Information about Maggie Smith

Dame Maggie Smith
Birth name	Margaret Natalie Smith
Born	November 28 1934 (1934--) (age 74) Ilford, Essex, England
Spouse(s)	Robert Stephens (1967-1974) Beverley Cross (1975-1998)
Children	Chris Larkin (b.1967) Toby Stephens (b.1969)
Awards Academy Awards Best Actress 1969 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Best Supporting Actress 1978 California Suite BAFTA Awards Best Actress 1969 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 1984 A Private Function 1986 A Room with a View 1988 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Best Supporting Actress 1999 Tea with Mussolini Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie 2003 My House in Umbria Golden Globe Awards Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1979 California Suite Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture 1987 A Room with a View Tony Awards Best Leading Actress in a Play 1990 Lettice and Lovage

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.

Biography

Early life

Smith was born in Ilford in Essex, the daughter of Nathaniel Smith, a Newcastle-born^[1] public health pathologist^[2] who worked at Oxford University, and Margaret Hutton Little, who was Scottish.^[3] 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, at a time when Lady Antonia Fraser would have been amongst her peers.

Career

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 when she immortalized 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, Caine is supposed to have humorously telephoned Michael Palin on hearing that Palin was about to embark on a film (The Missionary) with Smith, warning him 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. Given the international success of the Harry Potter movies, she is widely known in 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.

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 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, starring 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.

Personal life

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 1967) and Toby Stephens (born 1969). They divorced on 6 May 1974.

She married Beverly Cross (on 23 August 1975 at 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 continued to the end of the run.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

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

BAFTA Awards

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.

Stage awards

• 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

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1958	Nowhere to Go	Bridget Howard
1962	Go To Blazes	Chantal
1963	The V.I.P.s	Miss Mead
1964	The Pumpkin Eater	Philpot
1965	Othello	Desdemona
	Young Cassidy	Nora
1967	The Honey Pot	Sarah Watkins
1968	Hot Millions	Patty Terwilliger Smith
1969	The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	Jean Brodie
	Oh What a Lovely War	Music Hall Star
1972	Travels With My Aunt	Aunt Augusta
1973	Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing	Lila Fisher
1976	Murder by Death	Dora Charleston
1978	Death on the Nile	Miss Bowers
	California Suite	Diana Barrie
1981	Quartet	Lois Heidler
	Clash of the Titans	Thetis
1982	Evil Under the Sun	Daphne Castle
	The Missionary	Lady Isabel Ames
	Better Late Than Never	Miss Anderson
1984	A Private Function	Joyce Chilvers
	Lily in Love	Lily Wynn
1985	A Room with a View	Charlotte Bartlett
1987	The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne	Judith Hearne
1991	Hook	Wendy Darling
1992	Sister Act	Mother Superior
1993
	The Secret Garden	Mrs. Medlock
1995	Richard III	Duchess of York
1996	The First Wives Club	Gunilla Garson Goldberg
1997	Washington Square	Aunt Lavinia Penniman
1999	The Last September	Lady Myra Naylor
	Tea With Mussolini	Lady Hester Random
	Curtain Call	Lily Gale
2001	Gosford Park	Constance, Countess of Trentham
	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	Minerva McGonagall
2002	Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood	Caro Eliza Bennett
	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Minerva McGonagall
2003	My House in Umbria	Emily Delahunty
2003	Skin	Mother
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Minerva McGonagall
	Ladies in Lavender	Janet Widdington
2005	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Minerva McGonagall
	Keeping Mum	Grace Hawkins
2007	Becoming Jane	Lady Gresham
	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Minerva McGonagall
2008	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Minerva McGonagall
2009	From Time to Time
2010	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows	Minerva McGonagall

References

External links

• Maggie Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• Maggie Smith at the Notable Names Database
• Maggie Smith fansite
• You have to laugh - The Guardian, November 20, 2004, in-depth interview and profile.

Awards
Preceded by Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl	Academy Award for Best Actress 1969 for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	Succeeded by Glenda Jackson for Women in Love
Preceded by Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role 1969 for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie	Succeeded by Katharine Ross for Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here ; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Preceded by Vanessa Redgrave for Julia	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1978 for California Suite	Succeeded by Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer
Preceded by Diane Keaton for Annie Hall Marsha Mason for The Goodbye Girl	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1979 for California Suite with Ellen Burstyn for Same Time, Next Year	Succeeded by Bette Midler for The Rose
Preceded by Julie Walters for Educating Rita	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role 1984 for A Private Function	Succeeded by Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India
Preceded by Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role 1986 for A Room with a View	Succeeded by Anne Bancroft for 84 Charing Cross Road
Preceded by Meg Tilly for Agnes of God	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture 1987 for A Room with a View	Succeeded by Olympia Dukakis for Moonstruck
Preceded by Anne Bancroft for 84 Charing Cross Road	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role 1988 for The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne	Succeeded by Pauline Collins for Shirley Valentine
Preceded by Judi Dench for Shakespeare in Love	BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1999 for Tea with Mussolini	Succeeded by Julie Walters for Billy Elliot
Preceded by Laura Linney for Wild Iris	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie 2003 for My House in Umbria	Succeeded by Meryl Streep for Angels in America