Maggie Smith Timeline

Maggie Smith 29

1934 – 2024 Her legacy -- from Oxford to everywhere Smith's legacy rests on the breadth and longevity of her achievement: she moved from the Oxford Playhouse to the National Theatre to Hollywood to Hogwarts to Downton Abbey without ever diminishing her craft. She worked with Olivier, Bergman, Cukor, Altman, Spielberg and Fellowes. She won every major award the English-speaking theatre and cinema can bestow. She made audiences laugh and cry in roughly equal measure for 72 years. Her generation -- the great Dames of the British stage -- is now almost entirely gone. The West End dimmed its lights.
1934 – 2024 Private life -- the reluctant celebrity Smith is intensely private throughout her life. She rarely gives interviews, makes her first appearance on a British chat show in 42 years when she appears on Graham Norton in 2015, and is never comfortable with the machinery of celebrity. Her sons' statement at her death emphasises this: "An intensely private person." The privacy is itself a kind of eloquence -- she lets the work speak, and there is an extraordinary quantity of it: more than 50 films, countless stage roles, seven decades of performance.
1934 – 2024 The awards -- two Oscars and the Triple Crown Smith's tally of awards is staggering: two Academy Awards (Best Actress 1969, Best Supporting Actress 1978) from six nominations; five BAFTA Film Awards; four Primetime Emmy Awards; three Golden Globes; a Tony Award; a record six Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Best Actress; the BAFTA Fellowship (1996); the BFI Fellowship (1992); the Companion of Honour (2014); the Shakespeare Prize (1991); and the American Theatre Hall of Fame (1994). She is one of a handful of performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting -- Oscar, Emmy and Tony.
1934 – 2024 The four Dames -- Smith, Dench, Atkins, Plowright Smith's closest friendships in the profession are with three other women of her generation: Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright -- all Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The four appear together in the 2018 documentary Nothing Like a Dame (released in the US as Tea with the Dames), directed by Roger Michell. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awards it five stars and calls it "outrageously funny." Kenneth Branagh describes them as "the greatest quartet of Shakespearean actors on the planet."
1934 – 2024 The wit -- what made her extraordinary Smith's genius was comic precision deployed in the service of emotional depth. Her timing was exact to the syllable; her withering glance could demolish a scene partner or reduce an audience to helpless laughter. She combined the technical brilliance of the classical stage tradition -- diction, physicality, absolute control -- with an instinct for the devastating aside that owed more to music hall. She could play tragedy (Hedda Gabler for Ingmar Bergman, 1970), character comedy (Jean Brodie), grande dame hauteur (the Dowager Countess) and heartbreaking loneliness (Judith Hearne) with equal authority. As she noted herself, being a character actress rather than a "dish" allowed her to age into roles rather than out of them.
1934 – 1952 Maggie Smith born in Ilford Margaret Natalie Smith is born on 28 December 1934 in Ilford, Essex. Her mother, Margaret Hutton, is a Scottish secretary from Glasgow; her father, Nathaniel Smith, is a public-health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne who works at the University of Oxford. The family moves to Oxford when Maggie is four. She has older twin brothers. She is educated at Oxford High School until the age of 16, when she leaves to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse. The seed of her career is planted in the city of dreaming spires, not at its university but at its theatre.
1952 – 1955 Oxford Playhouse -- Viola in Twelfth Night, aged 17 In 1952, aged 17, Smith begins her career playing Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse under the auspices of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. She continues to act in productions at the Playhouse through 1954, including Cinderella, Rookery Nook, Cakes and Ale and The Government Inspector. She also appears in the television programme Oxford Accents (1954), produced by Ned Sherrin. The Oxford Playhouse remains her artistic home; she later becomes a patron of the theatre.
1956 Broadway debut -- New Faces of '56 Smith makes her Broadway debut in 1956, playing several roles in the revue New Faces of '56 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. She is 21. The following year she stars opposite Kenneth Williams in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, written by Bamber Gascoigne. She is already being noticed for the precision of her comic timing -- a quality that will define her career for the next seven decades.
1962 – 1970 The National Theatre -- Olivier's match In 1962 Laurence Olivier, having seen Smith in The Double Dealer at The Old Vic, invites her to join his new National Theatre Company. She becomes a fixture alongside Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon. Olivier recognises immediately that he has met his match -- she is the first performer quicker than him on stage. The theatre critic Michael Coveney writes that "they became not enemies, but professional rivals. Never before had anyone on stage been quicker than him." During a 1964 production of Othello, Olivier strikes Smith across the face, knocking her unconscious. She plays Desdemona opposite his Othello in the 1965 film, earning her first Oscar nomination.
1967 – 1975 Marriage to Robert Stephens -- two actor sons Smith marries actor Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967. They have two sons, both of whom become actors: Chris Larkin (born 1967) and Toby Stephens (born 1969). The marriage is dissolved on 6 April 1975 -- a turbulent union between two formidable theatrical personalities.
1969 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie -- Best Actress Oscar Smith wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as the deluded Edinburgh schoolteacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). "Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life," she purrs. The character is not in her prime; Smith most definitely is. The role also wins her a BAFTA and confirms her as one of the finest screen actresses of her generation. She receives the CBE in the 1970 New Year Honours.
1972 – 1978 Travels with My Aunt and California Suite -- second Oscar In 1972 Smith stars as the eccentric Augusta Bertram in George Cukor's Travels with My Aunt, earning her third Oscar nomination. In 1978 she plays opposite Michael Caine in Neil Simon's California Suite -- portraying an Oscar nominee in a hotel room on the night of the ceremony. She wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role. She is the only person in history to have won an Oscar for portraying a fictional Oscar nominee. The decade also includes Death on the Nile (1978) alongside Peter Ustinov and Bette Davis.
1975 – 1980 Broadway and Stratford -- Coward, Stoppard, Shakespeare From the mid-1970s to 1980 Smith dominates the English-speaking stage. She plays Amanda Prynne in Noel Coward's Private Lives on Broadway (1975), directed by John Gielgud, earning her first Tony nomination. At the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario she plays Cleopatra, Titania, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Rosalind in As You Like It and Lady Macbeth (1976-1980). She returns to Broadway as Ruth Carson in Tom Stoppard's Night and Day (1979), earning her second Tony nomination. The New York Times praises her physical comedy: "Miss Smith's body spins, lurches, misses yards at a time before another foot comes down."
1975 – 1998 Marriage to Beverley Cross -- until death Smith marries playwright Beverley Cross on 23 June 1975, just weeks after her divorce from Stephens. They remain married until his death on 20 March 1998 -- a partnership of 23 years that provides the stability her first marriage lacked. When asked in 2013 if she is lonely, she replies, "it seems a bit pointless, going on one's own, and not having someone to share it with."
1985 – 1987 A Room with a View and Judith Hearne -- Merchant Ivory Smith plays Charlotte Bartlett in the Merchant Ivory production of A Room with a View (1985), alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis and Judi Dench. The film receives eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture; Smith earns her fifth Academy Award nomination and wins her second Golden Globe and third BAFTA. She then wins her fourth BAFTA for the title role in The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987), of which Pauline Kael writes: "Maggie Smith becomes the essence of spinster."
1987 Alan Bennett's Talking Heads -- A Bed Among the Lentils Smith stars as Susan, an alcoholic vicar's wife, in A Bed Among the Lentils, part of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series for the BBC (1987). The monologue is widely regarded as one of the finest performances in British television history. The partnership with Bennett will continue across decades, culminating in The Lady in the Van.
1990 Dame Commander and Tony Award -- 1990 In the 1990 New Year Honours Smith is made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. That same year she wins the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage, a comedy written specifically for her by Peter Shaffer. Frank Rich writes in The New York Times: "There is only one Maggie Smith, but audiences get at least three of her in Lettice and Lovage."
1991 – 1993 Hook, Sister Act and The Secret Garden -- Hollywood In the early 1990s Smith appears in a sequence of Hollywood box-office successes: as Granny Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) with Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts; as Mother Superior opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act (1992) and its sequel (1993); and as Mrs Medlock in Agnieszka Holland's The Secret Garden (1993). The films demonstrate her ability to command the screen in supporting roles of formidable authority, and introduce her to a new generation of audiences.
1993 – 1999 Lady Bracknell, Three Tall Women and The Lady in the Van Through the 1990s Smith commands the West End stage with a sequence of acclaimed performances: Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1993); the lead in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women (1994), for which she wins a record fifth Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress; and Miss Mary Shepherd in Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van (1999), earning her sixth Olivier Award nomination. Tea with Mussolini (1999) wins her a fifth BAFTA.
2001 Gosford Park -- sixth Oscar nomination Smith plays the haughty Constance, Countess of Trentham, in Robert Altman's ensemble murder mystery Gosford Park (2001), alongside Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas and Derek Jacobi. She earns her sixth Academy Award nomination. Roger Ebert awards the film four stars. The role anticipates the Dowager Countess that will define her final years.
2001 – 2011 Professor McGonagall -- the Harry Potter films From 2001 to 2011 Smith plays Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series, appearing in seven of the eight films. J.K. Rowling personally requests her for the role. She reunites with Daniel Radcliffe, with whom she had worked in the 1999 BBC David Copperfield. Smith later recalls running out of reaction shots with Alan Rickman: "We used to say we'd got to about number 200 and we'd run out of knowing what to do when the camera came around on us." She films several of the later instalments while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
2007 – 2009 Breast cancer -- diagnosis and recovery In 2007 The Sunday Telegraph discloses that Smith has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She undergoes treatment while continuing to film the Harry Potter series. In 2009 she is reported to have made a full recovery. She had previously been diagnosed with Graves' disease in 1988, for which she underwent radiotherapy and optical surgery. Her ability to maintain a relentless working schedule through serious illness is characteristic of her generation of British actresses -- the show, emphatically, goes on.
2010 – 2015 Downton Abbey -- the Dowager Countess From 2010 to 2015 Smith plays Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey. The role wins her three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. It also brings her a new global fame -- at the age of 75 she becomes one of the most recognisable British actresses in the world. The Dowager's withering one-liners become cultural currency. Julian Fellowes, who creates the series, calls her "a joy to write for -- subtle, many-layered, intelligent, funny and heart-breaking."
2012 – 2015 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Lady in the Van Smith plays the racist but gradually reformed Muriel Donnelly in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) alongside Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Dev Patel -- a surprise box-office hit that spawns a 2015 sequel. She also stars in Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut Quartet (2012). In 2015 she reprises the role of Miss Mary Shepherd in the film of Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van, receiving rapturous reviews and making her first appearance on a British chat show in 42 years when she appears on The Graham Norton Show.
2018 Nothing Like a Dame -- the documentary In 2018 director Roger Michell films Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright in conversation at Plowright's home in Sussex. The resulting documentary, Nothing Like a Dame, captures four legendary actresses reflecting on careers spanning from the 1950s to the present -- their rivalries, friendships, triumphs and losses. Guy Lodge of Variety calls it "a richly enjoyable gabfest." It is the last time the four are filmed together and serves as an inadvertent valediction for an era of British theatre.
2019 – 2022 Downton Abbey -- the films Smith reprises the Dowager Countess in two Downton Abbey feature films: Downton Abbey (2019), which earns $194.3 million at the box office, and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022). In the second film the Dowager Countess dies, mirroring what will prove to be Smith's own final years on screen. They are among the last significant performances of her career.
2019 A German Life -- final stage role In April 2019, after an 11-year absence from the stage, Smith returns to perform in A German Life at the Bridge Theatre in London -- a one-woman solo play by Christopher Hampton in which she portrays Brunhilde Pomsel, an elderly German woman who in her youth worked as a secretary for Joseph Goebbels. Matt Wolf of The New York Times writes that her performance "represents a new high in a six-decade career with no shortage of peaks." She wins a record sixth Evening Standard Best Actress award. It is her final stage performance.
2023 The Miracle Club and Loewe -- final appearances In 2023 Smith stars as Lily Fox in The Miracle Club, an Irish drama alongside Kathy Bates and Laura Linney. That October she appears as one of the faces of the Loewe SS24 pre-collection campaign -- an unexpected final act: a fashion icon at 88. A film version of A German Life, reprising her stage role, is announced but will not be completed before her death.
2024 Maggie Smith dies aged 89 Maggie Smith dies on 27 September 2024 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, aged 89. Her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin say: "An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end." King Charles III calls her "a national treasure." Daniel Radcliffe says he will always consider himself "amazingly lucky" to have worked with her. Helen Mirren compares her to Queen Elizabeth II: "She was one of the greatest actresses of the past century." On 1 October theatres across the West End dim their lights for two minutes; Broadway follows suit. Her funeral takes place privately on 4 November at Mortlake Crematorium.