Dame Maggie Smith obituary: A piercing presence on stage and screen

Dame Maggie Smith introduced an unimaginable vary of expression to her roles, profitable excessive reward from administrators and fellow actors alike.

It was stated of her that she by no means took a task flippantly and would typically be pacing round at rehearsals going over her traces whereas the remainder of the solid was on a break.

In a occupation infamous for its uncertainties her profession was notable for its longevity.

She made her appearing debut in 1952 and was nonetheless working six many years later having moved from aspiring star to nationwide treasure.

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, Essex, on 28 December 1934, the daughter of a pathologist.

With struggle looming the household moved to Oxford and the younger Maggie attended the Oxford College for Women.

She began out within the theatre as a immediate lady and understudy on the Oxford Repertory. She as soon as claimed that she by no means bought onto the stage whereas she was there as a result of no-one within the firm ever fell ailing.

Her firm moved to a small theatre in London in 1955 the place she attracted the eye of an American producer, Leonard Stillman, who solid her in New Faces, a revue that opened on Broadway in June 1956.

She stood out among the many solid of unknowns and, on her return to London, was provided a six-month stint within the revue Share My Lettuce reverse Kenneth Williams.

Her first movie function was an uncredited half within the 1956 manufacturing Little one within the Home.

Two years later she was nominated for a Bafta as greatest newcomer within the 1958 melodrama Nowhere to Go, by which she performed a lady who shelters an escaped convict.

The Occasions, describing her function within the hit London manufacturing of Mary Mary in 1963, stated that she was “the salvation of this fluffy Broadway comedy”.

She almost stole the present from Richard Burton within the movie The VIPs when she appeared in a pivotal scene with the Welsh star.

One critic famous that “when Maggie Smith is on the display, the image strikes,” and Burton afterwards teasingly described her upstaging of him as “grand larceny”.

Later in 1963, Laurence Olivier provided her the a part of Desdemona reverse his Othello, on the Nationwide Theatre. The manufacturing, with the unique solid, was made into a movie two years later, with Smith being nominated for an Academy Award.

The function which introduced her worldwide fame got here in 1969 when she performed the determinedly non-conformist trainer in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

The half received her a greatest actress Oscar.

She additionally married her co-star Robert Stephens.

The actress continued with the Nationwide Theatre for an additional two years together with a efficiency as Mrs Sullen within the Restoration comedy The Beaux’ Stratagem in Los Angeles.

She obtained one other Oscar nomination for greatest actress after taking part in Aunt Augusta within the George Cukor movie, Travels With My Aunt, in 1972.

She and Stephens divorced in 1975, and a 12 months later she was married to the playwright, Beverley Cross, and likewise moved to Canada and spent 4 years in a repertory firm the place she took on weightier roles in Macbeth and Richard III.

One critic, writing of her efficiency as Woman Macbeth, determined she had “merged her personal vivid persona with that of her charismatic topic”.

Regardless of her success she was modest about her achievements, stating merely that “One went to high school, one needed to behave, one began to behave, and one’s nonetheless appearing.”

She continued to work within the cinema taking part in reverse Peter Ustinov within the 1978 movie, Dying on the Nile and, in the identical 12 months, the a part of Diana Barrie in Neil Simon’s California Suite.

The 80s noticed quite a few memorable cinema performances, and extra awards together with Baftas for A Personal Perform and A Room With A View, the latter additionally garnering her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.

There have been extra Baftas, first for her interpretation of the ageing alcoholic in The Lonely Ardour of Judith Hearne after which in Mattress Amongst The Lentils, certainly one of Alan Bennett’s Speaking Heads sequence for the BBC.

It was again to the stage in 1987 in Lettice and Lovage on the Globe Theatre in London earlier than the manufacturing transferred to New York. However her run was interrupted after she suffered a bicycle accident after which realized she would want eye surgical procedure.

When she lastly resumed work on Lettice and Lovage, after a 12 month break, her New York efficiency received her a Tony.

In 1990 she was created DBE and, a 12 months later, appeared because the ageing Wendy in Hook, Stephen Spielberg’s sequel to Peter Pan.

Different movies adopted together with Sister Act, alongside Whoopi Goldberg, and The Secret Backyard for which she was nominated for a Bafta.

The brand new century introduced a Bafta and an Emmy nomination for function as Betsey Trotwood within the BBC manufacturing of David Copperfield.

A 12 months later, she appeared as Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Thinker’s Stone, a task she would reprise in all the subsequent Potter motion pictures.

She was, reportedly, the one performer the writer JK Rowling particularly requested for, bringing a small contact of Miss Jean Brodie to Hogwarts.

In 2004 she appeared along with her very long time buddy and fellow Dame Judi Dench, within the light drama Girls in Lavender.

The New York Occasions determined that Smith and Dench “sink into their roles as comfortably as home cats burrowing right into a down quilt on a windswept, wet evening”.

Two years later she was the cash-strapped Countess of Trentham in Gosford Park, Robert Altman’s tackle the English nation home homicide.

Her efficiency was a delight, with a veneer of snobbery from which might emerge the masterly put down, notably within the case of Mr Novello’s failed film.

It was a task that she arguably reprised in all however title when she was solid in ITV drama, Downton Abbey. The title of her character could have modified to the Dowager Countess of Grantham however the efficiency was related in essence.

“It is true I do not tolerate fools, however then they do not tolerate me, so I’m spiky,” she as soon as stated. “Perhaps that is why I am fairly good at taking part in spiky aged women.”

She remained with the Downton Abbey solid till 2015 when the sequence lastly got here to an finish, reprising the function for 2 movies in 2019 and 2022.

In 2007, whereas filming Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince she was recognized with breast most cancers. She was given the all-clear after two years of remedy.

Regardless of being left feeling weak after her sickness, she went on to star within the ultimate Harry Potter movie and obtained a Bafta nomination for her function within the 2012 movie, The Greatest Unique Marigold Lodge.

In 2015 she gave a shifting efficiency within the movie, The Woman within the Van, primarily based on the true story of Mary Shepherd, an aged girl who lived in a dilapidated van on the author Alan Bennett’s driveway in London for 15 years.

She had beforehand appeared within the stage model of the story, for which she received an Olivier for Greatest Actress, and a 2009 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Bennett’s play.

Dame Maggie gave few interviews however she was as soon as requested to outline the enchantment of appearing. “I just like the ephemeral factor about theatre, each efficiency is sort of a ghost – it is there after which it is gone.”