Dame Maggie Smith, who died on Friday aged 89, was described by Simon Callow yesterday as “the complete actor”. She had several phases of popular success during a long stage, film and television career, as new generations rediscovered her talent.
But the spiky Ilford-born redhead, who went on to be loved equally by fans of the 1969 film of Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, of Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey ITV series and of cinema’s Harry Potter franchise, was first hailed as an important new theatrical star in the early 1960s. Critics then saluted what they thought must be her permanent move from cabaret and revue into serious drama at The Old Vic and the fledgling National Theatre.
