Comment on Maggie Smith, Star of Stage, Film and ‘Downton Abbey,’ Dies at 89

Beloved British actor Maggie Smith, who stole hearts in her portrayal of Downton Abbey’s Violet Crawley and Harry Potter’s Professor Minerva McGonagall, died Friday morning at the age of 89. Smith died peacefully at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Sept. 27, her sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, confirmed in a statement on Friday.

(LONDON) — Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in “Downton Abbey” and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Smith’s sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital. “She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother,” they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs. Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies. She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that “when you get into the granny era, you’re lucky to get anything.” Smith drily summarized her later roles as “a gallery of grotesques,” including Professor McGonagall.

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