{"id":1072,"date":"2024-09-28T07:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T07:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/?p=1072"},"modified":"2024-10-01T03:18:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T03:18:51","slug":"dame-maggie-smith-2024-beloved-actress-harry-potter-downton-abbey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/dame-maggie-smith-2024-beloved-actress-harry-potter-downton-abbey\/","title":{"rendered":"Sad. Beloved Maggie left behind her legacy, saying farewell as Lady Violet Crawley in “Downton Abbey”: “\u2026and now it’s time to go”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nMaggie Smith: \u2018A National Treasure\u2019<\/a>
\nViola Davis commended Smith for \u201cdefying the expectations of age\u201d in a touching tribute. \u201cThe end of an era of the sheer definition of what it means to be an actor. You created characters that clung to us, moved us, entertained us\u2026\u2026made us look within,\u201d she wrote in part. \u201cYou were greatness personified Dame Maggie Smith.\u201d

\n\nHarry Potter protagonist Daniel Radcliffe issued a sweet statement, remembering the first time she met the actress well before the wizard film franchise, saying he would \u201calways consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her.\u201d \u201cShe was a fierce intellect, a gloriously sharp tongue, could intimidate and charm in the same instant and was, as everyone will tell you, extremely funny,\u201d he wrote, later adding, \u201cThe word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her. Thank you Maggie.\u201d

\n\nDownton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that \u201cMaggie Smith was a truly great actress, and we were more than fortunate to be part of the last act in her stellar career. She was a joy to write for, subtle, many-layered, intelligent, funny and heart-breaking. Working with her has been the greatest privilege of my career, and I will never forget her.\u201d

\n\nPaul McCartney also paid tribute to Smith Saturday on social media, \u201cShe was a great person with a wicked sense of humour whom over the years it has been my pleasure to know.\u201d

\n\nSmith received Damehood for her contribution to the British stage and screen in her lifetime and won the Academy Award two times during a career that spanned over 70 years. Following her first Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar nomination in 1966 for Othello, Smith won Best Actress in a Lead Role four years later for 1969\u2019s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

\n\nSmith would receive four more Oscar nominations over the ensuing decades, winning once more for Best Supporting Actress for 1978\u2019s California Suite. Her final Oscar nod came in that same category for 2001\u2019s Gosford Park.

\n\n\u2018Harry Potter,\u2019 \u2018Downton Abbey\u2019 Stars Pay Tribute to Maggie Smith: \u201cOne of the Greatest Actors of Our Time\u201d<\/a>
\n\n\u201cAnyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent,\u201d Downton star Hugh Bonneville shared with THR in a statement. \u201cShe was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances. My condolences to her boys and wider family.\u201d\n\nSir Michael Caine wrote in a statement to THR, \u201cIt was my privilege to make two Films alongside the Legendary Maggie Smith. A truly brilliant Actress and a dear friend, who I will greatly miss.\u201d\n\nDaniel Radcliffe And \u2018Harry Potter\u2019 Cast Remember Costar Maggie Smith For \u201cFierce Intellect\u201d And \u201cTrue Definition of Greatness\u201d<\/a>
\n\u201cThe other thing I knew about her was that she was a Dame,\u201d he continued, \u201cso the first thing I asked her when we met was \u2018would you like me to call you Dame?\u2019 at which she laughed and said something to the effect of \u2018don\u2019t be ridiculous!\u2019 I remember feeling nervous to meet her and then her putting me immediately at ease. She was incredibly kind to me on that shoot, and then I was lucky enough to go on working with her for another 10 years on the Harry Potter films. She was a fierce intellect, a gloriously sharp tongue, could intimidate and charm in the same instant and was, as everyone will tell you, extremely funny. I will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her and to spend time around her on set. The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her. Thank you Maggie.\u201d\n\nOscar-winning actress Dame Maggie Smith has been lauded as one of the greatest actors of our time, following her death aged 89.<\/a>
\nThe British star, who won two Academy Awards for her performances in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite, died in hospital on Friday morning. With a career spanning some 70 years, Dame Maggie has been remembered for her versatile repertoire ranging from Shakespeare to character parts, including in the film series Harry Potter and TV drama Downton Abbey.

\n\nMaggie Smith, beloved \u2018Downton Abbey\u2019 and \u2018Harry Potter\u2019 star<\/a>
\nDame Maggie Smith, one of Britain\u2019s best-known actresses whose long career ranged from starring opposite Laurence Olivier in \u201cOthello\u201d on stage and screen, to roles in \u201cHarry Potter\u201d and \u201cDownton Abbey,\u201d has died, her sons announced in a statement shared by their publicist Clair Dobbs. She was 89.

\n\nSmith was born in 1934 in Ilford, then a middle-class east London suburb. Shortly before the start of World War II the family moved to Oxford, where her father worked as a pathologist at Oxford University. On graduating from high school, Smith attended the Oxford Playhouse School from 1951 to 1953, making her stage debut in an Oxford University Dramatic Society production of William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTwelfth Night.\u201d

\n\nShe went on to appear on Broadway in \u201cNew Faces of 1956,\u201d and then held the lead comedian role in the London revue \u201cShare My Lettuce,\u201d between 1957 and 1958. She soon began appearing regularly in plays at The Old Vic theater in London. In 1964, she played Desdemona to Olivier\u2019s Othello, before reprising the role for the film version the following year. Smith won her first Academy Award for best actress in 1969 for her portrayal of an unconventional schoolteacher in the movie \u201cThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.\u201d

\n\nIn 1978, she was awarded a second Academy Award, this time for best supporting actress, for her performance in Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cCalifornia Suite.\u201d She has also received British Academy Film Awards for her work, including for her roles in 1985\u2019s \u201cA Room with a View\u201d and 1987\u2019s \u201cThe Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.\u201d Smith was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990, and from then on was widely known as Dame Maggie Smith.

\n\nShe came to the notice of younger viewers as the strict but fair witchcraft teacher Minerva McGonagall in \u201cHarry Potter and the Sorcerer\u2019s Stone\u201d (2001), also appearing in several \u201cHarry Potter\u201d sequels. Acclaim came again on both sides of the Atlantic for her interpretation of the caustic-tongued Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in \u201cDownton Abbey,\u201d the acclaimed period drama about the British aristocracy. She received three Emmy Awards for the role, which she reprised for a 2019 feature-length film.

\n\nIn her later years, Smith became a role model for ageing gracefully, a process she handled with her customary charm and wit.

\n\n(unquote)

\n\nImage courtesy Nick Briggs\/PBS<\/a> and Getty Images<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(quote) Maggie Smith: \u2018A National Treasure\u2019 Viola Davis commended Smith for \u201cdefying the expectations of age\u201d in a touching tribute. \u201cThe end of an era of the sheer definition of what it means to be an actor. You created characters that clung to us, moved us, entertained us\u2026\u2026made us lookRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,8,9,12],"tags":[45,79,26,27,18,78,35,52],"class_list":["entry","author-wcp-movie-critic","post-1072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-art-and-poem","category-figures-and-facts","category-life-nature-society","category-movies-books-and-entertainment","category-us-and-world","tag-art","tag-entertainment","tag-facts","tag-figures","tag-life","tag-movies","tag-news","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}