2024-09-29 01:42:56
British actress Maggie Smith has died, she was 89, the agencies said. The winner of two Oscars and three Golden Globes would celebrate her jubilee in December. The general public knew her mainly from the film series about Harry Potter, where she played the witch, professor and headmistress of Gryffindor dormitory, and later of the entire Hogwarts school, Minerva McGonagall.
The British BBC reported on the death with reference to her sons. “She died peacefully this morning in hospital. She was surrounded by friends and family until her final moments,” they said.
The daughter of an Oxford professor took up acting somewhat against her parents’ wishes. But it soon became clear that she had real talent, even though she herself doubted it. Maggie Smith first won an Oscar in 1969 for her performance in Miss Jean Brodie’s Best Years, where she has two lovers as a teacher: a naïve but kind music teacher and a cynical artist. She received the second statuette of the American Academy in 1978 for the comedy Suite in California, directed by Herbert Ross. She acted in it alongside Jane Fonda, Michael Caine or Alan Alda.
Other Oscar nominations brought her dramas Room with a View and Gosford Park. But Maggie Smith also portrayed Countess Violet Crawley in the popular TV series Downton Manor. In 1990, she received from Queen Elizabeth II. noble title.
She also had many other awards to her credit: five British Baftas, four television Emmys, a Tony statuette or six Laurence Olivier Theater Awards. She performed for decades at the British National Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Later, she also celebrated success on New York’s Broadway.