Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith[3][4] CH DBE (born 28 December 1934) is a British actress. Known for her wit in comedic roles, she has had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and is one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses.[5] She has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
For persons of a similar name, see Margaret Smith.
Maggie Smith
Actress
1952–present
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 and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and David Hare's Night and Day (1979), and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990).
Smith made her film debut in the 1958 film Nowhere to Go.[5] She was given the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), and she has also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978).[6][7] Her other Oscar nominations were for her roles in Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985), and Gosford Park (2001).[8] Other notable films include Death on the Nile (1978), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992),[9] The Secret Garden (1993), the Harry Potter series (2001–2011), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Quartet (2012), and The Lady in the Van (2015). Smith has sporadically appeared on television throughout her career, and gained newfound attention and international fame for her role as Violet Crawley in the British period drama Downton Abbey (2010–2015). The role earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards; she had previously won one for the HBO film My House in Umbria (2003).[10][11]
Over the course of her career, Smith has been recognized with numerous honorary awards including the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1993, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996, and the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010.[12][13][8] Smith was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for contributions to the Arts,[14] and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2014 for services to Drama.[15]
Early life and education[edit]
Margaret Natalie Smith was born on 28 December 1934[16] in Ilford, Essex.[17][18][19][20][21] Her mother, Margaret Hutton (née Little; 1896–1977), was a Scottish secretary from Glasgow, and her father, Nathaniel Smith (1902–1991), was a public-health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne, who worked at the University of Oxford.[17][22][23] During childhood, her parents told Smith the romantic story of how they had met on a train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She had older twin brothers, Alistair (died 1981) and Ian. The latter went to architecture school. Smith was educated at Oxford High School until age sixteen, when she left to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse.[24]
Smith was appointed a CBE in the 1970 New Year Honours,[76][77] and was made a Dame (DBE) in the 1990 New Year Honours, for services to the performing arts.[77][78] Smith was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to drama in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours,[79][80] becoming the third actress to receive the honour, after Dame Sybil Thorndike (1970) and Dame Judi Dench (2005). In 1971, Smith was conferred an honorary doctor of letters (DLitt) by the University of St Andrews.[81] In 1986, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Bath.[82] In 1994, Smith received an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Cambridge.[83] In October 2017, Smith was conferred with an honorary fellowship of Mansfield College, Oxford.[84]
Over her distinguished career she has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:
She has also received a Tony Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards, five British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and five Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 1993, she was awarded with the BAFTA Special Award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.[8] In 1996, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented her with the BAFTA Fellowship, the highest honour the Academy can bestow.[85][8] At the 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards, she was celebrated with the Society of London Theatre Special Award. In 2013, she was awarded with the Evening Standard Icon Award.[86]
She was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Hamburg Alfred Toepfer Foundation in 1991.[87] Smith was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film culture in 1992.[88] She was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1995, she was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award by Women in Film and Television UK.[89][90] On 10 April 1999, Smith received the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre (The Will Award) presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in recognition of her significant contribution to classical theatre in the US.[91] On 9 February 2014 she was inducted into the Actors Hall of Fame.[92] Smith had a star on the London Avenue of Stars until all of the stars were removed in 2006.[93] In September 2012, she was honoured with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Legacy Award. She accepted the award, presented to her by Christopher Plummer, in a ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.[94] In March 2016, Smith was awarded the Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts.[95] In April 2016, she was awarded the Bodley Medal by the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the performing arts.[96]
Personal life[edit]
Marriages[edit]
Smith married actor Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967. They had two sons, actors Chris Larkin (b. 1967) and Toby Stephens (b. 1969),[97] and were divorced on 6 April 1975.[98] Smith married playwright Alan Beverly Cross on 23 June 1975, at the Guildford Register Office,[98] and they remained married until his death on 20 March 1998. When asked in 2013 if she was lonely, she replied, "it seems a bit pointless, going on on one's own, and not having someone to share it with".[99] Smith has five grandchildren.[100][101][102]
Health[edit]
In January 1988, Smith was diagnosed with Graves' disease, for which she underwent radiotherapy and optical surgery.[103]
In 2007, The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that Smith had been diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2009, she was reported to have made a full recovery.[104]
Charity work[edit]
In September 2011, Smith offered her support for raising the NZ$4.6 million needed to help rebuild the Court Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the earthquake in 2011 that caused severe damage to the area.[105] In July 2012, she became a patron of the International Glaucoma Association (now known as Glaucoma UK),[106] hoping to support the organisation and raise the profile of glaucoma.[107] She is also a patron of the Oxford Playhouse, where she first began her illustrious career.[108] Smith is a vice-president of the Chichester Cinema at New Park[109] and a vice-president of the Royal Theatrical Fund which provides support for members of the entertainment profession that are unable to work due to illness, injury or infirmity.[110][111]
On 27 November 2012, she contributed a drawing of her own hand to the 2012 Celebrity Paw Auction, to raise funds for Cats Protection.[112] In May 2013, Smith contributed a gnome which had been personally decorated by her, for an auction to raise money for the Royal Horticultural Society Campaign for School Gardening.[113]
In November 2020, Smith joined Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, and Ian McKellen for a conversation on Zoom entitled For One Knight Only, for the charity Acting for Others. Branagh described the group as "the greatest quartet of Shakespearean actors on the planet" as they talked about the highs and lows of their careers.[114] In April 2021, Smith appeared in a streaming event alongside Kathleen Turner. The event was in support of The Royal Theatrical Fund, which provides support to those who have worked in the industry.[115]