Dame Maggie Smith, one of Britain’s best-known actresses on stage and screen, has died, her sons announced in a statement shared by their publicist Clair Dobbs. She was 89.
Smith began her acting career on stage in the 1950s and in 1964, she played Desdemona to Laurence Olivier’s Othello, before reprising the role for the film version the following year. She won her first Academy Award for best actress in 1969 for her portrayal of an unconventional schoolteacher in the movie “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”
Perhaps she will be best remembered as an actress who managed to achieve not only longevity but even greater fame in later life.
She came to the notice of younger viewers as the strict but fair witchcraft teacher Minerva McGonagall in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, also appearing in several “Harry Potter” sequels.
In her later years, Smith became a role model for ageing gracefully, a process she handled with her customary charm and wit.
