Maggie Smith, known for roles including The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie through to the Harry Potter series and Downton Abbey, has died aged 89.
In a statement, her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin said: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith.
“She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.
“We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”
Smith won a best actress Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and won the best supporting actress Oscar for California Suite (1978).
She was also Oscar-nominated for Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room With A View (1985), and Gosford Park (2001).
To many, she was best known for her roles as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series and as Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey. For the latter she won three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Born in 1934, Smith grew up in Oxford and began acting at the city’s Playhouse theatre as a teenager in 1952.
She went on to become a leading stage performer, 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 Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day (1979), and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990).
In film, she received her first Bafta nomination in 1958 for Seth Holt’s thriller Nowhere to Go in the best supporting actress category. She went on to win five Baftas in total.
She also received many other honorary awards during her career, 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.
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