'Harry Potter' Actor Maggie Smith Dies at 89
Maggie Smith, who played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died on September 27. She was 89.
Smith was one of the top British performers of her generation, winning a number of awards, including two Oscars.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called her "a true national treasure."
She was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Ilford, on the eastern edge of London, on December 28, 1934. In 1939, her father was assigned to wartime duty in Oxford, where her theater studies at the Oxford Playhouse School led to many stage opportunities.
Laurence Olivier spotted her talent, and invited her to be part of his National Theatre company. He chose her to play Desdemona in his film version of Shakespeare's Othello in 1965.
In 1969, Smith played an Edinburgh schoolteacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, winning the Oscar for best actress.
She won a supporting actress Oscar for California Suite in 1978, as well as Golden Globes for California Suite and A Room with a View in 1985.
On stage, she won a Tony Award for Lettice and Lovage in 1990. That same year, she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the equivalent of a knight.
In 1967, Smith married actor Robert Stephens, with whom she shared two sons. They divorced in 1975, but in the same year she married the writer Beverley Cross, who died in 1998.
From 2010, she played Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on the hit show Downton Abbey. The role won her many new fans — as well as three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.
Smith was also known for being difficult. "It's true I don't tolerate fools, but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky," Smith said. "Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies."
Once asked why she took the role of Professor McGonagall, she quipped: "Harry Potter is my pension."
