Brilliant British theater and film actress, whose multifaceted talent for several decades has found more and more admirers, Maggie Smith (full name - Margaret Natalie Smith) was born on December 28, 1934 in Ilford, Essex. Five years later, her father, a pathologist by specialty, got a place in Oxford and moved with his family to the old university town. After graduating from high school, Maggie entered theater school and made her stage debut in 1952 at the Oxford University Drama Society as Viola in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In 1956, she played on Broadway in Leonard Sillman's New Faces, and the following year she made her stage debut in London. She first appeared on screen in a cameo role in Cy Enfield’s film The Baby in the House (1957), after which she played her first notable role in the Ealing studio thriller Nowhere to Go (1958, dir.). Seth Holt and Basil Darden.
In 1959, Smith joined the troupe of the London Old Vic Theatre, where she played several seasons and gained recognition from both theater critics and audiences. In the Old Vic, she was mainly engaged in the classic Shakespearean repertoire: As You Like It, Richard II, and Windsor Mockers. The most successful actress achieved in the play, composed of two mini-plays by Peter Schaeffer “Private Ear” and “Public Eye” (1962). Since 1963, Maggie Smith has been an actress at the Royal National Theatre. One of her best roles of this period was Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello with the famous Laurence Olivier. The television version of this play (1965) earned her an Oscar nomination in the category "Best Supporting Actress".
In the sixties, Maggie Smith starred in the films "Very Important Persons" (1963, directed by Anthony Esquit), "Pumpkin Eater" (1964, directed by Jack Clayton), "Young Cassidy" (1965, directed by Jack Cardiff and John Ford), "Hot Millions" (1968, directed by Eric Till), "Oh, What a Beautiful War!" (1969, Richard Attenborough). The star of the screen was made by the psychological drama directed by Ronald Neam “Miss Brody in the prime of years” (1969), in which she played the eccentric Scots Jean Brody, a teacher at a girls’ school, passionate about the ideas of Franco and Mussolini. For this role, she received her first Oscar and the British Academy of Film and Television. The film also starred her husband, the famous English actor Robert Stevens, whom she married in 1967. Their marriage lasted seven years, and during this time she gave birth to two children - brothers Christopher and Toby. Smith’s second husband was her longtime fan, screenwriter and playwright Beverly Cross.
The success of the actress in Miss Brody was cemented by George Cukor’s comedy “Travels with My Aunt” (1972). The year before, she had left the Royal National Theatre and performed mostly in the United States in the first half of the seventies. In 1974, she toured the country with Noel Coward's play Private Lives, directed by Sir John Gilgud. From 1976 to 1980, she played in Canada for the Stratford Festival in Ontario. It was mainly Shakespeare's repertoire: Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing. Her other performances at Stratford include Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters and Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. In 1976, she returned to the cinema, starring in the parody detective “Murder by Death” (D. Robert Moore), and in 1979 she was awarded an Oscar for her supporting role in the romantic comedy “California Number” (1978, dir. Herbert Ross). She also appeared in two adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novels Death on the Nile (1978, John Gillermin) and Evil under the Sun (1982, Guy Hamilton). In the early eighties, she and her family returned to the UK, and in 1984 began to play again on the London stage. The undoubted acting successes of Maggie Smith in the cinema in the eighties include the role of the prim old maid Charlotte Bartlett in the melodrama of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant “A Room with a View” (1985) and a lonely piano teacher in the film “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn” (1987) by Jack Clayton. In 1989, Maggie Smith was awarded the title of Lady Commander of the British Empire.
In the next decade, she proved herself as a versatile character actress, playing in almost any genre. Among her films are the comedy "Sister, Act!" (1992, dir. Emilio Ardolino), "The Club of the First Wives" (1996, dir. Hugh Wilson), a modern interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy "Richard III" (1995, dir. Richard Loncrane), the romantic drama "Square Washington" (1997, dir. Agnieszka Holland), "The Last September" (1998, dir. Deborah Warner) and, of course, a magnificent, graceful picture of Franco Zeffirelli III" (1995, dir. Richard Loncreinc.), the romantic drama "Robert Conston, with his most memorable role in the life of the actress "Gemont" (Musston Martin Martin Martin Martin Martin Martin Martin Martin Martin, "Ge's, who played ac.) in his life. The popularity of the actress in recent years also contributed a lot to the appearance in a series of fairy tale films based on the works of writer Joan Kathleen Rowling about Harry Potter as a strict teacher Minerva McGonagall. Both Maggie Smith's sons Christopher (known under the pseudonym Chris Larkin) and Toby Stevens became actors.
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