ACTOR · BORN 1934 · DIED 2024
Maggie Smith
- Born
- 28 December 1934, Ilford, Essex, England, UK
- Died
- 27 September 2024
- Known for
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
62 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
26 Facts From Maggie Smith's Career
- #003
Maggie Smith is one of 17 actresses to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony); the others, in chronological order, are Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Shirley Booth, Liza Minnelli, Rita Moreno, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Audrey Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, Vanessa Redgrave, Ellen Burstyn, Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand, Jessica Lange, Viola Davis and Glenda Jackson.
- #005
Maggie Smith is one of the first people to have a star on the Avenue of Stars, the British version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Seven other Harry Potter actors also have one.
- #006
Maggie Smith is the only British actor or actress to have won Academy Awards for both leading and supporting acting.
- #009
Maggie Smith not only worked frequently with Dame Judi Dench, but the two also worked with each other's children: Smith appeared with Finty Williams in Gosford Park (2001), while Dench appeared with Toby Stephens in Die Another Day (2002). Smith and Dench were born only nineteen days apart in December 1934, and both received acting nominations at the 2002 Oscars.
- #013
Maggie Smith made her stage debut with the Oxford University Dramatic Society as Viola in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night". The role, which drew the attention of an American theatre impresario, led to her casting in "New Faces of 1956", her Broadway debut.
- #015
Dame Maggie has won the most BAFTA Best Actress awards, taking four in total. She won three years in a row for "A Private Function", "A Room with a View" and "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne". She received her first Best Actress award for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and also won the Best Supporting Actress award for "Tea with Mussolini".
- #016
Maggie Smith is one of the few actresses to have won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar after winning the Best Actress Oscar.
- #017
In 2003, Maggie Smith became the seventeenth actor to win the Triple Crown of acting. Oscar: Best Actress, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress, California Suite (1978); Tony: Best Actress - Play, "Lettice and Lovage" (1990); and Emmy: Best Actress - Miniseries/Film, My House in Umbria (2003).
- #018
Maggie Smith was awarded a British Film Institute Fellowship for her outstanding contribution to film culture.
- #027
At the 2002 Oscars, Whoopi Goldberg introduced Maggie Smith, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith as "The Smith Family." Whoopi and Maggie had previously appeared together in the Sister Act films.
- #030
For her performance in "The Lady in the Van" at the Queen's Theatre, Maggie Smith was nominated for the 2000 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award (1999 season) for Best Actress.
- #035
Maggie Smith is one of 14 Best Actress Oscar winners who did not accept the Academy Award in person; hers was for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). The others are Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Joan Crawford, Judy Holliday, Vivien Leigh, Anna Magnani, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Anne Bancroft, Patricia Neal, Elizabeth Taylor, Glenda Jackson and Ellen Burstyn.
- #038
For her performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", Maggie Smith won the 1981 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress.
- #040
Maggie Smith was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1970 Queen's New Year Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1990 Queen's New Year Honours, both for services to drama. She was appointed CH (Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour) in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to drama.
- #041
For her performance in "Three Tall Women", Maggie Smith won the 1994 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress.
- #042
Maggie Smith won the 1990 Tony Award for Best Actress (Play) for her role in "Lettice and Lovage" on Broadway. She had previously been nominated twice in the same category: in 1975 for the revival of Noël Coward's "Private Lives" and in 1980 for "Night and Day".
- #046
Her first major success as a film actress came when she replaced Liselotte Pulver in The V.I.P.S (1963), a performance that earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
- #047
She was awarded the 1984 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "The Way of the World."
- #048
She was nominated for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress (for the 1997 season) for her performance in "A Delicate Balance" at the Haymarket Theatre.
- #051
She became the first of four people to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in consecutive years with the initials 'M. S.'; the others were Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Mary Steenburgen for Melvin and Howard (1980) and Maureen Stapleton for Reds (1981).
- #053
She was not present to accept her first Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969); it was accepted on her behalf by Alice Ghostley, who mistakenly credited the film's direction to its producer Robert Fryer. Ghostley was known for playing a witch (Esmerelda) on Bewitched, while Smith would become famous to later generations for playing a witch (Prof. Minerva McGonagall) in the Harry Potter films. Moreover, both series depict magical characters using a single word to refer to humans (mortal in Bewitched, Muggle in the Harry Potter series).
- #055
She became the 68th actor to win an Oscar, taking the Best Actress Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) at the 42nd Annual Academy Awards (1970) on 7 April 1970.
- #056
She won the Variety Club Award for Actress of the Year in 1972 for her performance in "Private Lives."
- #058
She is one of 25 actors to win an Oscar for a comedic performance, hers for California Suite (1978). The others, in chronological order, are: Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night (1934)), Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter (1947)), Josephine Hull (Harvey (1950)), Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday (1950)), Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday (1953)), Goldie Hawn (Cactus Flower (1969)), Glenda Jackson (A Touch of Class (1973)), Lee Grant (Shampoo (1975)), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall (1977)), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard (1980)), Jessica Lange (Tootsie (1982)), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck (1987)), Cher (Moonstruck (1987)), Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy (1989)), Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King (1991)), Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny (1992)), Dianne Wiest (Bullets Over Broadway (1994)), Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite (1995)), Frances McDormand (Fargo (1996)), Helen Hunt (As Good as It Gets (1997)), Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love (1998)), Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)).
- #061
Despite numerous nominations, Dame Maggie remarkably never won a competitive BAFTA TV award or Laurence Olivier theatre award.
- #062
She was honoured with a star on the London Avenue of Stars in London, England.
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