“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith.
“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.
“Miss Smiths presence is always a severe one,” wroteThe New York Timesin a 1970 stage review.
Maggie Smith in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2’.Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection
Margaret Natalie Smith was born near London in 1934, an only daughter with two older twin brothers.
That film role earned her her first Oscar nomination.
But her private life was on shaky ground.
Maggie Smith in 1979.UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty
Smith had married herJean Brodiecostar Robert Stephens in 1967, when they were both at the National Theater.
They had two sons, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens.
But Stephens struggled personally, attempting suicide, and the marriage faltered.
Maggie Smith on ‘Downton Abbey’.Nick Briggs/PBS
They divorced in 1974.
In 2010, at age 76, she landed a role only she could play: Lady Violet.
“She’s very dry.
She has this strength, this kind of emotional strength that is also underlying every laugh she gets.”
Costarring Dench, the film grossed more than $136 million around the world.
“I mean, I now play all these nasty old women, really on the whole.
Cornered the market, in fact.”
Smith’s honors are staggering.
In 1990, Queen Elizabeth named her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
One minute it’s all hell and the next minute you’re screeching with laughter.”
