Maggie Smith: Two-Time Oscar Winner and Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess

Dame Maggie Smith was an English actress whose sharp wit and extraordinary range made her one of the greatest performers of her generation, from the stage to Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. Born Margaret Natalie Smith on December 28, 1934, in Ilford, Essex, she acted professionally for more than seven decades.

Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969 and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for California Suite in 1978. She won the Tony Award for Lettice and Lovage in 1990 and three Primetime Emmy Awards for playing Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in Downton Abbey. She also played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films.

Smith married actor Robert Stephens in 1967, with whom she had sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, and later playwright Beverley Cross in 1975. She died on September 27, 2024, at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London at age 89. Remembered for her razor-sharp timing, she was loved by audiences around the world.

Achievements: Won Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), won Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978), won a Tony Award for Lettice and Lovage (1990), won three Emmys for Downton Abbey (2010-2015).

Birth: December 28, 1934 - Ilford, Essex, England.

Profession: Actress.

Interesting Facts: She is the only person to have won an Oscar for playing a fictional Oscar nominee, in California Suite. During a 1964 production of Othello, Laurence Olivier accidentally struck her and knocked her out.