By Sophie Tuan
From acting as the beloved professor in Harry Potter, Minerva McGonagall, to the star of Downton Abbey, Violet Crawley, Maggie Smith has embodied at least one iconic TV character in everyone’s lives. It is with a heavy heart that the world mourns the loss of the legendary British actress as she recently passed away this year on September 27 at the age of eighty-nine.
Also known as Grand Dame of Stage and Screen, Maggie Smith has won a collection of awards throughout her robust career. From Oscars to Emmys and Tony Awards, the woman has done it all. Smith has won 3 Golden Globes, 2 Academy Awards, 3 Emmys, 3 Satellite Awards, and 1 Tony Award. Initially, Maggie’s breakout role was not on film but rather on stage in London on Broadway’s revue New Faces of 1956 and later as the lead comedian on Share My Lettuce. Maggie Smith crashed the film scene, quickly becoming a movie-star and Oscar winner for her iconic performance in the movie The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (she was in her mid-thirties). Later on in her career, the already-successful actress portrayed her two most famous characters: Professor McGonagall and Violet Crawley. At the age of sixty-six Maggie Smith starred in the first Harry Potter movie in 2001 as the serious but softhearted professor; at seventy-five she starred in the famous TV show Downton Abbey as the witty family matriarch from 2010 to 2015.
Unfortunately, in 1988 Smith developed Graves’ disease, an immune-system condition which affects the body’s thyroid gland, but was able to treat it through radiotherapy and surgery. Twenty years later Smith was faced yet again with another health setback: breast cancer. Luckily, after a two-year battle against cancer, Maggie emerged victorious. But the health troubles did not stop at breast cancer. In 2016 she underwent a hip replacement operation and developed glaucoma in one eye, permanently impairing her vision.
At the age of eighty-nine—after a plethora of health impairments—Maggie Smith tragically passed away in a London hospital late last month; her cause of death remains private and undisclosed. Maggie Smith’s sixty-year career will continue to be celebrated and revered; the characters she played, adored and admired.