Maggie Smith's Legacy: Beyond 'Harry Potter' & "Downton Abbey"!

Sad days, dear friends. Our talented, endearing, beloved actress, Dame Maggie Smith, passed away on Friday, September 27, at the age of 89. With the honorific title "Dame" bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990, Maggie Smith was not just one of the United Kingdom's best performers but a true inspiration to the entertainment industry the world over. Among the tributes, King Charles IIIdescribed her as a "national treasure", and the National Theatre praised her "deep intelligence, sublime craft, and sharp wit." Miriam Margolyes, one of her Harry Potter co-stars, said that Maggie's role as a wizard was "the innate gift, her brilliant diction, her natural wit and intelligence, hard work, and just that sense of language and courage." So, let's us now pay tribute to her and remember her most iconic moments in the theatre and onscreen, celebrating her profound impact on the performing arts world.

Maggie was born in 1934 and began acting on stage at the Oxford Playhouse at just 17 years old, playing the role of Viola in the Shakespeare's romantic comedy Twelfth Night. Her first onscreen appearance was in 1956, and her Broadway debut came in 1957, with the play New Faces of '56. Her passion drove her to never stopp acting, performing characters from great authors, including Shakespeare, Noel Coward, Tennessee Williams, Agatha Christie, Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and, one of her favorites, Alan Bennett.

Dame Maggie spent seven decades in theatre and cinema, adding up to 75 theatre performances and more than 50 films, and her talent was recognized with many awards, including a BAFTA, a Tony, and Emmy Awards. She was also nominated for 8 Golden Globe Awards and won 3, and she was nominated for Academy Awards 4 times and won twice! Although she is best known in recent years for her roles as Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter, the aristocrat Violet Crowley in "Downton Abbey", or the relentless Mother Superior who clashed with Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, Maggie Smith has a slew of significant roles in cinema history that go far beyond her popular performances.

One of them gave her first Oscar, when she played a Scottish teacher who wanted to transform a strict girls' school in 1969's The Prime of Miss Brodie.

The role was originated on stage in London in 1966 by Vanessa Redgrave. In the film version, Maggie Smith enbodies what she would become known in her later years, playing a particular kind of Englishwoman: educated, intelligent, sharp-tongued, and stubborn.

Seven years later, one of her most iconic performances would arrive with Dora Charleston, in the surreal Murder by Death (1976), where Maggie Smith is paired with David Niven. It is a parody of detective stories, with Truman Capote portraying an eccentric millionaire who invites famous detectives to his house. One of the most hilarious moments of the film is the conversation with the blind butler Bensonmum, played by Alec Guinness.

Smith's second Oscar arrived two years after with her performance in the popular ensemble film California Suite (1978), where she played Diane Barrie, a British actress nominated for her first Oscar (how meta!), who is married to a once-closeted gay man. It is a comedic role masterfully performed by Maggie Smith, showing how she can become arrogant, vulnerable, fun, frustrated, childish, and profound at the drop of a hat. In the movie, Diane didn’t win an Oscar, but in the real life the Academy rewarded Smith as Best Supporting Actress. 

In 1985, the director James Ivory chose Maggie Smith to play Charlotte Bartlett in the romantic comedy A Room with a View, where she portrayed a single and arrogant aunt of the British youth, Lucy Honeychurch, played by Helena Bonham Carter. The film had a lot of success and received several Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay, and Maggie Smith won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

2001 was the year in which she portrayed Countess Constance Trentham in the elegant British rural drama Gosford Park. Directed by Robert Altman, the film earned Maggie Smith her last Oscar nomination out of the 6 she received in her career. In Gosford Park, Smith creates a character that will later become the blueprint for Violet Crowley from "Downton Abbey", the series created by Gosford Park's writer Julian Fellowes, for which she won two consecutive Emmys.

She was one of the greats of her generation, able to be loved by all audiences young and old. Certainly, she had more relevant roles, but in all her roles, she left an inimitable imprint in the acting world.

The loss of Maggie Smith is deeply felt, whether we are fans of the characters she portrayed or simply individuals who have come to know her through her work. Her face on the screen is not that of a stranger but of a familiar and beloved figure. We’ll always remember Maggie Smith, a bright star who lives in the world of the screen.