Dame Margaret Natalie Smith was born on 28 December 1934 in Ilford in Essex. She is better known as Dame Maggie Smith, is a two-time Academy Award, and Emmy-winning English film, stage, and television actress.

Breathes there a theatergoer or film fan on Earth who has not, at one time or another, fallen in love with the sublimely brilliant British comedic actress Dame Maggie Smith? The daughter of an Oxford University pathologist, Smith received her earliest acting training at the Oxford Playhouse School. In 1952, she made her professional stage bow as Viola in +Twelfth Night. Four years later she was on Broadway, performing comedy routines in Leonard Sillman's +New Faces of 1956; that same year, she made her first, extremely brief screen appearance in Child in the House (she usually refers to 1959's Nowhere to Go as her screen debut).

In 1959, Smith joined the Old Vic, and in 1962 won the first of several performing honors, the London Evening Standard Award, for her work in the West End production +The Private Ear/The Public Eye. Her subsequent theatrical prizes include the 1963 and 1972 Variety Club awards for +Mary Mary and +Private Lives, respectively, and the 1990 Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway play +Lettice and Lovage. In addition, Smith has won Oscars for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978), and British Film Academy awards for A Private Function (1985), A Room With a View (1986), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987).

These accolades notwithstanding, Smith has had no qualms about accepting such "lightweight" roles as lady sleuth Dora Charleston (a delicious Myrna Loy takeoff) in Murder By Death (1976), the aging Wendy in Steven Spielberg's Peter Pan derivation Hook (1991), and the Mother Superior in Whoopi Goldberg's Sister Act films of the early '90s. During the same decade, she also took more serious roles in Richard III (1995), Washington Square (1997), and Tea With Mussolini (1999). On a lighter note, her role in director Robert Altman's Gosford Park earned Smith her sixth Oscar nomination. Made a Dame Commander in 1989, Smith was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. Previously married to the late actor Sir Robert Stephens, she is the wife of screenwriter Beverly Cross and the mother of actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.

Credits by Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fillmography

• From Time to Time (2009)
• Capturing Mary (2007)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
• Becoming Jane (2007)
• Keeping Mum (2005)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
• Ladies in Lavender. (2004)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
• My House in Umbria (2003)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
• Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
• Gosford Park (2001)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
• David Copperfield (1999)
• All the King's Men (1999)
• Curtain Call (1999)
• The Last September (1999)
• Tea with Mussolini (1999)
• Washington Square (1997)
• The First Wives Club (1996)
• Richard III (1995)
• Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
• The Secret Garden (1993)
• Suddenly, Last Summer (1993)
• Sister Act (1992)
• Memento Mori (1992)
• Hook (1991)
• Romeo-Juliet (1990)
• The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987)
• "Talking Heads" (1987)
• A Room with a View (1985)
• A Private Function (1984)
• Lily in Love (1984)
• Mrs. Silly (1983)
• The Missionary (1982)
• Evil Under the Sun (1982)
• Better Late Than Never (1982)
• Clash of the Titans (1981)
• Quartet (1981)
• California Suite (1978)
• Death on the Nile (1978)
• Murder by Death (1976)
• Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973)
• Travels with My Aunt (1972)
• "Play of the Month" (4 episodes, 1968-1972)
• Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
• Hot Millions (1968)
• The Honey Pot (1967)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1967)
• Othello (1965)
• Young Cassidy (1965)
• The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
• The V.I.P.s (1963)
• Go to Blazes (1962)
• "ITV Play of the Week" (2 episodes, 1958-1960)
• Nowhere to Go (1958)
• "Armchair Theatre" (1 episode, 1958)
• "Kraft Television Theatre" (1 episode, 1957)
• Child in the House (1956)
• "The Makepeace Story" (1 episode, 1955)

Awards

• Emmy Outstanding Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie "My House in Umbria" 2003
• Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Acting Ensemble "Gosford Park" 2001
• Florida Film Critics Circle Award Best Ensemble "Gosford Park" 2001
• Golden Satellite Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) "Gosford Park" 2001
• New York Film Critics Online Award Best Supporting Actress "Gosford Park" 2001
• Online Film Critics Society Award Best Ensemble "Gosford Park" 2001
• Southeastern Film Critics Association Award Best Supporting Actress "Gosford Park" 2001
• The Actor Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture "Gosford Park" 2001
• BAFTA Award Best Supporting Actress "Tea With Mussolini" 2000
• Evening Standard Award Best Actress "Three Tall Women" 1996
• Tony Lead Actress in a Play "Lettice and Lovage" 1990
• BAFTA Award Best Actress "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" 1989
• BAFTA Award Best Actress "A Room with a View" 1987
• Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress "A Room with a View" 1986
• BAFTA Award Best Actress "A Private Function" 1985
• Evening Standard Award Best Actress "The Way of the World" 1985
• Evening Standard Award Best Actress "Virginia" 1981
• Golden Globe Award Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) "California Suite" 1978
• Oscar Best Supporting Actress "California Suite" 1978
• Outer Critics Circle Award Distinguished Performance "Night and Day" 1976
• Variety Club Award Best Actress "Private Lives" 1972
• Evening Standard Award Best Actress "Hedda Gabler" 1970
• British Film Academy Award Best Actress "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" 1969
• Oscar Best Actress "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" 1969
• Society of Film and TV Arts Award Best Actress "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" 1969
• Variety Club Award Best Actress "Mary, Mary" 1963
• Evening Standard Award Best Actress "The Private Ear" and "The Public Eye" 1962