The Best of Maggie Smith

Legendary actress of stage and screen Dame Maggie Smith died last Friday at the age of 89. While the headlines have mentioned her recent notable roles in the Harry Potter and Downton Abbey franchises, Smith left a rich body of work which spanned nearly seven decades. Here are some of her best roles:

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Though her most famous performances now may be imperious elders, Smith, like all of us, was young once…though no less imperious. In this Oscar-winning role, Smith plays Miss Jean Brodie, a teacher at an Edinburgh girls school who acts as queen bee to her teen students. Later in life Smith was often cast as authority figures, but Miss Brodie is no Professor McGonagall — she has affairs, romanticizes fascist regimes, and encourages inappropriate relationships between students and faculty. As a young actress in her “prime” Smith is riveting to watch.

Death on the Nile (1978)

Evil Under the Sun (1981)

In these two excellent Agatha Christie adaptations featuring Peter Ustinov as the detective Hercule Poirot, Smith is part of a large ensemble. Whether trading barbs with the likes of Diana Rigg and Bette Davis or simply checking guests into a hotel, she makes every scene more interesting with her presence. 

A Room with a View (1985)

This adaptation of E.M Forster’s Edwardian-era romance ranks as one of the best Merchant Ivory productions and certainly one of that filmmaking team’s funniest films. Some of that credit is due to Smith’s portrayal of Miss Bartlett, an “old maid” serving as chaperone to her young cousin Lucy Honeychurch while traveling in Italy. Charlotte struggles between her duty as a proper chaperone and her desire to ditch Lucy in order to gossip and explore Florence with her own friends. Smith brings subtlety to this character bound by a restrained propriety, and received multiple award nominations, including (in an eyebrow-raising bit of category fraud) a BAFTA award for Best Actress.

Sister Act (1992)

From Clash of the Titans (1981) to Hook, to Nanny McPhee and the Harry Potter series, Smith played pivotal roles in films beloved by kids from multiple generations. Few actors can claim that they remained relevant to audiences of all ages for decades. In Sister Act, Smith makes this fairly stock role of the conservative Reverend Mother more memorable and entertaining than it needed to be. 

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)

For the last thirty years of her career, Maggie Smith played some version of either the “elderly grump,” as in this film, or the “old money snob,” e.g. Gosford Park and Downton Abbey. Either way, she was likely to give someone an earful on the proper way to make tea. If that sounds like peak cinema to you, then you’ll probably enjoy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In this ensemble film, Smith plays a bigoted British pensioner who checks into the titular establishment while in India to have hip surgery. She makes a surprisingly charming comic duo with Dev Patel as the eager but inexperienced hotel manager.