Dame Maggie Smith the prolific, multi-award winning actress best known as Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, has died aged 89.
She won two Oscars, three Emmys and countless stage awards during her acclaimed career.
“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith,” her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin said in a statement provided to the BBC.
“She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”
Smith had graced the boards for seventy years,although known now for her role in Harry Potter and Downton Abbey, Oscar-winning portrayal of Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) remains iconic.
She made her stage debut with the Oxford University Drama Society in 1952 and a decade later was acting opposite Laurence Olivier.
She won her first Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oscar nomination in 1966 for Othello,and later for 1978’s California Suite.
Her final Oscar came in that same category for 2001’s Gosford Park.
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