British Movie/TV/Stage Legend Maggie Smith Dies at 89

[Pink Freud]

From today's Los Angeles Times:

"Two-time Oscar winner Maggie Smith, the celebrated stage actress who starred in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and burnished her long-shining star by playing the scene-stealing dowager countess of “Downton Abbey” and the exacting Professor McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” franchise, has died. She was 89.

During a career that spanned six decades, Smith acquired a large following on both sides of the Atlantic and became one of few to achieve the triple crown of acting — winning Academy, Emmy and Tony awards. She earned her Oscars playing the unconventional schoolmarm in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and a brittle movie star in “California Suite” in the 1970s. She also had four Primetime Emmys, three Golden Globes, a Tony, an Olivier Award and a slate of BAFTAs to her name.

She alternated theater work with cinema and achieved Oscar nods for “Othello” (1965), “Travels with My Aunt” (1972), “A Room with a View” (1985) and “Gosford Park” (2001). In addition to “Downton Abbey” and the eight-film blockbuster “Harry Potter” saga, Smith starred in several projects teeming with established British talent, including the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” films and “The Lady in the Van.”

Smith had a strict policy of not reading her reviews — and never used the internet — learning what was written about her only when her husband Beverley Cross, the late playwright, would allude to it after he scoured every line."