In Pictures: Maggie Smith reached peak of her fame decades after Oscar victory

In Pictures: Maggie Smith reached peak of her fame decades after Oscar victoryDame Maggie Smith won a best actress Oscar in 1970 but found an even wider profile in the last years of her career.Queen Elizabeth II is presented to Maggie Smith by Sir Laurence Olivier, centre, when the Queen attended the charity premiere of the film Othello in 1966 (Archive/PA)PA Archive

Dame Maggie Smith will be remembered by younger fans for her roles in the Harry Potter movies and for Downton Abbey, but had been at the top of the acting profession since the 1960s.

Her early performances were in the 1950s but she claimed the Academy Award for best actress in 1970 for her role in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, playing a seethingly ambitious teacher on a mission to make her girls the “creme de la creme”.

In her later years, her role as the waspish Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey saw her steal many a scene, while her place in the Harry Potter world as Professor Minerva McGonagall is secure.

Maggie Smith (UK/TV Times/PA)PA MediaDame Maggie Smith rehearses for Peter Pan with Dave Allen in 1973 (PA)PA WireJill Bennett, Tom Jones and Maggie Smith (left to right) with awards from the Variety Club of Great Britain in 1969 (PA)PA Wire

Dame Maggie had learned her trade the hard way with performances in her teenage years at the Oxford Playhouse.

Twice married, she leaves two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, who have both chosen to follow an acting career.

Maggie Smith, as Amanda, and Robert Stephens, as Elyot, in the Noel Coward comedy Private Lives in 1972 (PA)PA WireMaggie Smith in 1966 (PA)PA WireThe King (then the Prince of Wales) speaks with Dame Maggie Smith at the Prince’s Trust reception at the 2016 Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards (Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror/PA)PA WireSheridan Smith, Dame Maggie Smith, Dustin Hoffman and Pauline Collins at the BFI London Film Festival screening of Quartet in 2012 (Sean Dempsey/PA)PA WireDame Maggie Smith (left) and Dame Judi Dench arrive for a screening of Ladies In Lavender in 2004 (Ian West/PA)PA ArchiveRupert Grint and Maggie Smith arrive for the world premiere of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince in 2009 (Yui Mok/PA)PA WireDame Maggie Smith during a wreath-laying ceremony in Westminster Abbey in 2007 to mark the centenary of the birth of Sir Laurence Olivier (PA)PA WireDame Maggie Smith and Paul Scofield at London’s Hilton Hotel in 1987 where they picked up their awards from the Variety Club of Great Britain (PA)PA WireDame Maggie Smith on the set of the film A Boy Called Christmas in London in 2020 (Aaron Chown/PA)PA WireDame Maggie Smith arrives for the premiere of Gosford Park in New York in 2001 (Rich Lee/PA)PA ArchiveDame Maggie Smith in the royal box at Wimbledon in 2019 (Steven Paston/PA)PA WireRobert Altman and Dame Maggie Smith with her award during the Evening Standard Film Awards 2002 at The Savoy in London (Yui Mok/PA)PA ArchiveMaggie Smith in Hedda Gabler, 1970 on a Royal Mail stamp (Royal Mail/PA)PA MediaThen prime minister Tony Blair, Dame Maggie Smith and Pierce Brosnan during the Evening Standard Film Awards 2002 at The Savoy in London (PA)PA WireDame Maggie Smith is made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle in 2014 (Dominic Lipinski/PA)PA Archive