We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Dame Maggie Smith, best known for her roles in ‘Downton Abbey’ and the ‘Harry Potter’ series has died. She was 89 years old.

Advertisement

Her death was announced in a statement from her sons:

British stage and screen actress Maggie Smith, the “Downton Abbey” and “Harry Potter” star who numbers two Oscars, three Emmys and countless stage awards to her credit, died Friday in London. She was 89.

“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.”

Her aforementioned roles as the Dowager Countess in ‘Downton Abbey’ and as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the ‘Harry Potter’ series endeared her to contemporary audiences, but Smith’s career spans seven decades, starting in the 1950s with the BBC Sunday-Night Theatre and Lilli Palmer Theater.

In 1969, she won her first Academy Award:

Recommended

Advertisement

She won a second aware for ‘California Suite’ in 1979.

Smith also starred as Grandma Wendy in ‘Hook’ (1991), Mother Superior in ‘Sister Act’ (1992), ‘Death on the Nile’ (1978) and as Desdemona in a 1965 production of ‘Othello.’

She enjoyed a resurgence in her career with the ‘Harry Potter’ series:

It’s this writer’s favorite, too.

So very lucky.

Advertisement

It really is.

A legend.

She was very, very funny.

She was one of a kind.

Dame Maggie Smith is survived by her two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, as well as five grandchildren and legions of fans.