Maggie Smith, Grande Dame of Stage and Screen, Dies at 89 - The New York Times

She earned an extraordinary array of awards, from Oscars to Emmys to a Tony, but she could still go almost everywhere unrecognized. Then came “Downton Abbey.” She earned an extraordinary array of awards, from Oscars to Emmys to a Tony, but she could still go almost everywhere unrecognized. Then came “Downton Abbey.” As Violet Crawley, the acid-tongued dowager countess on “Downton Abbey,” Ms. Smith was the show’s breakout star from the beginning. Credit... Nick Briggs/PBS, via Associated Press Supported by By Anita Gates and Robert Berkvist Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and screen actors of her generation, whose award-winning roles ranged from a freethinking Scottish schoolteacher in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” to the acid-tongued dowager countess on “Downton Abbey,” died on Friday in London. She was 89. Her death, in a hospital, was announced by her family in a statement issued by a publicist. It did not specify the cause of death. American moviegoers barely knew Ms

She earned an extraordinary array of awards, from Oscars to Emmys to a Tony, but she could still go almost everywhere unrecognized. Then came “Downton Abbey.” She earned an extraordinary array of awards, from Oscars to Emmys to a Tony, but she could still go almost everywhere unrecognized. Then came “Downton Abbey.” As Violet Crawley, the acid-tongued dowager countess on “Downton Abbey,” Ms. Smith was the show’s breakout star from the beginning. Credit... Nick Briggs/PBS, via Associated Press Supported by By Anita Gates and Robert Berkvist Maggie Smith, one of the finest British stage and scre