How Maggie Smith won two Oscars despite her mother telling her she'd never be an actress 'with a face like that'...
and even became a fashion model aged 88 By Michael Thornton Published: 22:06, 27 September 2024 | Updated: 22:15, 27 September 2024 e-mail View comments If there had been a competition for scene-stealing among Britain's great actresses, it's odds-on that Dame Maggie Smith , who died yesterday at the age of 89, would have won it hands down. She was still in her twenties when she had a scene with Richard Burton in Terence Rattigan's comedy-drama The VIPs. She upstaged the Welsh Wizard to such an extent that he later admitted it was tantamount to committing 'grand larceny'.
More than half a century later, in her eighties, she was still stealing scenes as the indomitable and Machiavellian Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the phenomenally successful Downton Abbey . Her glittering 72-year career spanned 63 films, 78 stage roles, and 88 television appearances. In the process, she won Oscars for Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978).
She had four other nominations, and received eight Bafta awards. King Charles spoke for many last night when he paid tribute saying: 'As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through bot.
