Dame Maggie Smith will be remembered by younger fans for her roles in the Harry Potter movies and for Downton Abbey, but had been at the top of the acting profession since the 1960s. Her early performances were in the 1950s but she claimed the Academy Award for best actress in 1970 for her role in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, playing a seethingly ambitious teacher on a mission to make her girls the “creme de la creme”. Advertisement In her later years, her role as the waspish Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey saw her steal many a scene, while her place in the Harry Potter world as Professor Minerva McGonagall is secure.
Maggie Smith (UK/TV Times/PA) Dame Maggie Smith rehearses for Peter Pan with Dave Allen in 1973 (PA) Advertisement Jill Bennett, Tom Jones and Maggie Smith (left to right) with awards from the Variety Club of Great Britain in 1969 (PA) Dame Maggie had learned her trade the hard way with performances in her teenage years at the Oxford Playhouse. Advertisement Twice married, she leaves two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, who have both chosen to follow an acting career. Advertisement Maggie Smith, as Amanda, and Robert Stephens, as Elyot, in the Noel Coward comedy Private Lives in 1972 (PA) Maggie Smith in 1966 (PA) The King (then the Prince of Wales) speaks with Dame Maggie Smith at the Prince’s Trust reception at the 2016 Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards (Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror/PA) Sheridan Smith, Dame Maggie Smith, Dustin Hoffman and Pauli.