Trivia

In 2008, it was reported that she was fighting breast cancer. She has had a tumor removed and undergone chemotherapy.

The fight scene between her and Alan Rickman in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) was almost scrapped during the script process of the film. Her character was to be written out of the scene and replaced by another character. However, author J.K. Rowling insisted that the fight should involve the same characters as those in the novel, as she saw it as a key moment for Smith's character. The scene was filmed when Smith was 76 years old.

Is one of 17 actresses to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, Emmy, and 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.

One of the first people to have a star on the Avenue of Stars - a British version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Seven other Harry Potter actors also have one.

While filming Death on the Nile (1978), aboard ship, no one was allowed his or her own dressing room, so she shared a dressing room with Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury.

Had to change her stage name to "Maggie Smith" as there already was an actress named "Margaret Smith" at the time she started in the profession.

Not only does she frequently work with Dame Judi Dench, but they have also both worked with each other's children. Maggie worked with Finty Williams in Gosford Park (2001), while Judi worked with Toby Stephens in Die Another Day (2002). Incidentally, Maggie and Judi were born only nineteen days apart in December 1934, and both received acting nominations at the 2002 Academy Awards.

Her twin brothers Ian and Alistair are six years older than she is. They were both architects until Alastair passed away in 1981.

Completed filming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) whilst undergoing radio-therapy as treatment for breast cancer.

Director Agnieszka Holland admired Maggie Smith for years before making The Secret Garden (1993). She knew of Smith's talents and immediately offered her the role of Mrs. Medlock.

Is the only British actor or actress to win both a leading acting and supporting acting Academy Award.

Good friends with Dame Judi Dench and Kenneth Williams.

In 2003, she became the seventeenth performer to win the Triple Crown of acting. Oscars: Best Actress, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) & Best Supporting Actress, California Suite (1978), Tony: Best Actress - Play, "Lettice and Lovage" (1990), and Emmy: Best Actress - Miniseries/Movie, My House in Umbria (2003).

Devoted to author Jane Austen and her work.

Made her stage debut with the Oxford University Dramatic Society as Viola in Shakespare's "Twelfth Night". Bird-dogged by an American theatrical impresario, the role led to her being cast in her Broadway debut in "New Faces of 1956".

Is one of only a few actresses to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar after winning a Best Actress Oscar.

Portrayed by Ian McKellen on Saturday Night Live (1975).

Dame Maggie has won the most BAFTA best film actress awards, winning four in total. She won three years running for "A Private Function", "A Room with a View", and "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne". Her first best actress win was for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", and she also won best supporting actress for "Tea with Mussolini".

She was awarded Fellowship of the British Film Institute in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film culture.

Grandmother to Daisy (b. July 2006) and Nathaniel (b. December 2008) via son Chris Larkin, and to Eli (b. May 2007), Tallulah (b. May 2009), and Kura (b. September 2010) via son Toby Stephens.

Although she played Nigel Hawthorne, John Wood and Ian McKellen's mother in Richard III (1995), she was more than five years younger than Hawthorne, four years younger than Wood and less than five years older than McKellen.

She ranked tenth in the 2001 Orange Film Survey of greatest British film actresses.

She and her first husband, Robert Stephens, appeared together in "Much Ado About Nothing". In 1993, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, who were also married at the time, played the same roles. Smith later worked with both Branagh and Thompson in the Harry Potter films.

With her Evening Standard Best Actress win in November 2019 for "A German Life", Dame Maggie now holds the record for the most Evening Standard acting wins with six in total.

She replaced Liselotte Pulver in The V.I.P.s (1963) which became her first big success as a movie actress (she earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance).

Gave birth to her second child at age 34, a son Toby Stephens on April 21, 1969. Child's father is her now late ex-first husband, Robert Stephens.

Attended the High School for Girls in Oxford, she started out in the theater as a prompt girl and understudy at the Oxford Repertory. She claims she never went on as no one ever fell sick.

She appeared in two movies by the same title: Quartet (1981) and Quartet (2012).

Was a member of the Old Vic Company from 1959 to 1963, when the company was dissolved. It served as the basis for the new National Theatre being organized by Sir Laurence Olivier, whom invited her to join. She gave a memorable performance as Desdemona opposite Olivier's Othello at The National Theatre's temporary home at the Old Vic theater building in 1964. Repeating the performance in the 1965 film made of that production, she won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination, her first of six Oscar nods.

At the 2002 Academy Awards, Whoopi Goldberg introduced her, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith as "The Smith Family". Incidentally, Whoopi and Maggie co-starred in the Sister Act movies.

Worked with Sir Laurence Olivier in the 1960s at the National Theatre.

Delivered her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens via Caesarean section as they were both in the breech position.

Gave birth to her first child at age 32, a son Christopher Stephens (aka Chris Larkin), on June 19, 1967. Child's father is her boyfriend (now late ex-first husband), Robert Stephens.

Her father Nathaniel was a Geordie and a pathologist. Her mother Margaret was a Glaswegian and a secretary.

She was nominated for the 2000 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award (1999 season) for Best Actress for her performance in "The Lady in the Van" at the Queen's Theatre.

Is one of 14 Best Actress Oscar winners to have not accepted their Academy Award in person, Smith's being 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.

During the time she was cast in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), producers approached her for further film roles in Cactus Flower (1969) and Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) but she turned them down as she wanted to limit her film work and focus more on theater.

Received honorary degrees as Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) from the Universities of St Andrews, Bath and Cambridge in 1971, 1986 and 1994 respectively.

Is a vice-president of Chichester Cinema at New Park. Anita Roddick and Kenneth Branagh are also vice-presidents.

She was awarded the 1981 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

Pictured on one of a set of eight British commemorative postage stamps celebrating the 200th anniversary of The Old Vic Theatre, issued 30 August 2018. The stamp shows Smith in a 1970 performance of Hedda Gabler. Other performers appearing on stamps in this set are Laurence Olivier, Glenda Jackson, Albert Finney, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Sharon Benson, Judi Dench, John Stride, and Richard Burton.

She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1970 Queen's New Years Honours List and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1990 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to drama. She was awarded the CH (Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour) in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to Drama.

Stated in a few television interviews in the 1960s and 1970s, that she preferred stage acting to film acting.

She appeared with Sir Laurence Olivier in "Rhinoceros" in the English Stage Company's 1960 London production. Olivier pronounced her acting "Marvellous".

Won Broadway's 1990 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for "Lettice and Lovage". She was also nominated twice before in the same category: for a revival of Noël Coward's "Private Lives" in 1975, and for "Night and Day" in 1980.

Has played fictional fascists twice: first Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and then Lady Hester Random in Tea with Mussolini (1999).

She was awarded the 1994 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Three Tall Women".

Mother-in-law of actress Anna-Louise Plowman.

She was awarded the 1984 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "The Way of the World".

She was nominated for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award (1997 season) for Best Actress for her performance in "A Delicate Balance" at the Haymarket Theatre.