Maggie Smith received an impressive collection of accolades, including Oscars, Emmys, and a Tony, yet she often remained unrecognized in public. This changed with her role in “Downton Abbey.”
Maggie Smith, regarded as one of the most exceptional British actors of her time, passed away on Friday in London at the age of 89. Her illustrious career featured award-winning performances, from a progressive Scottish schoolteacher in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” to the sharp-tongued dowager countess in “Downton Abbey.”
Her family announced her death in a statement released by a publicist, although the cause of death was not disclosed.
When Ms. Smith, now honored as Dame Maggie by her fellow countrymen, starred in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969), American audiences were largely unfamiliar with her. The film depicted a 1930s teacher at a girls’ school who embraced progressive ideals and navigated a complex love life. Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised her performance as “a staggering amalgam of counterpointed moods, switches in voice levels and obliquely stated emotions, all of which are precisely right,” earning her an Academy Award for best actress.
She later secured a second Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in “California Suite” (1978), adapted from Neil Simon’s stage play. In this film, she portrayed a British actress attending the Oscars with her bisexual husband (Michael Caine), experiencing both disappointment at the ceremony and a bittersweet night afterward.
In reality, accolades began to accumulate for Ms. Smith in 1962, when she received her inaugural Evening Standard Theater Award. By the dawn of the new millennium, she had secured two Oscars, a Tony Award, two Golden Globes, several BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Awards), and numerous nominations. Despite this impressive recognition, she could often traverse public spaces without being recognized.
This changed with the advent of “Downton Abbey.”
A monochrome image captures a younger Ms. Smith in front of a classroom, playfully twirling an object between her fingers.
The series chronicles the life of the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), his predominantly aristocratic family, and their troubled household staff within their opulent Jacobean estate, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world from 1912 to 1925.
A Rising Star
Following its debut in Britain in 2010 and in the United States the subsequent year, the show enjoyed a successful run spanning six seasons. From the outset, Ms. Smith emerged as the standout star, portraying Lord Grantham’s elderly and resolutely Victorian widowed mother, Violet Crawley, the dowager countess. She was critical of electric lighting, unfamiliar with the term “weekend,” and possessed a talent for ridiculing any person or situation with her sharp, imperious wit. When her daughter-in-law contemplated sending a younger relative to New York for a visit, Lady Violet retorted, “Oh, I don’t think things are quite that desperate.”