Maggie Smith, beloved actress, dies at 89

Maggie Smith, who won an Academy Award for her role in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” in 1969, died on Friday. She was 89-year-old.

Smith is known for her role as the Countess of Grantham in the “Downton Abbey” television show. She’s also known for her role as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” movies. Smith had a career in stage, television, and film that spanned decades.

In her career, Smith won two Oscars, one for best actress in “Jean Brodie” and one for the best supporting actress in “California Suite” in 1978. She won four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globes, and a Tony Award. She also won a British Academy Award for her work in “Brodie Jean.” In her career, she won a total of seven British Academy Awards. 

Smith’s two sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that she died in a London Hospital on Friday morning. 

“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” Larkin and Stephens said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs.

Smith was considered one of the preeminent British actors in her generation, alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Drench. She appeared in a total of 50 films. 

She was born in 1934 in Essex. Her family moved to Oxford shortly before the start of World War II. Smith’s father worked at Oxford University. From 1951 to 1953, she attended the Oxford Playhouse School. Smith made her Broadway debut in “New Faces of ‘56” and played the lead role in “Share My Lettuce” from 1957 to 1958. She played Desdemona to Olivier’s Othello in 1964.

Smith was married to Robert Stephens, an actor, until 1974. Then, she was married to Beverley Cross, a playwright, from 1975 until he died in 1998.