(CNN)- Maggie Smith, one of Britain’s best-known actresses whose long career on stage and screen ranged from starring with Laurence Olivier in “Othello” to roles in “Harry Potter” and “Downton Abbey,” has died. , his children announced in a statement shared by his publicist Claire Dobbs. He was 89 years old.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. Passed away peacefully in hospital this morning, Friday 27th September. An extremely private man, at the end he was surrounded by friends and family,” the statement read. “She leaves behind two children and five beloved grandchildren, who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their unconditional care and kindness during his final days.”
Smith was born in 1934 in Ilford, then a middle-class suburb of East London. The family moved to Oxford shortly before the Second World War began, where his father worked as a pathologist at the University of Oxford.
Upon graduating from high school, Smith attended the Oxford Playhouse School from 1951 to 1953, and made his stage debut in the Oxford University Dramatic Society production of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”.
He then appeared on Broadway in “New Faces of 1956” and then played the lead comedian in the London revue “Share My Lettuce” between 1957 and 1958. He soon began appearing regularly in plays at The Old Vic Theater in London.
In 1964, she played Desdemona in Olivier’s Othello, before reprising the role in the film version the following year. Smith won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1969 for her role as an unconventional schoolteacher in the film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”
In 1978, she received a second Academy Award, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for her performance in Neil Simon’s “California Suite”. She also received a film award from the British Academy of Film for her work, including her roles in 1985’s “A Room with a View” and 1987’s “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.”
Smith was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990, and thereafter became widely known as Dame Maggie Smith.
But in many ways, her best roles were yet to come, including a starring role in the 1999 classic “Tea with Mussolini,” about a group of upper-middle-class English women in Florence, Italy during the era of Fascism . By Franco Zeffirelli.
She is perhaps best remembered as the actress who not only managed to achieve longevity but also achieved even greater fame in her later life.
She caught the attention of young audiences as the strict but fair witchcraft professor Minerva McGonagall in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001), and also appeared in several “Harry Potter” sequels.
Praise returned on both sides of the Atlantic for her portrayal of the caustic Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in “Downton Abbey,” the acclaimed period drama about the British aristocracy. She received three Emmy Awards for the role, which she repeated for the 2019 feature film.
In his later years, Smith became a role model for aging gracefully, a process he handled with his usual charm and wit.
When asked by the British magazine Women’s World in 2017 why she did not attend more awards ceremonies, Smith replied: “I really think if I went to Los Angeles for example, I think it would be more interesting to people.” Will scare… They don’t look at people.
Smith was married twice, to actor Robert Stephens (the couple divorced in 1974) and then to playwright Beverley Cross, from 1975 until her death in 1998.
He is survived by two sons, actors Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens.
