Margaret Natalie Smith, known to the world as Maggie Smith

Margaret Natalie Smith, known as Maggie Smith, is an acclaimed British stage, film and television actress. She has recorded over 50 films and her extensive career, spanning more than 60 years, has made her one of the most recognized European actresses in the world.

Margaret Natalie Smith, known to the world as Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith was born on December 28, 1934 in Ilford, Essex, Great Britain. She is the daughter of Margaret Hutton and Nathaniel Smith, a pathologist who worked at Oxford University. She had two older twin brothers, Alistair and Ian.

She attended Oxford High School until the age of 16, when she went to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse School.

In 1952 he made his professional debut in William Shakespeare’sTwelfthNight and four years later on Broadway in Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1956. That same year she made her film debut in Child in the House.

In 1959 he joined the Old Vic theater. She starred in the version of Othello with Laurence Olivier in 1965, The Springtime of an Old Maid (1969), Travels with My Aunt (1972), California Suite (1978) and in A Love in Florence.

Films

In the 1990s he appeared in films such as Hook (1991) Change of Habit, and the version of Richard III (1995) starring his compatriot Ian McKellen. He also participated in Washington Square (1997) and Tea with Mussolini (1999).

In 2001, she worked in the film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. She played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film adaptations, working alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters and Daniel Radcliffe, among others.

Oscar

She received an Oscar for Best Actress in 1969 for The Best Years of Miss Brodie and another for Best Supporting Actress in 1978 for California Suite. She also won Golden Globes for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical in 1978 for California Suite, and Best Supporting Actress in 1985 for A Room with a View.

Maggie Smith played Violet Crawley in the British drama Downton Abbey. For this role she won a Golden Globe, two Emmy Awards and an Actors Guild Award. Two years later, she participated in the British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and also in Quartet, directed by Dustin Hoffman.

In 2018, she participated in the drama film Downton Abbey, continuation of the series of the same name. The film was released in 2019, the year in which it was announced that Smith would star in Netflix’s adaptation of the children’s book A Boy Called Christmas.

Private life

She married in 1967 with the actor Sir Robert Stephens. They were the parents of actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. They divorced on April 6, 1975.

He married the writer Beverly Cross on June 23, 1975. They remained together until her husband’s death on March 20, 1998.

In 2008 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she overcame thanks to chemotherapy.

This is what the beautiful Maggie Smith looks like today