Part of Harry Potter featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, and Ralph Fiennes.
Rise to Fame
She spent 17 years grinding through stage work before The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie made her a film star. She'd played Desdemona opposite Laurence Olivier's Othello at the National Theatre, done West End revues, built a reputation in London and New York, but the 1969 film gave her an Oscar and something more useful: a signature. That role of the self-regarding Edinburgh schoolteacher became the template for everything she did afterward. A second Oscar followed for California Suite in 1978.
In the Spotlight
The two Oscars she won in 1969 and 1978 made her a theater world institution. Downton Abbey made her a meme. She reportedly said she 'led a perfectly normal life until Downton Abbey,' which undersells how thoroughly the Dowager Countess became an internet phenomenon in her late 70s. She called the Harry Potter franchise 'my pension,' which tells you how she really felt about those eight films. Her most globally recognized work arrived decades after her Oscars, which says plenty about how pop culture eventually catches up.
Side Notes
She had to take 'Maggie Smith' as her stage name because a 'Margaret Smith' was already registered. Her mother told her she'd never succeed 'with a face like that' and pushed secretarial school instead. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 while filming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, went through surgery and chemotherapy, and returned to set. She holds the record for most Evening Standard Best Actress Awards at six, and is one of the few performers to complete the Triple Crown of Acting (Oscar, Emmy, Tony). Both her sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, became actors despite her not encouraging either of them.
Final Chapter
West End theatres dimmed their lights on October 1, 2024. King Charles III and Queen Camilla issued a statement calling her 'a national treasure.' Her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin confirmed she died peacefully at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, surrounded by friends and family, leaving five grandchildren behind. Her final film, The Miracle Club, had been released in 2023.