. His younger brother is actor Toby Stephens....
after being placed in a witness protection program. It also features MaggieSmith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, Mary Wickes, and Harvey Keitel. Sister...
1965: A National Theatre production directed by Franco Zeffirelli with MaggieSmith, Robert Stephens, Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave, Albert Finney, Michael...
McGonagall was originally portrayed in the film adaptations by actress MaggieSmith, and later by Fiona Glascott in the Fantastic Beasts prequel films The...
Smith, Patrick (January 17, 2019). "Maggie Rogers: 'I had a panic attack and ran off stage sobbing'". The Independent. "After Wowing Pharrell, Maggie...
View. The same year, she co-starred along with Cher, Joan Plowright, MaggieSmith, and Lily Tomlin in Franco Zeffirelli's semi-autobiographical period...
Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, MaggieSmith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood. The plot is a broad parody or spoof...
Triple Crown of Acting are Rita Moreno, Jeremy Irons, Vanessa Redgrave, MaggieSmith, Al Pacino, Geoffrey Rush, Ellen Burstyn, Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand...
Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, MaggieSmith, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emily Watson. The story follows a party of...