Probate records reveal that late Harry Potter
star Dame Maggie Smith left an estate valued at £16,003,613, with a net value of nearly £16 million, distributed largely to her two actor sons following her death in September 2024 at age 89.
Publicly available probate records show the double Oscar winner left a gross estate valued at £16,003,613, which settled at a net value of approximately £15.98 million after liabilities and expenses.
Family Trust for the West Sussex Farmhouse
The bulk of the estate went to her two sons, Christopher Stephens—who performs professionally as Chris Larkin—and Toby Stephens, both born during her first marriage to actor Robert Stephens. Rather than receiving every asset directly, the two actor brothers were named alongside their mother in a family trust established in 2019 to hold Douglas Lake Farm, the secluded five-bedroom property near Fittleworth in West Sussex where the actress lived for more than four decades.
The sprawling property on the edge of the South Downs features a vineyard, stable, and barns. It served as the private sanctuary where Smith raised her children away from the intense glare of Hollywood. The double Oscar winner originally executed her will on September 20, 1996, before later amending the document in December 2019.
Dividing Copyrights and Literary Royalties
Beyond physical property and financial accounts, the will addressed the literary and artistic legacy of her second husband, playwright and screenwriter Beverley Cross, whom she married in the mid-1970s following her divorce from Robert Stephens. Cross died in 1998.
A specific clause directed that any remaining copyrights, royalties, and unpublished works inherited from Cross should be distributed separately. Those assets were divided equally among Cross’s children—Philippa Maughan and Shaun Cross—alongside Smith’s two sons, Christopher and Toby.
A Storied Career and Fierce Privacy
Smith accumulated her substantial fortune through an extraordinary body of work that earned her universal acclaim. She secured her first Academy Award for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
in 1969 and her second for California Suite
in 1978, receiving a total of six Oscar nominations throughout her lifetime alongside four Emmys, three Golden Globes, and an honorary Olivier Award in 2010.
To global audiences across generations, she became equally famous for her later career defining roles: the stern yet fiercely protective Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter
film franchise and the sharp-tongued Dowager Countess of Grantham, Lady Violet Crawley, in Downton Abbey
.
Despite her towering cultural status, Smith maintained a notoriously independent lifestyle, eschewing celebrity award-circuit culture and fiercely guarding her personal life. Her sons remembered her as an intensely private individual who was surrounded by close friends and family in her final hours.
“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”
Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, via publicist
Tributes From Across the Cultural Sphere
Tributes poured in immediately following the announcement of her death on September 27, 2024. The King led national and international mourning, issuing a statement reflecting on the loss of a revered British institution.
“As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both on and off the stage.”
The King
Critics and peers alike highlighted her unmatched range, spanning classical theatre performances to acclaimed late-career film work such as her final motion picture appearance in The Miracle Club
alongside Kathy Bates and Laura Linney, as well as her celebrated 2019 performance in A German Life
.
