British ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Downton Abbey’ actress Maggie Smith dies

BY: HELEN BUSHBY

British actress Maggie Smith (89) has died.

Considered one of the most acclaimed actors of her generation, with a career ranging from Shakespeare to ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Downton Abbey’, Smith died on Friday in London.

‘Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling posted her tribute to ‘Dame Maggie’, as she was known, on social media following her death.

“Somehow I thought she’d live forever. RIP Dame Maggie Smith,” she wrote.

Rowling reportedly specifically asked for Smith to star in the film adaptations of her books, connecting the actor to a new generation of devoted fans.

Smith was not only royalty of the acting world, she also forged strong relationships with the royal family.

She was among many celebrities who attended the coronation of King Charles at Westminster Abbey last year.

And as Prince of Wales, the king hosted her at Sandringham, including a visit to the Estate Flower Show, with fellow acting legend Dame Judi Dench.

In 2014 she was awarded the Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

Smith started out in the theatre as a prompt girl and understudy at the Oxford Repertory. She once claimed that she never got onto the stage there, as not one of the company ever fell ill.

Her company moved to a small theatre in London in 1955, where she attracted the attention of an American producer, Leonard Stillman, who cast her in ‘New Faces’, a revue that opened on Broadway in June 1956.

She stood out among the cast of unknowns and, on her return to London, was offered a six-month stint in the revue, ‘Share My Lettuce’, opposite Kenneth Williams.

Her first film role was an uncredited part in the 1956 production ‘Child in the House’.

Two years later she was nominated for a Bafta as best newcomer in the 1958 melodrama, ‘Nowhere to Go’, in which she played a girl who shelters an escaped convict.

She nearly stole the show from Richard Burton in the film ‘The VIPs’, when she appeared in a pivotal scene with the Welsh star.

One critic noted that “when Maggie Smith is on the screen, the picture moves,” and Burton afterwards teasingly described her upstaging of him as “grand larceny”.

Later in 1963, Laurence Olivier offered her the part of Desdemona opposite his Othello, at the National Theatre. The production, with the original cast, was made into a film two years later, with Smith being nominated for an Academy Award.