[9][10][11][12] Her mother, Margaret Hutton (née Little), was a Scottish secretary from Glasgow, and her father, Nathaniel Smith, was a public-health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne, who worked at the University of Oxford.

[20] In 1962 Smith won the first of a record six Best Actress Evening Standard Awards for her roles in Peter Shaffer's plays The Private Ear and The Public Eye, again opposite Kenneth Williams.

The theatre critic Michael Coveney wrote that during her eight years in the company, Smith developed a fierce rivalry with Olivier writing, "He knew immediately he'd met his match – that she was extraordinary.

[3][28] In 1963 she appeared in a supporting role as Miss Dee Mead in the British drama film The V.I.P.s starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles.

She earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Desdemona in the film adaptation of Othello (1965), acting alongside Olivier, Jacobi and Gambon.

[29][30] She also appeared in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's crime comedy The Honey Pot (1967) starring Rex Harrison and Hot Millions (1968) opposite Peter Ustinov.

"[42] Smith also starred as Miss Bowers in Death on the Nile (1978) alongside Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Peter Ustinov and David Niven.

In 1982 she starred as Daphne Castle in the locked-room mystery film Evil Under the Sun opposite Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin and Diana Rigg.

In his New York Times review, Frank Rich wrote, "There is only one Maggie Smith, but audiences get at least three of her in Lettice and Lovage, the Peter Shaffer comedy that has brought this spellbinding actress back to Broadway after an indecently long absence and that has the shrewd sense to keep her glued to center stage.

The film also starred Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dame Judi Dench, Simon Callow and Denholm Elliott.

[3] Pauline Kael wrote: "Clayton is a felicitous choice to direct a character study film about a woman's rage against the Church for her wasted life.

His first feature was Room at the Top with Simone Signoret and he made The Innocents with Deborah Kerr and The Pumpkin Eater with Anne Bancroft – he knows how to show women's temperatures and their mind-body inter-actions.

In 1993 she portrayed Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's comic play The Importance of Being Earnest at the Aldwych Theatre in the West End, receiving her fourth Olivier Award nomination.

In 1995 Smith portrayed the Duchess of York in another film adaptation this time of William Shakespeare's Richard III (1995) starring Ian McKellen in the titular role.

Matt Wolf of Variety wrote, "This actress [Smith] continues to get laughs where no one else ever would ... but she can be as revealing when quiet: admitting, sad-eyed, that 'time happens' or sending the audience out for the first intermission on a note of doomy suspense.

The film's cast included Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Charles Dance, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi and Stephen Fry.

Her portrayal as the haughty Constance, Countess of Trentham earned Smith her sixth Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress alongside Mirren.

[76] In 2003, Smith received her first Primetime Emmy Award in the Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie category for her role as Mrs. Emily Delahunty in the HBO television film My House in Umbria.

[88] In 2012 she played Muriel Donnelly in the British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel alongside Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Penelope Wilton.

Michael Billington of The Guardian wrote of the event: "Obviously it was moving to see legendary actors, either through archival footage or live performance, repeating past successes.

[101] In 2018 Smith reprised her role as Professor Minerva McGonagall by voicing the character in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, a role-playing video game.

[103] She reprised her role as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham in Simon Curtis's 2022 historical-drama Downton Abbey: A New Era alongside Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery.

In its inaugural incarnation Smith gave an extended monologue as Pomsel, an elderly German woman who, in her youth, wound up working as a secretary for Joseph Goebbels at the Ministry of Propaganda.

[106] Matt Wolf of The New York Times wrote, "[Smith's performance] represents a new high in a six-decade career with no shortage of peaks", and added "The audience knows it is witnessing something special".

The film's plot is being described as a "joyful and hilarious" journey of a group of riotous working-class women from Dublin, whose pilgrimage to Lourdes in France leads them to discover each other's friendship and their own personal miracles.

[147] In September 2011, Smith offered her support for raising the NZ$4.6 million needed to help rebuild the Court Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the earthquake in 2011 that caused severe damage to the area.

[156] In November 2020, Smith joined Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen for a conversation on Zoom entitled For One Knight Only, for the charity Acting for Others.

[159] King Charles III released a statement: "As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both on and off the stage.

[161] Figures in the entertainment industry who paid tribute to Smith included her Sister Act co-star Whoopi Goldberg, who described her as "a great woman and a brilliant actress.

[165] Others who paid tribute to Smith included the Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling; the Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes; actors such as Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Viola Davis, Saoirse Ronan, Kristin Scott Thomas, Harriet Walter, Miriam Margolyes, Mia Farrow and Rob Lowe; and musician Paul McCartney.