Maggie Smith

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Maggie Smith on the set of Capturing Mary , March 2007

Dame Maggie Smith [ ˈmægi ˈsmɪθ ], CH , DBE (born December 28, 1934 in Ilford , Essex , England ; actually Margaret Natalie Smith Cross ) is a British actress . The two-time Oscar winner is one of the most popular stage and film actresses of her generation. In addition to the two Academy Awards, it won a Tony Award , four Emmys , five BAFTAs and three Golden Globes . She made a name for herself above all through her frequent portrayals of eccentric characters, such as the careworn maid in Zimmer mit Aussicht (1985), the dependent countess in Robert Altman's Gosford Park (2001) or the mother superior in the Sister Act film comedies (1992 / 93). In the early 21st century, her fan base grew through her portrayal of Minerva McGonagall in the film adaptations of the Harry Potter novels (2001 to 2011) and Violet Crawley in the English drama series Downton Abbey (2010-2016). In 1990 it was by Queen Elizabeth II. In the knighthood collected and 2014 Companion of Honor appointed.

Life

Childhood and youth

Maggie Smith was born Margaret Nathalie Smith in Essex, northeast London. Her mother Margaret Hutton Little (1896-1976) was Scottish from Glasgow and worked as a secretary, her father Nathaniel Smith (1902-1991) came from Newcastle upon Tyne, England and was a pathologist by profession . She grew up with two brothers six years her senior, twins Ian and Alistair (Ian now lives in the United States, Alistair has passed away). As a teenager she read a lot; she later said that her brothers were the most influencing her since they were creative and, to the parents' amazement, attended architecture school.

In the middle of summer 1939, when Maggie was four years old, the family moved to Oxford . Bombing by the German air force was feared and Oxford was considered safer. Smith's father worked as a pathologist at the university there. Maggie entered Oxford High School for girls a little later . However, she failed to warm up to an academic education and left school at 16 to join the Oxford Playhouse School . Her mother thought Maggie would never become an actress with her looks. But she started working in the theater and soon she was Assistant Stage Manager .

Stage debut

After appearances in Children In Uniform with the Chegwell Players and in The Pick-Up Girl at the Playhouse, Smith's professional stage debut followed in 1952 as viola for the Oxford University Dramatic Society in William Shakespeare's comedy What You Want . She soon became an acclaimed actress in Oxford - "If you wanted success with a university show, you tried to win Margaret Smith for the cast," says theater director Ned Sherrin .

In the next four years she broadened her horizons in various theater productions, including He Who Gets Slapped, Rookery Nook and Cinderella . During this time she celebrated her greatest successes in variety revues, including at the Edinburgh Theater Festival , and made her debut on the London stage at the New Watergate Theater in Oxford Accents . The US producer Leonard Sillman 's attention during a show on Smith and brought them to the revue New Faces of 1956 to the New York Ethel Barrymore Theater , bringing it to her Broadway gave debut. She also proved her talent there and was soon known as a singing comedian.

In the following years their popularity increased. She worked regularly in London, appeared in the revue Share My Lettuce at the Hammersmith Theater (1957) and in The Stepmother at St. Martin's Theater (1958) and got engagements at the prestigious Old Vic Theater , where she starred in the Shakespeare plays Richard II. , As you like it and The merry wives of Windsor occurred (1959-60). In 1963 she made her debut in London's West End in the play Mary, Mary , for which she was honored as the most diverse variety stage actress of the year. The year before she had received the Evening Standard Award for The Private Ear and The Public Eye (1962). She then became a permanent member of the ensemble of Laurence Olivier's new Royal National Theater Company , with whom she could be seen in such lavish productions as Othello or Henrik Ibsen's master builder Solneß (both 1964). She found the repertoire system at the National Theater helpful because, in her opinion, it kept the actor “fresh”.

Acting career

Breakthrough in 1956

Smith's film career began in 1956 when she starred in a small part as a party guest in Eric Portman's film Child In The House . Two years later she had a small part in the crime drama Hunted , for which she received a nomination for the British Film Academy Award for the most promising young actress. At the same time, she kept returning to the stage, where she was to celebrate great success for decades.

1960s

In 1962, Maggie Smith also won male audiences' favor when she played the chantal in Michael Truman's crime comedy Thieves Have Right of Way . A year later, when she became a member of the National Theater Company, she also got major film roles. She played the shy and love-hungry Miss Mead, who wants to save her boss from financial ruin, in Anthony Asquith's melodrama Hotel International (1963) alongside other high-profile colleagues such as Elizabeth Taylor , Richard Burton and Margaret Rutherford . For this she was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1964 as the best young actress. The following year she starred as the lively Philpott in Jack Clayton's award-winning drama Bedroom Dispute , in which she vied with Anne Bancroft for Peter Finch .

Smith's next film was Cassidy, the Rebel , based on the autobiographical work of Irish writer Seán O'Casey . Cassidy was played by Rod Taylor , who was in front of the camera with the young Julie Christie . But it was precisely the relationship with Smith's character Nora , a formal bookseller, that stood out. For her performance, she was again nominated for the British Film Academy Award for Best British Actress .

In 1965, Maggie Smith earned international fame as an actress for the first time. As Desdemona in Laurence Olivier's Othello , she delivered an extraordinary acting performance. It has been reported that the notoriously insecure and manipulative Olivier has vowed never to work with Smith again. Her acting colleague Derek Jacobi reported something similar about her: “To be on stage with someone like Maggie Smith is only comparable to the speed of lightning. That's a lesson in itself. Unless you can keep up. If not, you are lost ”.

With the film adaptation of the play Othello by William Shakespeare , Maggie Smith celebrated her breakthrough as a film actress; she was nominated for an Oscar for the first time for best supporting actress. See Venice - and inherit ... (1967), a comedy based on Ben Jonson's play Volpone and Das Millionending (1968) followed. During this time, Smith remained loyal to the theater and she appeared at the Old Vic Theater and later at the National Theater, directed by Ingmar Bergman, in Henrik Ibsen’s drama Hedda Gabler (1970) and Trelawney Of The Wells . From 1968 she also starred three times in films with Sir Peter Ustinov . On The thing million two detective films followed by Agatha Christie , Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982).

1970s

With now two children, Smith began to reduce her workload, but this did not affect her strong screen presence. In 1969 she played one of her most impressive roles as a teacher at an Edinburgh girls' school in Miss Jean Brodie's Prime , based on Muriel Spark 's novel of the same name . She celebrated her greatest success for the role of the liberal, committed and naive Jean Brodie, who brings her students closer to love, politics and art; she won an Oscar for best actress in 1970 and her first British Film Academy Award. Her next role was that of the sex-hungry singer in Richard Attenborough's Oh, What a Lovely War . Once again she received an Oscar nomination for best leading actress for her portrait of the extravagant Aunt Augusta, who takes a simple-minded young banker on a crazy journey across Europe ( Reisen mit my Aunt , 1972).

In retrospect, Maggie Smith would describe acting as "addicting" and "exciting". However, her reservoir of energy and desire was soon used up. She herself felt the pressure most when she became aware of the role of critics and the importance of getting a good review. The Oscar win for the part of Jean Brodie therefore made no difference to her. "I haven't thought about films [...] I've always been to the theater."

After a series of professional disappointments, she left the Royal National Theater in 1971. Her career was also strained by her marriage to Robert Stephens . Her first husband was unstable and fond of alcohol, which is why she later described this marriage as "very, very turbulent" . "He was a mentally ill person, but he was an excellent actor". The marriage ended in 1974. At that time, Smith and her husband toured the United States with John Gielgud's theater production Private Lives . When they made a guest appearance in Los Angeles , you could see the emotional stress Smith suffered from their game. She tortured herself and showed all the tics and nervous affectations . Stephens left the acting troupe in Los Angeles and with that the marriage to Maggie Smith was over. With the separation from his wife, Stephens' career fell apart. It was only after more than a decade that he could be seen again in films like The Kingdom of the Sun and Purgatory of the Vanities .

Soon after these harrowing events, things smoothed out in Smith's personal life. In 1975 she met her old childhood sweetheart Beverley Cross and she married him. Cross was a well-known stage writer who wrote screenplays and novels for productions such as Jason and the Argonauts , Genghis Khan , Half A Sixpence , and prosperous television productions such as The Six Wives Of Henry VIII . The relationship gave her new strength: “Beverly (Cross) has had a wonderfully calming influence on me and my work; he made my life possible and easy in ways I was never used to, ” said Smith. Feeling that British critics were turning against her, Smith moved with her second husband and two sons from her first marriage to Ontario , Canada, and later to New York, where Katharine Hepburn and Stephen Sondheim were their neighbors. “I was damn bad, the critics were right. My life was in disarray. "Everything was impossible. .

Smith returned to the big screen as an actress in 1976. She was seen in the crime parody A Corpse for Dessert as a companion to David Niven , in a role that alluded to the heroes of the series The Thin Man . In Stratford, Ontario , Smith was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Festival Theater around British director Robin Phillips for the next four years . The theater work was simplified and she played great classical roles that she had never been offered in British theaters, including the Lady Macbeth or Cleopatra. “It's just a lot easier to work with the same team of people from piece to piece, and Stratford, Ontario was like a fresh start for me. My first marriage was coming to an end, I was doing a terrible performance on Private Lives and everyone had written about Maggie Smith's quirks and then suddenly, thanks to Robin (Phillips), I had the chance to start on a whole new team of people who weren't had had enough of me […] I was able to risk things as an actress, to break new ground, ” said Smith.

In 1978 she starred in The Crazy California Hotel with Michael Caine . It was a clever, sometimes very cruel comedy that told four different stories from four different rooms of a hotel in Beverly Hills . In a sheer reversal of her role as Diana Barrie, a highly stressed British actress who missed out on Oscar night, Maggie Smith won her second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actress. In the meantime, she was also on stage at the Phoenix Theater in the play Night and Day in New York . For this she received a nomination for the Tony Award , the most important US theater and musical prize.

1980s

After four years, she returned from Canada to the West End stage in 1981. Her first role as Virginia Woolf in Edna O'Brien's play Virginia brought her another Evening Standard Award for best actress a year later. From that point on, Maggie Smith dominated every production and returned to film. She was seen as the funny Lady Ames seducing the naive Michael Palin in The Missionary (1982) and as the ambitious fisherwoman Joyce Chilver in Malcolm Mowbray's comedy Magere Zeiten (1984), for which she was again awarded a BAFTA for best actress. Another success for her was the 1986 supporting role of the careworn maid Charlotte Bartlett in James Ivory's romantic comedy Room with a View , for which she received a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award and received another Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. This was followed by another BAFTA win for Jack Clayton's melodrama Die große Sehnsucht der Judith Hearne (1987), in which she embodies a woman who makes a living as a piano teacher in Dublin in the 1950s. Smith's character falls in love with a sleazy hotel owner who decides to take advantage of her as best he can. She was also convincing in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads monologues. In 1999 Smith would work again with Bennett in The Lady In The Van .

The playwright Peter Shaffer dedicated the play Lettuce And Lovage to Smith for his birthday , with which she appeared in London from 1987 to 1988. In 1990 she went to New York with the production, to the Ethel Barrymore Theater, where she had appeared on stage for the first time 34 years earlier. Her performance was rewarded with her only Tony Award to date .

1990s until today

In the early 1990s, Maggie Smith increasingly followed film offers from Hollywood . She played the aged Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Hook 1992 , who dreams of Peter Pan . She also played the Mother Superior in the Whoopi Goldberg film Sister Act and Sister Act 2 and appeared as a rich New York business woman alongside Bette Midler , Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton in the tragic comedy The Devils Club .

Smith continued to work on meaningful cinema productions, including starring in Ian McKellen's Richard III. (1995) and in Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (2000). She also appeared in costume dramas such as Robert Altman's British moral painting Gosford Park , in which she excelled in 2002 as the talkative, dependent and perpetually hungry Countess Constance Trentham and was recognized with another Oscar nomination.

In 2001 Smith was selected to play Professor Minerva McGonagall in the first installment of the Harry Potter series , who teaches children in a school of witchcraft and wizardry. In addition to Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane , Smith was the only one who was personally asked by the author Joanne K. Rowling to take on a role in her film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . Smith was also recognized in all other parts of The Chamber of Secrets (2002), The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), The Goblet of Fire (2005), The Order of the Phoenix (2007), The Half-Blood Prince (2009) and Part 2 of the Deathly Hallows ( 2011) occupied.

In the melodrama The Scent of Lavendel (2004) she and her film sister, played by Judi Dench , record a shipwrecked young Pole (Daniel Brühl) who proves to be a very talented violinist. In 2011 she played again alongside Judi Dench in the tragic comedy Best Exotic Marigold Hotel .

Even before the Harry Potter films, she starred in the American comedy The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisters (2002), in which a woman receives a revealing diary from her eccentric mother. The cast consisted of Smith, Sandra Bullock , Ashley Judd and Ellen Burstyn . In the American television film My House in Umbria (2003) she took on the leading role of the love-hungry and alcohol-addicted writer Emily Delahunty, who gains new courage from an orphaned little girl. This earned her the American Emmy Television Award in 2004 . She received three more Emmys in 2011, 2012 and 2016 for her portrayal of the widowed Countess of Grantham in Julian Fellowes ' British television multi-parter Downton Abbey .

Another highlight in London's theater life was Smith's appearance with Judi Dench in David Hare's two-person play The Breath of Life (2002) as glamorous Madeline, who welcomes the writer and wife of her former lover to her home on the Isle of Wight.

Although she still loved the theater very much, Smith feared that she would not be able to muster enough strength for further stage projects after her cancer. All the more surprising was the announcement in February 2019 that she would return to the stage for six weeks in Christopher Hampton's play A German Life (2019) in the London Bridge Theater in the role of Nazi secretary Brunhilde Pomsel . The piece consists of a 100-minute monologue about Pomsel's life. For this performance, she received a sixth Evening Standard Theater Award.

Game and achievements

Maggie Smith's game thrives on a balance of intensity and humor. Her vocal range, stage technique, and precise timing enable her to demonstrate vulnerability in both comedic and dramatic roles. At the beginning of her career, her slow, precise, but nasal voice was compared by the critic Caryl Brahms to that of a strangled pigeon. Playwright Alan Bennett ( Talking Heads , The Lady in the Van ) highlighted her talent for going from comedy to tragedy in one sentence. According to director Anthony Page , her mind is razor-sharp as soon as one starts working with her. “She is tireless in her search for perfection. She works on a figure until she gets it right, ” says Page.

In her acting career, Smith has worked in around 70 film and television productions and has received two Academy Awards, five British BAFTAs, four Emmys and three Golden Globes. In 1993 she was honored by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) with a special prize for her life's work, three years later she was awarded the Academy Fellowship , the BAFTA's honorary award.

She played her countless theater roles in both comedies and dramas, including works by William Shakespeare , George Farquhar , Henrik Ibsen , Anton Chekhov , Noël Coward , Neil Simon and Edward Albee . Contemporary playwrights such as Alan Bennett ( Talking Heads , The Lady in the Van ) or Peter Shaffer ( Lettuce And Lovage ) made her roles fit for purpose and she was honored with a Tony Award , three Variety Club Awards and five theater awards from the Evening Standard . In 1994 she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. Despite comparisons with Judi Dench , Vanessa Redgrave or Diana Rigg , Smith is not considered a straightforward classic actress, but primarily an excellent comedy actress who prefers roles in original plays such as Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van (2000). "[...] it is horrific when you take on roles in which other people have triumphed," said Smith. In 2010, she was ranked second behind Judi Dench in a survey by the British industry magazine The Stage as “the best British theater actor of all time”.

In 1970 Smith was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and in 1990 was made Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE). In 1991 she received the Shakespeare Prize of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg . It also has a star on London's Avenue of Stars and has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge . In 2014 she was named Companion of Honor by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.

Private life

Outside of the theater stage and the movie set, Smith is considered very shy. She rarely gives interviews and, unlike her fellow actor Judi Dench, has only taken on a patronage for the Oxford Playhouse, where she began her acting career. As early as the early 1970s, a critic ruled that Smith was living with this behavior in contradiction to the great English theater actress tradition, of which she was heiress.

Maggie Smith was married to actor Robert Stephens from 1967 to 1975 and from 1975 to his death in 1998 with screenwriter Beverley Cross . She has two sons from her first marriage who are also active as actors - Christopher Stephens known under the stage name Chris Larkin (* 1967) and Toby Stephens (* 1969). She was friends with Sir Laurence Olivier and was a close friend of the actor Sir Rex Harrison , at whose funeral she gave a speech in New York in 1990 . Her professional circle of friends also includes Judi Dench , Helen Mirren and Joan Plowright , widow of Lord Olivier.

In 2008, Smith was diagnosed with breast cancer. However, since the tumor was discovered at an early stage, chemotherapy and radiation therapy were able to cure it completely. In an interview with the British newspaper The Times in early October 2009 , Smith spoke openly about her illness and how this would have fueled self-doubt and uncertainty in the actress: “He (the cancer) leaves her so flattened. I'm not sure I could go back to theater work, although working in film is more exhausting. I'm scared of doing theater now, ” said Smith, who was last seen in Edward Albee 's The Lady from Dubuque in 2007 in London's West End . At the same time, she hoped that Alan Bennett could write a new role for her. He had once praised her: "The line between laughter and tears is [...] where Maggie weighs it up."

Plays (selection)

year Play role stage
1952 Twelfth Night viola Oxford University Dramatic Society
1952 He Who Gets Slapped nb Clarendon Press
1952 Cinderella nb Oxford Playhouse
1953 Rookery Nook nb Oxford Playhouse
1953 Housemaster nb Oxford Playhouse
1953 Cakes and Ale nb Edinburgh Festival Fringe
1953 The Love of Four Colones nb Oxford Playhouse
1954 The Ortolan nb Maxton Hall
1954 On The Mile (Revue) various Edinburgh Festival Fringe
1954 Don`t listen ladies nb Oxford Playhouse
1954 The Government Inspector nb Oxford Playhouse
1954 The Letter A Chinese Boy /

The Malaysian Woman

Oxford Playhouse
1954 A Man About The House nb Oxford Playhouse
1954 Oxford Accents nb Watergate Theater
1954 Theater 1900 nb Oxford Playhouse
1954 Listen to the wind nb Oxford Playhouse
1955 The magistrates nb Oxford Playhouse
1955 The School for Scandal nb Oxford Playhouse
1956 New Faces of 1956 (Revue) various Ethel Barrymore Theater ( New York )
1957 Share My Lettuce (Revue) various Lyric Theater ( London )
Comedy Theater (London)
1958 The stepmother Vere Dane St Martin's Theater (London)
1959 The double dealer Lady Plyant Old Vic Company
1959 As You Like It Celia Old Vic Company
1959 Richard II Queen Old Vic Company
1959 The Merry Wives of Windsor Mistress Ford Old Vic Company
1960 What Every Woman Knows Maggie Wylie Old Vic Company
1960 Rhinoceros Daisy Strand Theater (London)
1960 Strip the Willow Woman in Question Shows Hippodrome (London)
1961 The Rehearsal Lucile Globe Theater
1962 The Private Ear / The Public Eye Doreen / Belinda Globe Theater
1963 Mary, Mary Mary McKellaway Queen's Theater
1963 The recruiting officer Silvia National Theater
1964 Othello Desdemona National Theater
1964 The Master Builder Hilde Wangel National Theater
1964 Hay Fever Myra Arundel National Theater
1965 Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice National Theater
1965 Trelawny of the "Wells" Avonia Bunn National Theater
1965 Miss Julie Miss Julie National Theater
1966 A Bond Honored Marcela National Theater
1969 The Country Wife Margery Pinchwife National Theater
1970 The Beaux 'Stratagem Mrs. Sullen National Theater
1970 Hedda Gabler Hedda Gabler National Theater
1970 Three sisters Masha National Theater Tour (Los Angeles)
1971 Design for Living Gilda National Theater Tour (Los Angeles)
1972 Private lives Amanda Prynne National Theater
1973 Peter Pan Peter Pan National Theater
1974 Snap Connie Vaudeville Theater (London)
1974/75 Private lives Amanda Prynne National Theater Tour (USA)
1976 The way of the world Millamant Stratford Festival
1976 Anthony and Cleopatra Cleopatra Stratford Festival
1976 Three sisters Masha Stratford Festival
1976 The Guardsman The Actress Stratford Festival / Ahmanson
1977 A Midsummer Night's Dream Titania Stratford Festival / Ahmanson
1977 Richard III Queen Elizabeth Stratford Festival
1977 As You Like It Rosalind Stratford Festival
1977 Hay Fever Myra Arundell Stratford Festvial
1978 Macbeth Lady Macbeth Stratford Festival
1978 Private lives Amanda Prynne Stratford Festival
1979 Night and Day Ruth Carson ANTA Playhouse (New York)
1980 Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice Stratford Festival
1980 The Seagull Irina Arkadina Stratford Festival
1980 Virginia Virginia Woolf Theater Royal Haymarket
1984 The way of the world Millamant Chichester Festival Theater
Theater Royal Haymarket
1985 Interpreter interpreter Queen's Theater
1986 The Infernal Machine Jocasta Lyric Theater
1987 Coming in to land Halina Lyttleton Theater
1987 Lettice and Lovage Lettice Douffet Globe Theater
1990 Lettice and Lovage Lettice Douffet Ethel Barrymore Theater
1993 The Importance of Being Earnest Lady Bracknell Aldwych Theater (London)
1994/95 Three Tall Women Geriatric patient Wyndham's Theater
1996 Talking heads Susan Comedy Theater
1997 A delicate balance Claire Theater Royal Haymarket
1999 The Lady in the Van Miss Shepherd Queen's Theater
2002 The Breath of Life Madeleine Palmer Theater Royal Haymarket
2004 Talking heads Susan Australia tour
2007 The Lady from Dubuque Elizabeth Theater Royal Haymarket
2019 A German Life Brunhilde Pomsel Bridge Theater

Filmography (selection)

Awards (selection)

Maggie Smith's handprints in Leicester Square

Oscar

  • Awards
1970: Best Actress (The Best Years of Miss Jean Brodie)
1979: Best Supporting Actress (The Crazy California Hotel)
  • Nominations
1966: Best Supporting Actress (Othello)
1973: Best Actress (Traveling with my aunt)
1987: Best Supporting Actress (Room with a View)
2002: Best Supporting Actress (Gosford Park)

BAFTA Awards

  • Awards
1970: Best Actress (The Best Years of Miss Jean Brodie)
1985: Best Actress (Lean Times - The Movie With the Pig)
1987: Best Actress (Room with a View)
1989: Best Actress (The Great Longing of Judith Hearne)
1993: Special Lifetime Achievement Award
1996: Academy Fellowship
2000: Best Supporting Actress (Tea with Mussolini)
  • Nominations
1959: Most Promising Young Actress (Hunted)
1966: Best British Actress (Cassidy the Rebel)
1979: Best Supporting Actress (Death on the Nile)
1980: Best Actress (The Crazy California Hotel)
1982: Best Actress (Quartet)
1984: Best TV Actress (All for Love: Mrs. Silly)
1989: Best TV Actress (Talking Heads: Bed Among The Lentils)
1993: Best TV Actress (Screen Two: Memento Mori)
1994: Best Supporting Actress (The Secret Garden)
2000: Best TV Actress (David Copperfield)
2002: Best Supporting Actress (Gosford Park)
2012: Best Television Actress - Supporting Role (Downton Abbey)
2016: Best Actress (The Lady in the Van)

Golden Globe Award

  • Awards
1979: Best Actress - Comedy or Musical (The Crazy California Hotel)
1987: Best Supporting Actress (Room with a View)
2013: Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries, or Movie made for TV (Downton Abbey)
  • Nominations
1964: Best young actress (Hotel International)
1966: Best Actress - Drama (Othello)
1970: Best Actress - Drama (Miss Jean Brodie's Best Years)
1973: Best Actress - Comedy or Musical (traveling with my aunt)
2002: Best Supporting Actress (Gosford Park)
2004: Best Actress - Mini-Series or TV Movie (My House in Umbria)
2012: Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries, or Film (Downton Abbey)
2013: Best Actress - Comedy or Musical (Quartet)
2016: Best Actress - Comedy or Musical (The Lady in the Van)

Emmy

  • Award
2003: Outstanding leading actress in a miniseries or a film (My House in Umbria)
2011: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Downton Abbey)
2012: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Downton Abbey)
2016: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Downton Abbey)
  • Nominations
1993: Outstanding leading actress in a miniseries or a special (Great Performances: Suddenly Last Summer)
2000: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Film (David Copperfield)
2010: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Film (Capturing Mary)
2013: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Downton Abbey)
2014: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Downton Abbey)

Tony Award

  • Award
1990: Best Actress (Lettice and Lovage)
  • Nominations
1975: Best Actress (Private Lives)
1980: Best Actress (Night and Day)

European film award

  • Nominations
2002: Audience Award for Best Actress (Gosford Park)
2005: Audience Award for Best Actress together with Judi Dench (The Scent of Lavender)

Evening Standard British Film Award

1980: Best Actress (The Crazy California Hotel)
1982: Best Supporting Actress (Quartet)
1989: Best Actress (The Great Longing of Judith Hearne)
2016: Best Actress (The Lady in the Van)

Evening Standard British Theater Award

1962: Best Actress (The Private Ear; The Public Eye)
1970: Best Actress (Hedda Gabler)
1982: Best Actress (Virginia)
1984: Best Actress (The Way of the World)
1994: Best Actress (Three Tall Women)

Screen Actors Guild Award

  • Award
2002: Best Acting Company Gosford Park
2014: Best Actress in a TV Series / Miniseries or Movie (Downton Abbey)
  • Nominations
2012: Best Actress in a TV Movie or Mini-Series Downton Abbey
2013: Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama Downton Abbey

Alfred Toepfer Foundation

1991: Shakespeare Prize

synchronization

Until the 1980s, Smith was dubbed by changing speakers, including Gudrun Genest and Dagmar Altrichter . Bettina Schön spoke Maggie Smith for the first time in 1986 and from 1996 mostly took over her dubbing. B. Rooms with a View , The Devils Club and the first three Harry Potter films ; in the meantime she was u. a. spoken by Edith Schneider in the two Sister Act films . After Bettina Schön retired in 2005, the dubbing was again taken over by various speakers; mostly again by the then 90-year-old Edith Schneider ( The scent of lavender as well as in the fourth and fifth Harry Potter films). From 2009 she was mainly dubbed by Barbara Adolph (since: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ) and recently twice by Ursula Werner .

literature

  • Michael Coveney: Maggie Smith: A Bright Particular Star. Gollancz, London 1992, ISBN 0-575-05188-4 .
  • Michael Coveney: Maggie Smith: a biography , London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4746-0114-6

Web links

Commons : Maggie Smith  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Mackenzie, Susan: You have to laugh . In: Guardian , November 20, 2004, p. 36
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g cf. Teeman, Tim: A bad case of stage fright . In: The Times, October 5, 2009, T2, pp. 2-3
  3. ↑ cf. Wardle, Irving: All the angles . In: The Independent, February 18, 1993, p. 20
  4. ↑ a b c cf. Maggie Smith . In: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 01/2006 from January 7, 2006 (hy), supplemented by news from MA-Journal up to week 29/2009 (accessed on March 31, 2010 via Munzinger Online )
  5. ↑ a b cf. Wansell, Geoffrey: The vital spark that makes Maggie Smith the greatest comedienne of her generation . In: The Times, May 21, 1973, No. 58787, p. 7
  6. ^ A b c Dominic Wills: Maggie Smith - Biography . In: talktalk.co.uk
  7. ↑ cf. LaSalle, Mick: Derek Jacobi Takes a Dark Turn as a Painter . In: The San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 8, 1998, Daily Datebook, p. E1
  8. ↑ a b cf. Morley, Sheridan: Maggie Smith: moving closer to Bloomsbury . In: The Times, Jan 27, 1981, No. 60836, p. 9
  9. ↑ a b cf. Smith, Maggie . In: Lee, Min (Ed.): Chambers British biographies: the 20th century . Edinburgh: Chambers, 1993. - ISBN 0-550-16045-0 (accessed March 30, 2010 via World Biographical Information System Online )
  10. ↑ Downton Abbey. In: Emmys.com. Retrieved July 28, 2012 (English).
  11. ^ BBC Radio 4 Profiles, Maggie Smith. Retrieved June 5, 2019 (UK English).
  12. ↑ Maggie Smith is returning to the stage for a one-woman play. February 13, 2019, accessed June 5, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Michael Billington: A German Life review - Maggie Smith shines as Goebbels' secretary . In: The Guardian . April 12, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed June 5, 2019]).
  14. ↑ cf. Smith, Maggie . In: Childs, Peter; Storry, Mike (Ed.): Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture . London: Routledge, 1999. - ISBN 0-415-14726-3 (accessed March 30, 2010 via World Biographical Information System Online )
  15. ↑ a b c d cf. Fox, Chloe: Grande Dame of the old bags . In: The Daily Telegraph, March 19, 2007, p. 29
  16. ↑ cf. Brahms, Caryl: Maggie Smith: Conspiring with the audience . In: The Times, June 20, 1970, No. 57897, p. III
  17. ↑ cf. Rawson, Christopher: Theater Hall of Fame to induct 10 . In: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), October 26, 1994, p. C4
  18. ↑ cf. Spencer, Charles: The greatest players of all time? . In: The Daily Telegraph, December 17, 2010, p. 25
  19. ^ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60895. p. b5. 14 June 2014
  20. ↑ cf. Wolf, Matt: There Is Nothing Like This Lady . In: The New York Times, March 18, 1990, p. 36
  21. ↑ Maggie Smith. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Maggie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith Cross, Margaret Natalie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Ilford , England , UK