Personal info
Known for
Actor
Gender
Male
Date of Birth
1934-12-28
Location
England, United Kingdom
Edit pageMaggie Smith
Biography
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith CH DBE (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career in the theatre, on film, and in television over seven decades, she is one of Britain's most recognizable and prolific actresses. She is particularly noted for her wit in comedic roles.
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 Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
On the Broadway stage, she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and David Hare's Night and Day (1979), winning Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990).
Smith has received two Academy Awards, for her roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978). Her other Oscar-nominated roles were in Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985), and Gosford Park (2001).
Other notable films include Death on the Nile (1978), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), 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).
On television, Smith gained newfound attention and international fame for her role as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Julian Fellowes's British period drama Downton Abbey (2010–2015), as well as the 2019 film and its 2022 sequel.
The role earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards, which she has also won for the HBO film My House in Umbria (2003).
Smith's honors include five competitive British Academy Film Awards. She has also achieved the US Triple Crown of Acting, having been awarded two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards.
She is the recipient of several honorary acting awards, including the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1993, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996, and the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010.
Smith was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for contributions to the Arts, and a Companion of Honour in 2014 for services to Drama.
Known for
Actor
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 as Professor Minerva McGonagall
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Minerva McGon
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Minerva McGon
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as Professor McGonagall