Take a glance at Maggie Smith’s impressive career and net worth, along with an overview of her incredible achievements. Are the questions about her still unanswered? Today, where is Maggie Smith? Well, the Essex-born actress has been working on both the screen and stage for seven decades, gaining recognition for her roles in iconic series like Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. Maggie Smith is undeniably one of the most accomplished English actresses on the planet.

Maggie Smith was born on 28 December 1934 in Ilford, Essex. At the time, she was a teenager who wanted to become an actress and was very inspired by the popular TV show Downton Abbey, which is still alive and well today. Unfortunately, her parents were not supportive of her acting ambitions. Both of her parents were professionals, her father being a secretary and her mother a pathologist. In a 2019 interview with the Standard Evening, Maggie Smith revealed that her parents had no idea about her desire to act and she had no support or encouragement from them. She recalled a terrible incident where she got into trouble with her neighbors because they took her to the cinema on a Sunday instead of going to the theater. According to Maggie Smith, it was a dreadful experience and she said, “We didn’t go to the theater and it was such a ghastly time.” She also mentioned that there was no explanation given for why they went to the cinema instead.

Is She Still In Good Health?

Due to the implementation of radiotherapy and optical surgery, she was able to achieve complete recuperation. Luckily for the actress, who was 54 years old when she received the diagnosis, the autoimmune disorder is triggered by an excessively active thyroid and can impact an individual’s vision. Smith disclosed her Graves’ disease diagnosis in 1988 during a 1990 interview with the New York Times.

Smith faced another health crisis in 2007 when she learned she had breast cancer. During the filming of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the actress underwent treatment. In a 2009 interview with The Times, Smith described herself as feeling like a boiled egg and having no issues with getting a wig.

Presently, she continues to enjoy good physical condition to the best of our knowledge. Since then, Smith has been free from cancer and the therapy was fortunately effective.

Maggie Smith’s Career Began 70 Years Ago

In 1990, Lettice and Lovage became a production in which Smith played a role, earning her a Tony Award and a slew of prestigious theater awards. She had become a veteran stage actress in both Broadway and London in the ’80s and ’90s. Eventually, she was invited to become a member of Oliver’s Lawrence group, frequently performing at the Royal National Theatre. She continued to work on stage and made her professional debut in the production of Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse. Despite her parents’ misgivings, she left high school at the age of 16 to enroll in an acting class at the esteemed independent theater, the Oxford Playhouse.

Starting in the late 1950s, Smith also achieved success in the world of cinema. Her first screen credit was earned in the 1958 crime film, Nowhere to Go, which resulted in a nomination for a British Academy Film Award. Throughout the following ten years, she continued to appear in popular movies, eventually winning her first Oscar Award for Best Actress in the 1969 film, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In the 1978 comedy California Suite, she secured another Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has been nominated for this prestigious accolade a total of six times. Smith has also been honored with five British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), three Golden Globe Awards, and five Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG). Over the past four decades, some of her most remarkable films include A Room with a View, Hook, Sister Act and Sister Act 2, The First Wives Club, Gosford Park, and, of course, the Harry Potter series.

In her acting career, she earned her first Emmy Award nomination for her performance in the 1993 PBS TV film Suddenly, Last Summer, and won her first BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress in 1983 for All Is Love. She also added television to her impressive acting resume later in life, with notable credits including the 2007 HBO series Capturing Mary, the 2003 HBO movie My House in Umbria, and the BBC’s 1999 TV adaptation of David Copperfield.

Smith says she had a wonderful experience playing the matriarch of the Crawley family on the popular British period drama, Downton Abbey. She landed her most notable TV role to date as Violet Crawley in 2010.

Smith expressed in a 2016 interview on the NPR show Fresh Air that she found her character to be highly enjoyable due to her status as the oldest member of the group. Additionally, Smith highlighted the satisfaction she experienced in being able to freely express her thoughts and opinions as the elder, as the rest of the group respected her authority. Furthermore, Smith expressed her delight in receiving three ensemble awards, specifically three SAG awards, for the entire company.

Smith, due to her accomplishments in numerous artistic fields, is among a select group of performers who have obtained the prestigious “Triple Crown of Acting,” which refers to winning an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. Ingrid Bergman, Rita Moreno, Al Pacino, Helen Mirren, and Frances McDormand are also noteworthy individuals who have achieved this distinction.

Is She Still Acting Today?

A German Life and The Miracle Club are scheduled to appear in the upcoming Christmas film, Boy A, in 2021. The 87-year-old actress also starred in the New Year’s Era Abbey: Downton sequel in 2022, where she once again appeared as Violet. Fans were delighted when she reprised her role in the 2019 movie, Abbey Downton. Smith is sure to please!