Remembering Actress Dame Maggie Smith | Masterpiece

Photo of Dame Maggie Smith in her role as the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey as seen on MASTERPIECE on PBS.

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Acclaimed British actress Dame Maggie Smith died on September 27, 2024. Smith was 89 years outdated.

Born in 1934 in Ilford, England, Smith grew up in Oxford, England, and made her stage debut in an area theater as a young person. Smith went on to a have an unparalleled profession that earned her Oscar, Tony, Golden Globe awards and extra.  Smith received 3 Emmy awards for her function as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey.

Smith was well-known for an array of celebrated initiatives throughout stage, tv and movie, together with her Oscar-winning performances in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and California Suite, roles in Gosford Park, A Room with a View, Tea with Mussolini, the Harry Potter movies, and Downton Abbey, amongst many others.

In 1990, Smith was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin launched an announcement which learn: “It’s with nice unhappiness we have now to announce the demise of Dame Maggie Smith.

“She handed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday twenty seventh September. An intensely personal particular person, she was with family and friends on the finish. She leaves two sons and 5 loving grandchildren who’re devastated by the lack of their extraordinary mom and grandmother.

“We wish to take this chance to thank the fantastic employees on the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for his or her care and unstinting kindness throughout her closing days.

“We thanks for all of your sort messages and assist and ask that you simply respect our privateness at the moment.”

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes wrote in an announcement, “Maggie Smith was a really nice actress and we have been greater than lucky to be a part of the final act in her stellar profession.  She was a pleasure to put in writing for, refined, many-layered, clever, humorous and heart-breaking.  Working together with her has been the best privilege of my profession, and I’ll always remember her.”

Hugh Bonneville, Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey, provided an announcement saying, “She was a real legend of her technology and fortunately will stay on in so many magnificent display performances. My condolences to her boys and wider household.”

Michelle Dockery, who performed Woman Mary Crowley, advised Deadline in an announcement: “There was nobody fairly like Maggie. I really feel tremendously fortunate to have identified such a maverick. She can be deeply missed and my ideas are together with her household.”

Allen Leech, Tom Branson in Downton Abbey, advised Folks, “Maggie was a grasp of the craft and a delight to be round. As a world viewers we have now misplaced one of many best, my condolences to her sons and grandchildren, her household and dearest and closest buddies. It was an honor to know and work with a real legend of the display.”

Joanne Froggatt who portrayed Anna Bates within the sequence posted on Instagram partially, “She actually was a trailblazer, with the sharpest wit, the best expertise, the naughtiest sense of humour, she was a drive to be reckoned with. She had a charisma that you simply felt would stay ceaselessly (in some ways it’s going to) and beneath all of that an enormous coronary heart.”

Susanne Simpson, MASTERPIECE Govt Producer, mentioned, “All the MASTERPIECE and PBS household are terribly unhappy to listen to the information of Maggie Smith’s demise. She was an icon and can be deeply missed by us personally, and by our viewers who got here to like her in Downton Abbey. She can be remembered by all of us for many years of memorable performances.”

View a slideshow that includes some highlights of Smith’s profession.

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