Smith, Dame Maggie

Smith, Dame Maggie (1934- ), British stage and film actress particularly noted for her comedy performances. Born in Ilford, Essex, she trained at the Oxford Playhouse School before making her debut as a comedian in the New Faces Revue in New York (1956). By 1959 she had turned to acting, joining the Old Vic Company before winning an Evening Standard Award for The Private Ear and The Public Eye by Peter Shaffer (1962). She has an incredible stage presence, classical poise, and impeccable comic timing, all of which have led her to critical success in countless comedy performances in London and New York, including Amanda in Private Lives (1972) and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1992), two roles she has virtually reinvented. Her repertoire has also extended to classical theatre, including Desdemona to Othello played by Laurence Olivier (1964). In 1994, she won an Evening Standard Award, her fifth, for Three Tall Women by Edward Albee. In 1997 she starred in another Albee play, A Delicate Balance, at the Haymarket Theatre, in a production directed by Anthony Page; and in 2000 in a sell-out West End run of The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett. In 2002 she returned to the Haymarket alongside Judi Dench in David Hare’s play about marital infidelity, The Breath of Life.

She has also enjoyed a successful film career, winning Academy Awards for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978). Other films include Quartet (1981), A Private Function (1984), A Room with a View (1985), The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn (1991), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), The Last September (1999), Tea with Mussolini (1999), Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) and its sequels, and Gosford Park (2001), which gained her another Oscar nomination. She made cameo appearances in the films Richard III (1996) and The First Wives Club (1997), and won an Emmy award for her performance in the television drama My House in Umbria (2003).