Maggie Smith – a life in pictures

Dame Maggie Smith, who has died aged 89, had an incredibly varied career as a star of stage, screen and TV – from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to Downton Abbey to Harry Potter. We look back at her career high points

Maggie Smith pictured next to the New Faces of ’56 poster, where she made her Broadway debut

Photograph: Daily Mail/Rex/Alamy

Smith with George Nader in the Ealing Studios film Nowhere to Go, 1958

Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

With Peter Ustinov in Hot Millions, 1968

Photograph: Camerique/Alamy

A still from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1969

Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Everett / Rex Features

Oh! What a Lovely War, 1969

Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

Travels With My Aunt, 1972

Photograph: Archive Photos/Getty Images

Maggie Smith with her husband, actor Robert Stephens, and children Christopher and Toby in 1972. Smith and Stephens divorced in 1975

Photograph: Daily Mail/REX/Shutterstock

With Michael Caine in California Suite, 1978

Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

Smith, second from left, in the Merchant Ivory film A Room With a View, 1986

Photograph: Alamy

With Michael Palin in A Private Function, 1984

Photograph: Sportsphoto/Cine Text/Allstar

In a scene from The Secret Garden, 1993

Photograph: Archive Photos/Getty Images

As Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Aldwych theatre, 1993

Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Tea with Mussolini, 1999

Photograph: TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

With Kelly MacDonald in Gosford Park, 2001

Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex

As Professor Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 2001

Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Warner Brothers

With Judi Dench in The Breath of Life, at Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2002

Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2011

Photograph: Cinematic/Alamy

Smith in the final series of Downton Abbey, 2015

Photograph: Nick Briggs/ITV

Alex Jennings and Smith as Alan Bennett and Miss Shepherd in The Lady in the Van, 2015

Photograph: Allstar/BBC Films

Winning the best actress award for The Lady in the Van at the London Evening Standard film awards in 2016

Photograph: David M. Benett/Getty Images

The Miracle Club, 2023

Photograph: Sony Pictures/Everett/Shutterstock

Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer