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Maggie Smith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dame Maggie Smith | |
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| Birth name | Margaret Natalie Smith |
| Born | December 28, 1934 Ilford, Essex, England |
| Spouse(s) | Robert Stephens (1967-1974) Beverley Cross (1975-1998) |
| Children | Chris Larkin (b.1967) Toby Stephens (b.1969) |
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE (born 28 December 1934), better known as Dame Maggie Smith, is a two-time Academy Award, and Emmy-winning English film, stage, and television actress.
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Smith was born in Ilford in Essex, the daughter of Margaret Hutton Little, a Glasgow-born secretary, and Nathaniel Smith, a Newcastle-born public health pathologist who worked at Oxford University.[1][2][3][4] She has two older twin brothers, Alistair and Ian. Smith studied at Oxford High School, although she has been quoted as not having enjoyed the experience. Lady Antonia Fraser would have been amongst her peers.
Smith has had an extensive career both on screen and in live theatre, and is known as one of Britain's pre-eminent actresses. She began her career at the Oxford Playhouse with Frank Shelley and made her first film in 1956. She became a fixture at the Royal National Theatre in the 1960s, most notably for playing Desdemona in Othello opposite Laurence Olivier and winning her first Oscar nomination for her performance in the 1965 film version. In 1969 she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as an unorthodox Scottish schoolteacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a role originally created on stage by Vanessa Redgrave in 1966. She was also awarded the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the brittle actress Diana Barrie in California Suite, acting opposite Michael Caine. Afterwards, on hearing that Michael Palin was about to embark on a film (The Missionary) with Smith, Caine is supposed to have humorously telephoned Palin, warning him that she would steal the film.
Smith appeared in Sister Act in 1992 and had a major role in the 1999 film Tea With Mussolini, where she appeared as the formidable Lady Hester. Indeed, many of her more mature roles have centred on what Smith refers to as her "gallery of grotesques," playing waspish, sarcastic or plain rude characters. Recent examples of this would include the judgemental sister in Ladies in Lavender and the cantankerous snob in Gosford Park, for which she received yet another Oscar nomination.
Other notable roles include the querulous Charlotte Bartlett in the Merchant-Ivory production of A Room with a View and a vivid supporting turn as the aged Duchess of York in Ian McKellen's film of Richard III. Due to the international success of the Harry Potter movies, she is now widely known for playing the role of Professor Minerva McGonagall. She most recently appeared in Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, released in July 2007.
In the 1970s Smith moved to Canada to find a new direction in both her career and in her personal life, as she had recently divorced.[citation needed]
On stage, her many roles include the title character in the stage production of Alan Bennett's Lady in the Van and starring as Peter Pan[citation needed] in J. M. Barrie's fairytale story Peter Pan. She later played Wendy in the Peter Pan adaption Hook. She won a Tony Award in 1990 for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage, in which she starred as an eccentric tour guide in an English stately home. She was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970, and was raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1990.
Smith has been married twice. She married Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967 at the Greenwich Registry office and had two sons with him: actors Chris Larkin (born in 1967) and Toby Stephens (born in 1969). They divorced on 6 May 1974.
She married Beverley Cross on 23 August 1975 at the Guildford Registry Office, and the marriage ended with his death on 20 March 1998. At the time of his death she was appearing in A Delicate Balance at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, but she continued to the end of the run.[citation needed]
Smith has been nominated twice for Best Actress in a Leading Role, winning once:
- 1969: Won in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- 1972: Nominated in Travels With My Aunt
Smith has been nominated four times for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, winning once:
- 1965: Nominated in Othello
- 1978: Won in California Suite
- 1986: Nominated in A Room with a View
- 2001: Nominated in Gosford Park
Smith has won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role four times:
- 1969: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
- 1984: A Private Function
- 1986: A Room with a View
- 1988: The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.
- 1984: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actress, for The Way of the World
- 1990: Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Play, for Lettice and Lovage
- ^ Mackenzie, Suzie. "You have to laugh", Guardian Unlimited, 2004-11-20. Retrieved on 2007-12-10.
- ^ http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019451/bio
- ^ http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/maggie_smith_biog.html
- ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/65/Maggie-Smith.html
- Maggie Smith Forum
- You have to laugh - The Guardian, November 20, 2004, in-depth interview and profile.
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | 1934 births | BAFTA winners (people) | Best Actress Academy Award winners | Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) | Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners | Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) | Emmy Award winners | Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire | English film actors | English stage actors | English television actors | Evening Standard Award for Best Actress | Living people | People from Ilford | Royal National Theatre Company members