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Ive won two Oscars and I still dont begin to understand film acting, she once said.
Here are eleven essential performances from Dame Maggie Smiths remarkable and irreplaceable career.
She espouses strong views on womanhood, culture, art, music … and fascism.
Its a perfectly calibrated performance of aching vulnerability and narcissism in free fall.
Of course she won the Oscar.
Smiths willingness to do smutty comedy just shows how flexible she was as an actor.
Smith is Charlotte, older cousin and chaperone to our unmarried protagonist Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter).
If so, you surely remember Maggie Smiths role as well.
(She appears in bothSisterActfilms, in fact, in a credit to her likability in the part.)
But the film simply wouldnt be as fun as it is without Smiths expertly disapproving but begrudgingly amused presence.
Trust Maggie Smith to extract something worthwhile from such frothy material.
Her bitchiness is legendary, and meme-able, especially given her tendency toward coldly witty bon mots.
