From schoolteacher to witch then countess: Dame Maggie Smith’s greatest roles

During her career, actor Dame Maggie Smith shone in roles as varied as a maverick schoolteacher, a witch in the Harry Potter film series, and Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess of Grantham, a part which won her three Emmys.

The theatre, film and TV star, who has died aged 89, was one of the few performers to achieve the so-called triple crown of acting, winning two Oscars, four Emmys and one Tony.

Here is a round-up of her most famous roles.

– Professor Minerva McGonagall

From 2001 to 2011, Dame Maggie played Hogwarts’ Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series, who was the head of the house of Gryffindor. She was also the school’s deputy headmistress under Professor Albus Dumbledore, played by Richard Harris and, after his death, by Michael Gambon. Sir Michael died a year ago to the day.

The role saw her reunite with Daniel Radcliffe having previously starred alongside him in 1999’s David Copperfield.

Despite the quick-witted, kind and formidable professor of transfiguration becoming a prominent character in the series, Dame Maggie had regularly said she did not find her role in the films fully satisfying, but said they had allowed her to bond with her grandchildren.

– Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham

From 2010 to 2015, Dame Maggie played the quick-witted matriarch Violet Crowley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, becoming central to the success of ITV series.

The role won her three Emmy awards and she continued to play the character in spin-off films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).

During Dame Maggie’s time playing the character, Violet found her influence on Downton Abbey under threat, as social norms changed, from Isobel Crawley, with whom she regularly argued, and her daughter-in-law Cora, with both being more forward-thinking.

– Jean Brodie

Dame Maggie won her first Oscar for best actress in 1969’s The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.

The film saw her play the unrestrained teacher at an all-girls school in Edinburgh during the 1930s, who had a tendency to stray from the school’s curriculum, to romanticise fascist leaders such as Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco, and believed herself to be in the prime of life.

In the film, the teacher devotes her energy and attention to girls she sees as special or mouldable, eventually seeing her lead them into disastrous situations.

– Diana Barrie

The actor won her second Oscar for best supporting actress in 1978’s California Suite, where she played actor Diana Barrie.

In the film her character is a first-time nominee for the Academy Award for best actress in an independent British film, an honour that could revive her faltering career, but she knows she has no chance of winning.

Throughout the movie Diana is in denial about the nature of her marriage of convenience to Sidney Cochran, a gay antiques dealer who becomes increasingly open about his sexuality.

As she prepares for her moment in the spotlight, her mood fluctuates from hope to panic to despair.

– Mary Shepherd

In 2015, Dame Maggie played the role of Mary Shepherd in The Lady In The Van, a mostly true story about Shepherd, who was an elderly woman who lived in a dilapidated van on a driveway in north London for 15 years.

The film was based on a memoir by the playwright Alan Bennett, whose driveway Shepherd lived on from the 1970s to the 1980s.

At the end of the movie Bennett eventually finds out, after Shepherd’s death, that she had fled her home after she was involved in an accident when her van was hit by a motorcyclist.

Shepherd blamed herself for his death and lived the rest of her life in fear of arrest.