Daniel Radcliffe has remembered Harry Potter star Dame Maggie Smith as a “fierce intellect” with a “gloriously sharp tongue” as he led tributes from fellow stars of the fantasy film series. Smith won over Harry Potter fans later in life when she appeared as the quick-witted, kind but formidable Professor McGonagall, sharing the screen with Radcliffe in seven of the eight instalments. Advertisement Her role began in 2001’s Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone and lasted a decade.
Advertisement Radcliffe said in a statement to the PA news agency: “The first time I met Maggie Smith I was nine years old and we were reading through scenes for David Copperfield, which was my first job. “I knew virtually nothing about her other than that my parents were awestruck at the fact that I would be working with her. Advertisement “The other thing I knew about her was that she was a dame, so the first thing I asked her when we met was ‘would you like me to call you Dame?’, at which she laughed and said something to the effect of ‘don’t be ridiculous!’.
“I remember feeling nervous to meet her and then her putting me immediately at ease.” Advertisement Radcliffe said Smith was “incredibly kind to me on that shoot, and then I was lucky enough to go on working with her for another 10 years on the Harry Potter films”. Somehow I thought she'd live forever.
RIP Dame Maggie Smith. pic.twitter.
com/VogfvR9nIF — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 27, 2024 Advert.
