Maggie Smith’s Incredible Life and Career in Photos

The beloved ‘Har­ry Pot­ter’ and ‘Down­ton Abbey’ star died on Sept. 27, 2024, at 89 years old. See her incred­i­ble life in pho­tos 

Dame Mag­gie Smith was born on Dec. 28, 1934, and has had an impres­sive and expan­sive career, which includes more than 60 film roles that won her Oscars, Emmys and Gold­en Globes.

Despite her end­less acco­lades and ado­ra­tion, the actress always kept a hum­ble opin­ion of her­self.

When asked about her lega­cy after being award­ed the Evening Stan­dard Icon Award for her work in the­atre, Smith told the pub­li­ca­tion, “Everything’s an icon. If you have been around long enough you are an icon. A rather dusty icon, or a nation­al trea­sure.”

Smith died on Sept. 27, 2024, at 89 years old. Here, look back on her impres­sive life and career in pho­tos.

Maggie Smith’s Star on the Rise 

She made her pro­fes­sion­al stage debut on Broad­way in 1956 in New Faces of ’56.

Maggie Smith On the Stage 

In 1964, Smith starred as Des­de­mona in Shake­speare’s Oth­el­lo oppo­site Lau­rence Olivi­er at the Roy­al Nation­al The­atre. She reprised the role in the 1965 film adap­ta­tion, earn­ing her­self her first Oscar nom­i­na­tion.

Maggie Smith’s Children 

Smith shares two chil­dren with Stephens — she wel­comed son Chris Larkin in 1967 and Toby Stephens in 1969.

Maggie Smith’s First Oscar 

Maggie Smith Wins Oscar, Again 

In 1978, she starred in Cal­i­for­nia Suite, a per­for­mance that earned her anoth­er Acad­e­my Award — this time for Best Sup­port­ing Actress. She has been nom­i­nat­ed six times.

Maggie Smith in Harry Potter 

In 2001, Smith began her tenure as Pro­fes­sor McG­o­na­gall in the Har­ry Pot­ter films, and con­tin­ued to play the role through­out the fran­chise’s eight install­ments.

Mag­gie Smith’s Health Scare

In 2007, Smith was diag­nosed with breast can­cer, act­ing through treat­ment while film­ing Har­ry Pot­ter And The Half-Blood Prince. In 2009, after two years of treat­ment, the actress recov­ered, and though she told that she was “fear­ful of the amount of ener­gy one needs to be in a film or play,” she con­tin­ued to act.

In fact, she went on to play the role of The Dowa­ger Count­ess of Grantham, Vio­let Craw­ley, in Down­ton Abbey, and con­tin­ued to play her until 2015.

Her per­for­mance earned her an Emmy for Out­stand­ing Actress in a Dra­ma Series in 2013 and two more for Out­stand­ing Ensem­ble Cast in a Dra­ma Series.

She reprised her role in the 2022 Down­ton Abbey film, A New Era.

Smith’s fam­i­ly shared the news that the star had died on Sept. 27, 2024, at 89 years old.

“An intense­ly pri­vate per­son, she was with friends and fam­i­ly at the end. She leaves two sons and five lov­ing grand­chil­dren who are dev­as­tat­ed by the loss of their extra­or­di­nary moth­er and grand­moth­er,” they wrote in a state­ment.