Maggie Smith Popular Books

Maggie Smith Biography & Facts

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. Known for her wit in comedic roles, she has had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and is one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting. Smith began her stage career as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. Over the following decades, Smith established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and David Hare's Night and Day (1979), and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990). Smith made her film debut in the 1958 film Nowhere to Go. She was given the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), and she has also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). Her other Oscar nominations were for her roles in Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985), and Gosford Park (2001). Other notable films include Death on the Nile (1978), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), the Harry Potter series (2001–2011), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Quartet (2012), and The Lady in the Van (2015). Smith has sporadically appeared on television throughout her career, and gained newfound attention and international fame for her role as Violet Crawley in the British period drama Downton Abbey (2010–2015). The role earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards; she had previously won one for the HBO film My House in Umbria (2003). Over the course of her career, Smith has been recognized with numerous honorary awards including the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1993, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996, and the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010. Smith was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for contributions to the Arts, and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2014 for services to Drama. Early life and education Margaret Natalie Smith was born on 28 December 1934 in Ilford, Essex. Her mother, Margaret Hutton (née Little; 1896–1977), was a Scottish secretary from Glasgow, and her father, Nathaniel Smith (1902–1991), was a public-health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne, who worked at the University of Oxford. During childhood, her parents told Smith the romantic story of how they had met on a train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She had older twin brothers, Alistair (died 1981) and Ian. The latter went to architecture school. Smith was educated at Oxford High School until age sixteen, when she left to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse. Career 1952–1968: National Theatre In 1952, aged 17, under the auspices of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, Smith began her career as Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse. She continued to act in productions at the Oxford Playhouse including, Cinderella (1952), Rookery Nook (1953), Cakes and Ale (1953), and The Government Inspector (1954). That same year she appeared in the television programme Oxford Accents (1954) produced by Ned Sherrin. In 1956 Smith made her Broadway debut playing several roles in the review New Faces of '56, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre from June to December 1956. In 1957, she starred opposite Kenneth Williams in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, written by Bamber Gascoigne. In 1962, Smith won the first of a record six Best Actress Evening Standard Awards for her roles in Peter Shaffer's plays The Private Ear and The Public Eye, again opposite Kenneth Williams. After seeing Smith in The Double-Dealer at The Old Vic, she caught the eye of Laurence Olivier, who invited her to become part of his new National Theatre Company soon after it was formed at The Old Vic in 1962. She soon became a fixture at the Royal National Theatre in the 1960s. British theatre critic Michael Coveney wrote that during her eight years in the company, Smith developed a fierce rivalry with Olivier writing, "He knew immediately he’d met his match – that she was extraordinary. He said that anyone who can play comedy that well can also play tragedy and he offered her the likes of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello. But having got her into the company they became not enemies, but professional rivals. Never before had anyone on stage been quicker than him and now, it seemed, there was a contest." On The Graham Norton Show in 2015 Smith admitted that Olivier had slapped her across the face during a production of Othello in 1964. She appeared opposite Olivier in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and played comedic roles in The Recruiting Officer and Much Ado About Nothing all in 1964. Smith started with the company at its inception in 1962 with Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon and continued acting with the company for eight years. Smith appeared in her first film in 1956, in an uncredited role of a party guest in the British drama Child in the House, In 1959, she received the first of her eighteen British Academy Film Award nominations for her role as Bridget Howard in the film Nowhere to Go, her first screen credit. In 1963 she appeared in a supporting role as Miss Dee Mead in the British drama film The V.I.P.s starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Orson Welles. She earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film adaptation of Othello (1965) as Desdemona acting alongside Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, and Michael Gambon. During this time she also appeared in the British comedy, Go to Blazes (1962), Jack Clayton's The Pumpkin Eater (1964) with Anne Bancroft, and Young Cassidy (1965) directed by Jack Cardiff and John Ford. She also appeared in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's crime comedy The Honey Pot (1967) starring Rex Harrison and Hot Millions (1968) opposite Peter Ustinov, and guest-starred as Music Hall Star in Richard Attenborough's musical comedy Oh! What A Lovely War (1969). 1969–1979: Rise to prominence and stardom Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Vanessa Redgrave had originated the role on stage in London, and Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, when she played the role in New York City. Smith was singled out for her performance in the film. Dave Kehr of Chicago Reader said that Smith gives "one of those technically stunning, emotionally distant performances that the British.... 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