LONDON (AP) — Maggie Smith, the gifted actress who always captivated audiences and won an Oscar for the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and later gained a new generation of fans through her roles as Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, passed away on Friday at the age of 89.

Her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, confirmed the sad news, announcing that Maggie Smith died early Friday at a hospital in London.
“She leaves behind two sons and five grandchildren who loved her dearly and are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” the statement read, issued through her publicist Clair Dobbs.

Maggie Smith was widely recognized as one of the most influential British actresses of her generation, alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench. Over the course of her career, she won two Oscars, several Academy Award nominations, and numerous other accolades.

Even in her later years, Maggie Smith remained in demand in the entertainment industry, though she once joked, “Once you get into the granny era, you’re lucky to get any role.”
Smith humorously referred to the roles she took on in her later years as “a gallery of grotesques,” including Professor McGonagall. When asked why she accepted that role, she quipped, “Harry Potter is my pension.”

Director Richard Eyre, who worked with Smith on the TV production Suddenly, Last Summer, praised her intelligence. “She is the smartest actress I’ve ever worked with. You have to wake up very early to outwit Maggie Smith.”

Smith’s role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, where she portrayed a dangerously charismatic schoolteacher in Edinburgh, earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA.
She later won another Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for California Suite in 1978. Additionally, she received Golden Globes for California Suite and A Room with a View, and BAFTA awards for her performances in A Private Function (1984), A Room with a View (1986), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1988).

Smith also earned multiple Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress in films like Othello, Travels with My Aunt, A Room with a View, and Gosford Park. She won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in Tea with Mussolini. On stage, she took home a Tony Award in 1990 for her role in Lettice and Lovage.

Starting in 2010, Smith captivated audiences with her portrayal of Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the period drama Downton Abbey. The role earned her three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and numerous other accolades.

Smith continued to act well into her 80s, appearing in films such as Downton Abbey: A New Era in 2022 and The Miracle Club, which was released in 2023.

Maggie Smith was also known for her assertive nature and her ability to command scenes. Richard Burton, who co-starred with her in The VIPs, remarked that Smith didn’t just steal the scene; she “committed grand larceny.” However, director Peter Hall noted that Smith was never difficult to work with unless she was surrounded by incompetence.

Smith herself admitted that she could be impatient.
“It’s true I don’t tolerate fools, but they don’t tolerate me either. I can be quite sharp,” she said. “Maybe that’s why I’m good at playing sharp-tongued old ladies.”

Critic Frank Rich of The New York Times praised Smith’s performance in Lettice and Lovage, saying that she could transform a simple line like “Do you have no marmalade?” into a freshly minted epigram by Coward or Wilde.

Smith famously drew laughs from simple lines, such as “This haddock is disgusting” in a 1964 revival of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever.
Her talent for delivering sharp one-liners was also evident in Downton Abbey, when her character Violet cynically asked, “What is a weekend?”

On Friday, many of her fellow actors paid tribute to her. Hugh Bonneville, who played Smith’s on-screen son in Downton Abbey, said, “Anyone who ever worked with Maggie will testify to her sharp intellect, quick wit, and immense talent.”
“She was a true legend of her generation, and thankfully her legacy will live on in the many incredible performances she gave,” said Bonneville in a statement.

Rob Lowe, who co-starred with her in Suddenly, Last Summer, described working with Smith as an unforgettable experience. “Sharing a scene with her was like being paired with a lion. She could ‘devour’ anyone, and often did,” he said.
“We’ll never see anyone like her again. God bless you, Ms. Smith!” Lowe posted on X.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer also paid his respects, calling Smith “a true national treasure whose work will be remembered for generations to come.”

Born Margaret Natalie Smith on December 28, 1934, in Ilford, a suburb of East London, Maggie once summed up her life in a simple sentence: “I went to school, I wanted to act, I started acting, and I’m still acting.”

Her father was posted to Oxford for wartime duty in 1939, where Smith began studying theater at the Oxford Playhouse School. This led to her being involved in numerous university productions around Oxford.
“I did so many things there… If you were quick and smart enough, you could be involved in different productions happening almost every week,” she said in a BBC interview.

Smith chose “Maggie” as her stage name to avoid confusion with another actress named Margaret Smith, who was also active in theater at the time. Laurence Olivier spotted her talent and invited her to join the original National Theatre company, casting her as Desdemona in the 1965 film adaptation of Othello.

Smith cited two directors, Ingmar Bergman and William Gaskill, as major influences on her work at the National Theatre.

Alan Bennett, who wrote A Bed Among the Lentils for Smith, was aware of her reputation for becoming bored easily. However, Bennett was relieved to find that the fast-paced nature of the production kept Smith engaged and fully immersed in her role.

Despite her larger-than-life presence on stage and screen, Maggie Smith was known to be intensely private.
“She never wanted to talk about acting. It was something she feared would disappear if she talked about it,” said Simon Callow, who worked with her in A Room with a View.

In 1990, Smith was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the female equivalent of a knighthood.
She married fellow actor Robert Stephens in 1967, with whom she had two sons, Christopher and Toby—both of whom followed in their parents’ footsteps and became actors. The couple divorced in 1975. Later that same year, she married writer Beverley Cross, who passed away in 1998.