The two roles Dame Maggie Smith was “deeply grateful” to play
A true legend of stage and screen, Dame Maggie Smith left behind a legacy that few have ever been able to match, one that entrenched her as one of the United Kingdom’s greatest-ever actors a long time ago.
With a career that began with Smith treading the boards in the early 1950s and continued through to her final appearance in 2023’s feature-length drama The Miracle Club, giving impeccable performances became second nature, regardless of whether she was on the stage or starring in film and television.
Awards aren’t necessarily the barometer by which careers are measured, but that doesn’t mean Smith didn’t have a trophy cabinet overflowing with accolades. In fact, a warehouse might have been the best place to store all of her trophies, considering she developed a habit of being showered in gold wherever she went.
A two-time Academy Award winner and six-time nominee, Smith displayed such longevity that she received two honorary Baftas to go along with her five competitive trophies. Additionally, that’s not even including a Tony, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, four Emmys, and three Golden Globes.
The fact her first nomination from those aforementioned organisations came in 1958 and the last one arrived in 2016 speaks volumes to just how long Smith was operating at the top of her game. She even introduced herself to a brand new generation of viewers thanks to starring roles in two massively popular properties that couldn’t have been more different.
As Professor Minerva McGonagall, Smith was a stalwart of the Harry Potter franchise from beginning to end, while she was also a pivotal figure in the hit period drama Downtown Abbey as Violet Crawley. For a dyed-in-the-wool thespian who cut her teeth in the theatre, she was the first to admit that neither part pushed her to the limit, but that didn’t make her any less grateful to be a part of them.
“I am deeply grateful for the work in Potter and, indeed, Downton, but it wasn’t what you’d call satisfying,” she confessed to The Standard. “I didn’t really feel I was acting in those things. I wanted to get back to the stage so much because theatre is basically my favourite medium, and I think I felt as though I’d left it all unfinished. But there wasn’t anything that came along.”
There are worse things to be known for by modern audiences than two hugely popular characters in a multi-billion dollar fantasy saga and one of the most-watched TV shows of its era, respectively. However, it was clear Smith didn’t have to pull her performances straight out of the top drawer as she’d become so accustomed to doing in order to win over a new band of ardent fans.
She did get her wish to return to the stage, though, with her final run coming in 2019 when she played Brunhilde Pomsel in A German Life during its run at London’s Bridge Theatre.
