Maggie Smith

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career in film, television and theatre over seven decades, she is one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She is particularly noted for her wit in comedic roles. Smith has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. Her other honours include the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1993, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996, and the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010. Smith began her stage career as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. Over the following decades, Smith established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On the Broadway stage she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and David Hare's Night and Day (1979), winning Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990). Smith received two Academy Awards: Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969); and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). Her other Oscar-nominated roles were in Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985), and Gosford Park (2001). She portrayed Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series (2001–2011). Other notable films include Death on the Nile (1978), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Quartet (2012), and The Lady in the Van (2015). On television, Smith gained wider fame for her role as Violet Crawley on Julian Fellowes's period drama Downton Abbey (2010–2015), as well as the 2019 film and its 2022 sequel. The role earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards, which she has also won for the HBO film My House in Umbria (2003). She was Emmy-nominated for her roles in Suddenly Last Summer (1993), David Copperfield (1999), and Capturing Mary (2007).