Abigail Whitehurst is an entertainment professional and writer for Hollywood Insider based in Los Angeles, CA. Having lived all over the world as part of a military family and having pursued a bachelors of music, she brings a unique outlook to the entertainment industry. A life-long learner and researcher, Abigail is pursuing her masters in entertainment management. She strives to write through the lenses of context, analysis, and Hollywood Insider’s values to bring a fresh perspective to industry trends, entertainment business, and new film and TV releases. Her favorite place is a movie theater, and she’s always hunting for the deeper meaning and studying media as it pertains to culture. Film, TV, and interactive media are some of the most impactful artforms of our day, and they are worth digging into and analyzing. Everything is connected, whether it’s through Bacon numbers or history. When she’s not writing or at the movies, you can find Abbie crocheting or playing video games with her partner.
Oct 8, 2024
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An icon of British film beloved by all who worked with her, Dame Maggie Smith sadly passed away last month. For generations, she was a force to be reckoned with playing an incredible array of roles over her long career on stage and screen. With two Academy Awards, five BAFTAs, four Emmys, three Golden Globes, a Tony, and countless nominations, she was loved by both audiences and critics around the world.
Enter Our Heroine, Stage Right
Maggie Smith was born in Essex to Margaret Hutton and Nathaniel Smith. As many do, Smith started on stage in 1952. At just 17, she made her debut with the Oxford University Dramatic Society playing Viola in a production of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Oxford Playhouse. She played in many productions with Oxford University, including ‘Cinderella’ (1952), ‘Rookery Nook’ (1953), ‘Cakes and Ale’ (1953) and ‘The Government Inspector’ (1954). In 1956, she made her first appearance on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in ‘New Faces of ‘56’ playing several roles. ‘Share My Lettuce’ written by Bamber Gascoigne (Jeremy Paxman’s predecessor as the host of ‘University Challenge’) marked her London stage debut in 1957, only a few short years before she would win her first of six Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress for ‘The Private Ear / The Public Eye’ in 1962. Her work caught the attention of Laurence Olivier, who added her to the roster of his National Theatre Company shortly after its inception at The Old Vic the same year. They quickly became professional rivals, with him realizing he’d finally met his match on stage, and her responding to his nitpicking and criticisms with spectacular humor and snark. During a production of ‘Othello’ with the Royal National Theatre, Olivier actually knocked Smith out cold during a scene where Othello and Desdemona get into a spat.
Alongside her stage acting, Smith started appearing in film and television. Her first role was an uncredited performance in ‘Child in the House’ in 1956, but her first actual credit in ‘Nowhere to Go’ three years later earned her a British Academy Award nomination. In 1963 she appeared in the film ‘The V.I.P.s’ among a star-studded cast including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Orson Welles. A Shakespearian actress through and through, her first Oscar nomination came in the form of one for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Desdemona in the 1965 film adaptation of ‘Othello’, alongside Olivier and Michael Gambon, the latter of which would be her costar again in her most famous role much later in her career. Her other stage and screen outings in the 60s included ‘Go to Blazes’ (1962), ‘The Pumpkin Eater’ (1964) ‘Young Cassidy’ (1965). ‘The Honey Pot’ (1967), ‘Hot Millions’ (1968), and a guest-starring role in Sir Richard Attenborough’s ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’ (1969).
‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’, a 1969 film following an eccentric school teacher whose romanticized philosophy on teaching brings her into conflict with the school’s stuffy headmaster, propelled the best of British film beyond the borders of the UK, and earned Maggie Smith an Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Film back home. Critics and audiences alike loved her performance around the world, but this was just the start of Smith’s award-winning run in Hollywood and on Broadway. Her work in George Cukor’s ‘Travels with my Aunt’ meant another Oscar nomination, this time for Supporting Actress, in 1972. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1978 for ‘California Suite’, the only occurrence of someone winning an Oscar for portraying a fictional Oscar nominee (and one that got snubbed, at that), as well as her first Golden Globe. In 1990, Smith became Dame Maggie Smith when she was knighted Dame Commander by Queen Elizabeth II, one of relatively few actresses to receive the honor, and later one of only three actresses ever to be appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2014.
Along the way, she starred in many popular titles such as ‘Murder by Death’ (1976) and ‘Death on the Nile’ (1978), and made lots of time to act on stage in Noël Coward’s ‘Private Lives’ (1975) on Broadway and a handful of productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival throughout the back half of the 70s. At this point in her career, she was well-established as a gem among British actors and actresses, and was landing roles left, right, and center in huge productions. ‘Clash of the Titans’ (1981), ‘Evil Under the Sun’ (1982), ‘A Room With a View’ (1985) which was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including one for her, ‘Hook’ (1991), ‘Sister Act’ (1992), and ‘Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit’ (1993) are just a few of the many films she took on across genres and locales.
Smith appeared in a few British TV movies over the years, one of which was an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘David Copperfield’ (1999). Young David was played by a then largely unknown child actor named Daniel Radcliffe, a British kid who was about to take the world by storm. ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ catapulted Radcliffe and his co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint to worldwide stardom as elementary schoolers, but also put Smith as Minerva McGonagall and dozens of other British actors as witches and wizards in the mainstream. Though Smith was already a decorated and venerated actress among critics and her peers, ‘Harry Potter’ was simply on a different level. She appeared in 7 out of the 8 ‘Harry Potter’ films from 2001 to 2011, all but ‘The Deathly Hallows: Part 1’. She was truly one of the driest comedic characters in the series, striking fear into the hearts of naughty school children everywhere, but also a heartwarming figure of authority who guided not just the films’ titular character, but a generation of kids through the struggles of finding one’s identity over a decade of films.
On top of her ‘Harry Potter’ fame, Smith starred in ‘Downton Abbey’ from 2010 to 2015 as the dowager countess Violet Crawley, consistently one of the funniest and snarkiest characters on the beloved British historical drama. She won three separate Primetime Emmys for Actress in a Supporting Role as Violet, a favorite of fans and of critics. She played tons of different roles while working on ‘Harry Potter’ ‘and ‘Downton Abbey’, including parts in ‘Gosford Park’ (2001) which came with another Oscar nomination, ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ (2011), ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ (2011), and ‘The Lady in the Van’ (2015).
Dame Maggie Smith worked until the end. In 2018, she filmed ‘Tea with the Dames’ with Dames Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright, where they discussed their careers and friendships candidly and with great love. She also appeared in the subsequent films of the ‘Downton Abbey’ universe, voiced McGonagall in the ‘Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery’ video game, and ‘The Miracle Club’ (2023), her last film credit. Recently, she appeared in Loewe’s pre-Spring 2024 print campaign, cementing her status as an icon on- and off-screen. After her sons’ announcement that she passed away in London on September 27th, countless tributes flooded the airways from her co-stars, praising her work on set and friendship in dozens and dozens of peoples’ lives. There is no contesting that she left a lasting impression on worldwide cinema, and that modern film simply wouldn’t be the same without her.
Click here to read The Hollywood Insider’s CEO Pritan Ambroase’s love letter to Cinema, TV and Media. An excerpt from the love letter: The Hollywood Insider’s CEO/editor-in-chief Pritan Ambroase affirms, “We have the space and time for all your stories, no matter who/what/where you are. Media/Cinema/TV have a responsibility to better the world and The Hollywood Insider will continue to do so. Talent, diversity and authenticity matter in Cinema/TV, media and storytelling. In fact, I reckon that we should announce “talent-diversity-authenticity-storytelling-Cinema-Oscars-Academy-Awards” as synonyms of each other. We show respect to talent and stories regardless of their skin color, race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, etc., thus allowing authenticity into this system just by something as simple as accepting and showing respect to the human species’ factual diversity. We become greater just by respecting and appreciating talent in all its shapes, sizes, and forms. Award winners, which includes nominees, must be chosen on the greatness of their talent ALONE.
I am sure I am speaking for a multitude of Cinema lovers all over the world when I speak of the following sentiments that this medium of art has blessed me with. Cinema taught me about our world, at times in English and at times through the beautiful one-inch bar of subtitles. I learned from the stories in the global movies that we are all alike across all borders. Remember that one of the best symbols of many great civilizations and their prosperity has been the art they have left behind. This art can be in the form of paintings, sculptures, architecture, writings, inventions, etc. For our modern society, Cinema happens to be one of them. Cinema is more than just a form of entertainment, it is an integral part of society. I love the world uniting, be it for Cinema, TV, media, art, fashion, sport, etc. Please keep this going full speed.”
Abigail Whitehurst is an entertainment professional and writer for Hollywood Insider based in Los Angeles, CA. Having lived all over the world as part of a military family and having pursued a bachelors of music, she brings a unique outlook to the entertainment industry. A life-long learner and researcher, Abigail is pursuing her masters in entertainment management. She strives to write through the lenses of context, analysis, and Hollywood Insider’s values to bring a fresh perspective to industry trends, entertainment business, and new film and TV releases. Her favorite place is a movie theater, and she’s always hunting for the deeper meaning and studying media as it pertains to culture. Film, TV, and interactive media are some of the most impactful artforms of our day, and they are worth digging into and analyzing. Everything is connected, whether it’s through Bacon numbers or history. When she’s not writing or at the movies, you can find Abbie crocheting or playing video games with her partner.
Abigail Whitehurst is an entertainment professional and writer for Hollywood Insider based in Los Angeles, CA. Having lived all over the world as part of a military family and having pursued a bachelors of music, she brings a unique outlook to the entertainment industry. A life-long learner and researcher, Abigail is pursuing her masters in entertainment management. She strives to write through the lenses of context, analysis, and Hollywood Insider’s values to bring a fresh perspective to industry trends, entertainment business, and new film and TV releases. Her favorite place is a movie theater, and she’s always hunting for the deeper meaning and studying media as it pertains to culture. Film, TV, and interactive media are some of the most impactful artforms of our day, and they are worth digging into and analyzing. Everything is connected, whether it’s through Bacon numbers or history. When she’s not writing or at the movies, you can find Abbie crocheting or playing video games with her partner.
Abigail Whitehurst is an entertainment professional and writer for Hollywood Insider based in Los Angeles, CA. Having lived all over the world as part of a military family and having pursued a bachelors of music, she brings a unique outlook to the entertainment industry. A life-long learner and researcher, Abigail is pursuing her masters in entertainment management. She strives to write through the lenses of context, analysis, and Hollywood Insider’s values to bring a fresh perspective to industry trends, entertainment business, and new film and TV releases. Her favorite place is a movie theater, and she’s always hunting for the deeper meaning and studying media as it pertains to culture. Film, TV, and interactive media are some of the most impactful artforms of our day, and they are worth digging into and analyzing. Everything is connected, whether it’s through Bacon numbers or history. When she’s not writing or at the movies, you can find Abbie crocheting or playing video games with her partner.
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