Dame Maggie Smith latest: Legendary Harry Potter and Downton Abbey star hailed a ‘national treasure’ following her death at the age of 89 as former co-stars pay tribute

Dame Maggie’s stellar which spanned over half a century and garnered her recognition almost from the very start.

In 1959, the then-promising newcomer was given a Bafta nomination for the crime drama .

A slew of Bafta nods flooded in the years that followed, with the iconic actress receiving nominations for Young Cassidy in 1966, Death On The Nile in 1979, California Suite in 1980, Quartet in 1982, The Secret Garden in 1994, Tea With Mussolini in 2000, Gosford Park in 2002, and The Lady In The Van in 2016.

She also walked away with the best actress title for her portrayals in The Lonely Passion Of Judith Hearne, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, and A Private Function.

Among her final roles included 2022’s Downtown Abbey: A New Era, as well as The Miracle Club, which centres around women who set off on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France.

Dozens of MailOnline readers have paid their own tributes to Dame Maggie Smith following her death at the age of 89.

A legendary presence on stage and screen for 70 years, Dame Maggie will undoubtedly be remembered fondly by many of you.

Here’s some of our favourite tributes left by you:

Enterprise Girl

She was an amazing actress, I love watching her in Downton, Lady in the Van etc etc. Thank you Dame Maggie rest in peace

Maggie Smith was a brilliant actress and character she starred in many classic films and shows over many years,RIP Maggie you will be sadly missed by many people

Countless brilliant movies left behind, loved the ones she made with Judi Dench. She’s another huge favourite of mine, wish they’d worked together more. Then Downton and Harry Potter of course. I’m just sad.

picklecat13

an incredible woman, a phenomenal actress. rest in peace

Gothgirl66

A truly eclectic, phenomenal rosta of films. A grand legacy. Condolences to family and friends. RIP. Always.

TheLightAhead

Best of several generations! A true treasure who left a legacy of laughter and tears! Thank you Dame Maggie xX

The Reasonable 1

Words are not enough, but…..an absolutely incredible woman are the best I can think of right now. RIP Maggie.

British theatre owner and producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh has paid tribute to ‘brilliant original’ Dame Maggie Smith following her death at the age of 89.

Sir Cameron told the PA news agency:

It is with enormous sadness that today, British theatre has lost one of its greatest stars – the incomparable Dame Maggie Smith.

Many of Maggie’s finest performances have been on the stages of theatres now in my care – one of the dress circle boxes in the Sondheim Theatre is proudly named after her.

Over the decades, I have been privileged to see many of her unforgettable performances from her early days in revue, in the late-50s.

Whatever she was in, every line was electric – she was the master of the zinger.

I, and everyone at Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, salute a truly great artist. Maggie was a brilliant original who can never be replaced or ever forgotten.

The Oxford school where Dame Maggie was a pupil for four years has paid tribute to the actress following her death.

Oxford High School posted a message on its X page:

by Rebecca Lawrence

Maggie Smith has been remembered by her former co-stars and described as ‘wise, witty, waspish, wonderful’ in tributes after her death on Friday.

Celebrities have taken to social media to share their memories of the Oscar-winning actress after she died in hospital on Friday morning aged 89.

The British star was known for prominent roles as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter franchise and as Violet Crawley in TV series Downton Abbey, as well as her Academy Award-winning performance in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.

Read more here:

Kristin Scott Thomas and Whoopi Goldberg are among the latest showbiz stars to pay tribute to Dame Maggie Smith following her death earlier today.

Thomas starred opposite Dame Maggie in 2014 drama My Old Lady and wrote on Instagram saying:

So very, very sad to know she has gone. She was a true inspiration. She took acting very seriously but saw through the nonsense and razzmatazz.

She really didn’t want to deal with that. She had a sense of humour and wit that could reduce me to a blithering puddle of giggles. And she did not have patience with fools.

She added: ‘The last time I saw her she was very cross about being old. ‘Maddening’, I think she said.’

American actress Goldberg said she felt lucky to have worked alongside her.

The actresses starred together in Sister Act, where Dame Maggie played Reverend Mother Superior while Goldberg portrayed Deloris Van Cartier.

The US actress shared an old picture of the two on set of Sister Act, dressed as nuns, on Instagram and described her as a “great woman”.

She wrote in her post:

Maggie Smith was a great woman and a brilliant actress. I still can’t believe I was lucky enough to work with the ‘one-of-a-kind’. My heartfelt condolences go out to the family… RIP.

For those of you reminiscing Dame Maggie’s illustrious career on screen and stage, we have a treat.

MailOnline has put together a video remembering some of her most memorable roles and scenes across her career.

We hope you enjoy it:

During her career, actor Dame Maggie Smith shone in roles as varied as a maverick schoolteacher, a witch in the Harry Potter film series, and Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess of Grantham, a part which won her three Emmys.

The theatre, film and TV star, who has died aged 89, was one of the few performers to achieve the so-called triple crown of acting, winning two Oscars, four Emmys and one Tony.

Here is a round-up of her most famous roles:

• Professor Minerva McGonagall

From 2001 to 2011, Dame Maggie played Hogwarts’ Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series, who was the head of the house of Gryffindor. She was also the school’s deputy headmistress under Professor Albus Dumbledore, played by Richard Harris and, after his death, by Michael Gambon. Gambon died a year to the day before Dame Maggie.

The role saw her reunite with Daniel Radcliffe having previously starred alongside him in 1999’s David Copperfield.

Despite the quick-witted, kind and formidable professor of transfiguration becoming a prominent character in the series, Dame Maggie had regularly said she did not find her role in the films fully satisfying, but said they had allowed her to bond with her grandchildren.

• Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham

From 2010 to 2015, Dame Maggie played the quick-witted matriarch Violet Crowley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, becoming central to the success of ITV series.

The role won her three Emmy awards and she continued to play the character in spin-off films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).

During Dame Maggie’s time playing the character, Violet found her influence on Downton Abbey under threat, as social norms changed, from Isobel Crawley, with whom she regularly argued, and her daughter-in-law Cora, with both being more forward-thinking

• Jean Brodie

Dame Maggie won her first Oscar for best actress in 1969’s The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.

The film saw her play the unrestrained teacher at an all-girls school in Edinburgh during the 1930s, who had a tendency to stray from the school’s curriculum, to romanticise fascist leaders such as Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco, and believed herself to be in the prime of life.

In the film, the teacher devotes her energy and attention to girls she sees as special or mouldable, eventually seeing her lead them into disastrous situations.

• Diana Barrie

The actor won her second Oscar for best supporting actress in 1978’s California Suite, where she played actor Diana Barrie.

In the film her character is a first-time nominee for the Academy Award for best actress in an independent British film, an honour that could revive her faltering career, but she knows she has no chance of winning.

Throughout the movie Diana is in denial about the nature of her marriage of convenience to Sidney Cochran, a gay antiques dealer who becomes increasingly open about his sexuality.

As she prepares for her moment in the spotlight, her mood fluctuates from hope to panic to despair.

• Mary Shepherd

In 2015, Dame Maggie played the role of Mary Shepherd in The Lady In The Van, a mostly true story about Shepherd, who was an elderly woman who lived in a dilapidated van on a driveway in north London for 15 years.

The film was based on a memoir by the playwright Alan Bennett, whose driveway Shepherd lived on from the 1970s to the 1980s.

At the end of the movie Bennett eventually finds out, after Shepherd’s death, that she had fled her home after she was involved in an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist.

Shepherd blamed herself for his death and lived the rest of her life in fear of arrest.

Dame Maggie was a well established stage and screen actress when she took on the role of Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films in 2001.

She reprised the role in all of the Potter films which spanned 10 years and was, according to reports, the only performer JK Rowling specifically requested

The role endeared her to a whole new generation of fans which then increased when she joined the cast of ITV series Downton Abbey in 2010.

She was central to Downton’s succes in her Emmy-award winning role as the acerbic Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.

But she later told ES Magazine:

I am deeply grateful for the work in (Harry) Potter and indeed Downton (Abbey) but it wasn’t what you’d call satisfying. I didn’t really feel I was acting in those things.

by Isabelle Stanley and Harry Howard

As Desdemona in Othello, Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter or the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey, her acerbic wit, perfect timing and the twinkle in her eye endeared her to millions.

Dame Maggie Smith, who has died just three months away from her 90th birthday, could turn on a dime.

In doing so, she could make an audience ache with laughter one moment and well up the next.

Read more here:

The National Theatre has paid tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, describing her as one of Britain’s greatest ever actors to grace the stage.

In a statment, the NT director Rufus Norris said:

We’re devastated to hear of the death of Dame Maggie Smith, whose career has spanned the theatrical, film and television world without equal.

Her relationship with the National Theatre began in its very first season in 1963, working alongside Laurence Olivier at the Old Vic.

From her defining performances in Hedda Gabler, Miss Julie and Hay Fever to the first performances of now-classic plays by Osborne and Shaffer, she will forever be remembered as one of the greatest actors this country has had the inestimable pleasure of witnessing. Her deep intelligence, effortless dexterity, sublime craft and sharp wit were simply legendary.

The National Theatre is reeling today, and we send our deepest condolences to Maggie’s family and her legions of admirers across the world and in every generation.

Margaret Natalie Smith (pictured in 1950) was born in Ilford, Essex, on December 28, 1934. She was educated at Oxford High School for Girls and later the Oxford Playhouse School, and first appeared on the stage as a girl of 18 in Twelfth Night.

She made an early mark in revues, as a singer and dancer. One fan who saw her on Broadway in New Faces of ’56, said he laughed so much he ended up banging his head on the seat in front of him.

She was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who saw her as much more than just a vaudeville performer and invited her to join the newly-formed Royal National Theatre Company in London.

There, and at the Old Vic, she excelled in both tragedy and comedy, moving easily from Shakespeare to Noel Coward, to Restoration comedy to Ibsen.

As a ‘rep’ actress, she was able to develop her incredible range, skill and talent among some of Britain’s best actors, including Robert Stephens, who was to become her first husband. They married in 1967 but divorced in 1974.

The film industry began to recognise her abilities and she was given several supporting roles.

But she first emerged as an international star with her virtuoso performance as the fanatical teacher Jean Brodie in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.

Even in smaller roles she could upstage the film ‘giants’. In one film, Richard Burton described her scene-stealing as ‘grand larceny’.

by Eleanor Dye, Mark Duell and Milo Pope

Legendary actress Dame Maggie Smith passed away this morning aged 89 – and it was her beloved sons who broke the devastating news to the world.

The British star was known for prominent roles in Harry Potter and Downton Abbey, and her performance in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.

Her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, praised her as an ‘extraordinary mother and grandmother’ in their moving tribute to the acting icon.

Read more here:

Messages of condolences to Dame Maggie Smith are starting to flood social media as former co-stars and celebrity fans line up to pay their respects to the actress.

We will endeavour to bring you as many as we can. For now here’s some that we can show you.

The PA News agency has put together a video remembering the life and career of Dame Maggie Smith in 60 seconds.

Dame Maggie will be remembered as one of Britain’s most prolific and successful actresses after a career spanning seven decades on stage and screen.

Her death today in hospital was announced this afternoon by her sons.

Watch the video below:

by Sean O’Grady

Dame Maggie Smith beamed for the camera in a fashion campaign for Loewe in what would end up being her last photo.

The beloved actress died aged 89 on Friday with her children Chris Larkin, and Die Another Day star Toby Stephens, announcing her passing in a statement.

In October 2023, Maggie was named as the new face of the luxury Spanish fashion house Loewe.

Read more here:

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has sent his condolences to Dame Maggie’s family and paid tribute to the actress as a ‘true national treasure’ who will be ‘cherished for generations to come’.

Here’s his tweet posted on X.

Dame Maggie’s Downton Abbey co-star Hugh Bonneville has paid tribute to the actress as a a ‘true legend of her generation’ whose ‘magnificent’ performances will live long in the memory.

Speaking to the BBC, Bonneville said: ‘Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent’.

by Noor Qurashi

Dame Maggie Smith did not hold back when in came to discussing her role in the popular TV drama Downtown Abbey.

The 89-year-old actress, who passed away today, admitted in 2015 she had never actually watched a single episode of the show.

Eventually though she did get round to it after she got a bit more time on her hands.

Read more here:

Let’s take a look at some photographs from Dame Maggie’s illustrious career which started on stage as a teenager in the 1950s right the way up through to 2023.

Dame Maggie Smith rehearsing for Peter Pan with Dave Allen in 1973

Taken in 1997 at the Evening Standards Drama Awards

She was presented with a best supporting actress Bafta by Ralph Fiennes in 2000 for her role in the film Tea With Mussolini

Dame Maggie arriving at the New York premiere of Gosford Park in 2001

Dame Maggie posed for pictures 12 days before she turned 87 in December 2015

The former prime minister Rishi Sunak has posted his condolences on social media, describing Dame Maggie as ‘icon’ of the stage and screen.

Gyles Brandreth was among the first to pay tribute to Dame Maggie describing her as ‘one of a kind in every way’ following her death with a post on X.

The saddest news: the death of Dame Maggie Smith marks the end of a golden era and a quite extraordinary life.

She was a truly great actress, ‘one of the greats’ and simply the best company: wise, witty, waspish, wonderful. One of a kind in every way and consequently irreplaceable.

Born in Ilford, Essex, on December 28, 1934, Dame Maggie was an internationally recognised actress for much of her life after playing the fanatical teacher Jean Brodie in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.

She also won over Harry Potter fans later in life, when she appeared in the film series as the quick-witted, kind and formidable Professor McGonagall.

And in 2010 she was central to the success of ITV series Downton Abbey, in her Emmy-award winning role as the acerbic Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, which she continued to play in the films.

She was nominated six times at the Academy Awards, two for a leading role and four for supporting, and won twice for her portrayals of Jean Brodie and Diana Barrie in the 1978 film California Suite.

Dame Maggie Smith at the Oscars

• 42nd Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, win, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
• 51st Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, win, California Suite (1978)

Nominations

• 45th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, Travels with My Aunt (1972)
• 38th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for Othello (1965)
• 59th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for A Room with a View (1986)
• 74th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for Gosford Park (2001)

Dame Maggie Smith has died in hospital, her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens said.

In a statement issued via their publicist, they said:

It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith.

She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September.

An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.

We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.

Oscar-winning actress Dame Maggie Smith died in hospital this morning aged 89, her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens have revealed.

In a statement issued via their publicist, they said: ‘It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith.

‘She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September.

Read more here:

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage following the death of Dame Maggie Smith at the age of 89.

The Harry Potter and Downton Abbey star passed away peacefully at hospital early today surrounded by her family.

The two-time Academy Award winner was one of Britain’s most illustrious actresses with a career on stage and screen spanning seven decades.

Stick with our coverage as we bring you the latest tributes to Dame Maggie