Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Cross on December 28th,
1934, in Ilford, Essex. Smith’s family moved to Oxford in 1939, where
from 1947 she attended the Oxford High School for Girls. A student
at the Oxford Playhouse School, she made her stage debut as Viola
in Twelfth Night with the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1952.
Four years later she was on Broadway, performing in Leonard Sillman's
New Faces Revue. She joined the Old Vic Company in 1959. Gaining increasing
critical esteem for her notable performances, Smith joined the National
Theatre, where she played in Othello (1963), Hay Fever (1966), and
The Three Sisters (1970), among others. Maggie Smith made her credited
film debut in Ealing thriller Nowhere
to Go (1958), this was followed by such films as The
VIPs (1963), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), and an Oscar-winning performance in
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). In 1970 Smith was awarded the
CBE. The following year she left the National Theatre.
During the 1970’s Smith accepted roles in frivolous sleuthing films,
Dora Charleston, the wife of David Niven
in the droll Murder by Death (1976), and two all-star Agatha Christie
whodunits, Death on the Nile (1978), and Evil Under the Sun (1982).
Her later stage work included Virginia (1980) and Lettice and Lovage
(1988) She received an Oscar for her role in Neil Simon's California
Suite (1978), and BAFTA Awards for her roles in the Michael Palin comedy
A Private Function (1984), E.M. Forster adaptation A
Room With a View (1986), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
(1987). She was created a dame commander, Order of the British Empire,
in 1990. In 1992 she co-starred in the comedy blockbuster Sister Act
(1992), and reprised the same role in the contrived sequel Sister Act
2 (1993). She has also appeared in The Secret Garden (1993), Richard
III (1995), and Tea with Mussolini (1999). More recent performances
include Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), and her role in Robert Altman's
Gosford Park
(2002) earned Smith yet another Oscar nomination. Put simply, Dame Maggie
Smith is one of the world's greatest stage and screen actresses of recent
generations.
