(CNN) The renowned British actress Maggie Smith, who co-starred with Laurence Olivier in both the stage and film adaptations of “Othello,” and appeared in the “Harry Potter” series and the television drama “Downton Abbey,” has passed away at the age of 89. This was announced in a statement released by her sons.
The statement said, “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She peacefully passed away in the hospital on the morning of September 27. Valuing her privacy greatly, she was surrounded by friends and family in her final moments.” Her two surviving sons and five grandchildren are devastated by the loss of a remarkable mother and grandmother.
Smith was born in 1934 in Ilford, which was a middle-class area on the eastern outskirts of London at the time. The family moved to Oxford just before the outbreak of World War II. Smith’s father worked as a pathologist at the University of Oxford.
After graduating high school, she attended drama school from 1951 to 1953 and made her stage debut in a production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” done by the Oxford University Dramatic Society.
In 1964, she played the role of Desdemona in Laurence Olivier’s “Othello” and reprised the role in the film adaptation the following year. In 1969, her performance as an unconventional school teacher in the film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
In 1978, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “California Suite.” She also received British Academy Awards for her roles in films such as “A Room with a View” in 1985.
Maggie Smith, who played the late Countess of Grantham in ‘Downton Abbey’/Everett Collection
In 1990, she was awarded the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and thereafter she was commonly referred to as Dame Maggie Smith.
In recent years, she drew the attention of younger audiences by portraying the strict but fair Professor McGonagall in the 2001 film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and its sequels.