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Let’s talk about Maggie Smith. A force of nature. One of a kind.
“Maggie doesn’t just steal a scene; she commits grand larceny.”
piratedan
been a week for celebrity passings…… thankfully many of them have had long productive careers and provided us memorable performances to cherish.
WaterGirl
@piratedan: I must have missed the others.
Villago Delenda Est
You put Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith in a room, and you’re just asking for a scene stealing tug of war.
NeenerNeener
Kris Kristopherson just died today too. And James Earl Jones died this last week.
Yutsano
I’ll never forget her being a disapproving penguin with Whoopi Goldberg.
Which reminds me: this will come up on The View tomorrow.
Also: she kept acting even though she was battling breast cancer at the time. She was a formidable woman.
EDIT: FYWP.
lamh47
@WaterGirl: 4 stars/icons from my youth passed within the past 48hrs…like wow.
Maggie Smith, Drake Hoegsyt, John Ashton, now Kris Kristofferson!
Yes they were all older, but being older is not always a “death” sentence for folks.
I certainly would love a long lived life.
lamh47
For me I will always remember Maggie Smith from Sister Act.
Annie
Anyone who hasn’t seen it should take a look at a documentary entitled “tea with the dames.” It’s Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins, just sitting around a table talking about their careers. It was terrific, lots of fascinating stories from all 4.
BellaPea
I absolutely loved her on Downtown Abbey. I know that show is not everyone’s cup of tea, but she played the Countess with such elan and humor and charm. What a great lady.
Phylllis
A favorite Dame Maggie role is Gunilla Garson Goldberg, ‘a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th wife’ in the First Wives Club (which is a criminally underappreciated movie, imo). Also love Tea with the Dames, featuring her, Joan Plowright, Judy Dench, and Eileen Atkins. Available on Acorn/AMC. Oh and her turn as Caro in Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood
ETA I see Annie beat me to Tea with the Dames. Worth a second vote.
Mel
She was magnificent, and could steal a scene with a single glance.
I’m re-watching Black Sails, and her son Toby Stephens sure inherited her acting chops.
WaterGirl
@lamh47: loved her in Sister Acr!
WaterGirl
@lamh47: loved her in Sister Act!
Craig
JK Rowling is a crap person, but Maggie Smith was magnificent as Professor McGonagall.
Princess
Maggie Smith to me is always and forever A Room with a View.
Splitting Image
I loved the two movies she did with Michael Palin in the early 80s: The Missionary and A Private Function.
A Room with a View is another great one she did in the 80s, and it has Judi Dench and Helena Bonham-Carter as well.
AliceBlue
She’s at her Maggie Smith best as the Countess of Trentham in Gosford Park. The terrific cast includes Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren and Kristin Scott-Thomas.
Rachel Bakes
@Annie: Totally agree! Sat down with a dear friend over Tea a few years ago to watch this and laugh. The quips, especially between Maggie and Judi were hilarious.
Queen of Lurkers
@Princess: +1
Room with a View is one of my favorite movies ever, and Maggie Smith and Judy Dench together are absolutely stupendous.
CaseyL
No love for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (and its sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)?
She played a character who started out as an awful bigot, who then developed into a stalwart supporter of the hotel.
It was a movie more sweet than great, but it had one helluva cast, who all acted their asses off. Though for me the most indelible scene is Dame Judi Dench taking a huge gulp of what she thought was water:
Evelyn: “I just want a glass of water…” (drains glass)
Madge: “That was a gin and tonic.”
Evelyn: (breathless) “I know that now…”
eemom
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) and Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) are jewels among MS’s older films.
On another note, I’ve always preferred Kris K’s own version of his Me and Bobby McGee to Janis J’s.
Craig
She’s pretty dope as The Duchess of York in Ian McKellen’s Richard III. I need to rewatch that. Annette Benning and Robert Downey Jr. as well.
Craig
@eemom: the Kris version on the soundtrack to The Last Movie is great. Just him and a guitar sitting on a rock in Peru.
zhena gogolia
How about Hot Millions with Peter Ustinov? Not a great movie, but they are a charming pair.
Of everything I’ve seen her in, though, the Dowager Countess is a monumental achievement. Her scene with Lady Mary after Matthew’s death; the way she walks away from the camera after Sybil’s death (hope these aren’t spoilers); and of course all the hilarious scenes between her and Penelope Wilton.
ETA: I always thought she had a special rapport with Michelle Dockery.
Geoduck
I read here or on another board that Ms. Smith and Kris Kristofferson were about the same age, died at the same time, and it’s hard to grasp they actually lived on the same planet together.
Wyatt Salamanca
Maggie Smith’s seamless versatility between comedy and drama was breathtaking.
Loved seeing her on the Carol Burnett Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Aza94dvyg
A Ghost to Most
As long as Keef, Neil, and Jackson are still here, I’m good.
Suzanne
Can I talk about how much I loved Gosford Park? Helen Mirren was fantastic and heart-wrenching, of course….. but Dame Maggie brought her razor sharpness to that role. To me, the best actors can build a whole world of a character, even if there isn’t a lot of time or dialogue. She absolutely did that.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: I’m about ready to watch that one again.
Spanish Moss
@Princess: A Room with a View for me too!
Mousebumples
@CaseyL: I watched that one yesterday. I liked it more than Mr. Mouse did, lol. But it was fun. She was an amazing actress
Also, thank you public libraries!
eclare
@AliceBlue:
I love Gosford Park!
hilts
@NeenerNeener:
@piratedan:
Once again CBS Sunday Morning will have no shortage of material for their Hail and Farewell segment with the deaths of Glynis Johns, Chita Rivera, Donald Sutherland, Bob Newhart, John Mayall, Dickey Betts and all of the others cited here.
TBone
A favorite song by Maggie Smith and Carol Burnett
https://youtu.be/dT1YfqZeUb0
Two vivacious redheads in their prime!
Chris
@Mel:
For the longest time I knew him only as the bad guy from a James Bond movie that, unfortunately for him, is widely viewed as a strong contender for the worst ever made. Then I saw Black Sails and was like, wow, glad he got a role like this.
(I’ve been told that he’s also really good in an Indian movie about the 1857 rebellion. Still need to track that one down).
zhena gogolia
@Chris: He’s been on a lot of British mysteries. He’s always good. He tends to be the villain.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@CaseyL: I love that movie, and another partnership with Judy Dench, Ladies in Lavender.
What I like about the pairing of those two movies in particular is how their roles swap, how the characters are completely different in the two. In Lavender, Dench is the silly one who needs to be clued in, while it’s Smith in Marigold.
I only just learned a couple of days ago that they worked together a number of other times, on film and on stage.
@Princess: That’s one of them! Also Helena Bonham Carter. Never saw it, now I need to.
raven
@NeenerNeener: I don’t like Big and Rich but this is good with his intro.
8th of November
NotMax
Couple of memorable performances.
<a href=”https://youtu.be/A2gBmCT1GBw?t=49″>Lady Bracknell</a>
<a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynEWZF1bkLQ”>WW1 music hall artiste</a>
NotMax
Wha hoppen? Fix.
Couple of memorable performances.
Lady Bracknell
WW1 music hall artiste
sab
I loved Maggie Smith in many roles, but I never watched Downton Abbey and I never will. Upstairs Downstairs entirely from the Upstairs POV.
zhena gogolia
@sab: It’s clear you never watched it. The “downstairs” people have some of the richest plotlines.
Paul W.
Well, I just have to put in a word that I love Maggie Smith in too many roles to count, but playing the grown up Wendy Darling in Hook really moved me.
The haunting line “Peter, I can’t come with you. I’ve forgotten how to fly. I’m old, Peter. Ever so much more than twenty. I grew up a long time ago.” betrayed to my much younger self the very idea that time might rob you of things you thought you could never lose as a kid.
It’s kind of an amazing movie, one of the VERY VERY few which looks at “and then what!?”. Wendy grew up, Peter fell in love with her granddaughter (sounds ickier today, but Peter wanting time to slow down and fall in love resonates), Hook never got over Peter, and Neverland moved on!
Another great line “Peter Pans’ gots kids?!” – that which you never imagined would come to pass, time still magicked into being, things we never though we could do we have already done. A wildly underappreciated film IMO.
eemom
@zhena gogolia:
Agree. I just got around to Downton Abbey recently and really enjoyed it.
That said, nothing in that genre has ever equalled the original Upstairs Downstairs.
Leto
@Villago Delenda Est: there was a post on Imgur last week with Rickman, Smith, and Michael Gambon on the set of HP. I think it was the scene where Dumbledore dies in the tower, but it was all three of them standing there, and basically the caption was they were all together again doing the most wonderful magic. Has a really nice sentiment to it.
Leto
@zhena gogolia: I’ve rewatched DA a few times, but man I can never rewatch the Bates prison plot line. Both of them. The first time, ok I get it, but damn to repeat it? Nah, that was lazy writing and save yourself the trouble by fast forwarding through all those.
When she passed, I thought of her scene in the last movie where she passed the torch to Mary. I know they won’t do any more movies, but man I loved her in that. Just had the absolute best lines and always stole the scenes.
columbusqueen
My favorite performances of Dame Maggie’s are too numerous to list. What always struck me was her unparalleled ability to infuse humanity into even the most unlikable characters. In Secret Garden, Tea with Mussolini, & Miss Jean Brodie, she took deeply flawed people that you are initially hostile to & made you see them in the round. Few other actors could do that with her precision. Maggie & Ian Holm were the two stars who never disappointed me, even if the rest was uneven.
Gloria DryGarden
@CaseyL: I enjoyed that movie so much…
schrodingers_cat
@sab: First 2 seasons were better than the rest. IIRC.
Frank McCormick
I have yet to see any mention anywhere of “Travels with my Aunt”. Has it fallen out of favor for being too 60’s? Or has it just been forgotten?
In any case, I consider it a great movie and very much in the same class as “Harold and Maude” and “The Ruling Class”.
The original MGM trailer tries to make this movie to be a cross between “Auntie Mame” and “Around the World in 80 Days” and it only goes to show they had no idea what to do with this film.
To describe it as “unconventional Aunt brings boring English banker out of his boring shell” does not do the movie justice.
Here (instead of the misleading trailer) is an extended section from the beginning of the movie. You MIGHT be able to predict one of the final plot twists, but the resolution of the central McGuffin plot will leave you gobsmacked and heartbroken.
https://youtu.be/cw7Pg30HiQA?si=9NOiUuMvnTFHqScx
NotMax
@Frank McCormick
Brought it up several threads back. Scene linked there.