Maggie Smith: the magisterial star of Harry Potter and Downton had the talent to do everything

Oscar-winning star of stage and screen has dies aged 89. She earned fame in her 70s and 80s for blockbuster roles. But her early work at the National Theatre marked her out as a talent for the ages

Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess Grantham in a scene from Downton Abbey.

Maggie Smith’s trophy cabinet reflected her extraordinary achievements across theatre, film and television — from the BBC to Hollywood, the West End to Broadway. A measure of her versatility and durability is that, in the 1960s, she played nine major roles in the formative years of the National Theatre, but also, from the start of the 2000s, appeared in five series of Downton Abbey.

Her role in that show was Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, who lived in such a bubble of exclusive comfort that, in trademark one-liners, she would drawl in mystification, for example: “What is a ‘weekend’?”