One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie
Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother,
Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father,
Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been
married twice: to actor
Robert Stephens and to
playwright Beverley Cross. Her marriage
to Stephens ended in divorce in 1974. She was married to Cross until
his death in 1998. She had two sons with Stephens,
Chris Larkin and
Toby Stephens who are also actors.
Maggie Smith's career began at the Oxford Playhouse in the 1950s. She
made her film debut in 1956 as one of the party guests in
Child in the House (1956). She
has since performed in over sixty films and television series with some
of the most prominent actors and actresses in the world. These include:
Othello (1965) with
Laurence Olivier,
Die besten Jahre der Miss Jean Brodie (1969),
Das verrückte California Hotel (1978) with
Michael Caine and
Jane Fonda,
Zimmer mit Aussicht (1985),
Richard III (1995) with
Ian McKellen and
Jim Broadbent,
Franco Zeffirelli's
Tee mit Mussolini (1999) with
Judi Dench,
Joan Plowright and
Cher and
Gosford Park (2001) with
Kristin Scott Thomas and
Clive Owen, directed by
Robert Altman. Maggie Smith has
also been nominated for an Oscar six times and won twice, for
Die besten Jahre der Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
and Das verrückte California Hotel (1978).
Smith later appeared in the very successful
'Harry Potter'
franchise as the formidable Professor McGonagall as well as in
Julian Fellowes'
ITV drama series,
Downton Abbey (2010)
(2010-2011) as the Dowager Countess of Grantham.
