She has also received Academy Award Nominations for TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT (Best Actress), OTHELLO (Best Supporting Actress), and A ROOM WITH A VIEW, which also brought her a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Variety Club Award.
In addition her film credits include THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE (BAFTA Award for Best Actress), A PRIVATE FUNCTION( BAFTA Award), DEATH ON THE NILE, OH, WHAT A LOVELY WAR, SISTER ACT 2, HOOK and THE SECRET GARDEN.
She won the Tony Award as Best Actress in 1990 for her performance in LETTICE AND LOVAGE and received Tony nominations for her work in NIGHT & DAY and PRIVATE LIVES.
Maggie Smith made her first appearance on stage with the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1952 as Viola in TWELFTH NIGHT, but her professional debut was on Broadway in NEW FACES OF 1956 REVUE.
She joined the Old Vic Company in 1959, appearing in AS YOU LIKE IT, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, RICHARD II and WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS. She then played Daisy in RHINOCEROS at The Strand in 1960 and went on to win her first Evening Standard's Best Actress Award (1962) for her roles in the Globe Theatre's production of THE PRIVATE EAR and THE PUBLIC EYE.
She has since won Evening Standard Best Actress Awards for the National Theatre production of HEDDA GABLER, the 1976 Stratford production of THE WAY OF THE WORLD, VIRGINIA and most recently, THREE TALL WOMEN.
In 1963 she joined the National Theatre and was seen at Chichester in the same year playing Desdemona in OTHELLO, opposite Laurence Olivier. She appeared in the National Theatre productions of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, in the title role of MISS JULIE, THE RECRUITING OFFICER, HAY FEVER, THE MASTER BUILDER, BLACK COMEDY, THE BEAUX STRATAGEM, THREE SISTERS, the title role in HEDDA GABLER and COMING IN TO LAND for Peter Hall at the RNT.
She has appeared in the London West End productions of SHARE MY LETTUCE, RHINOCEROS, THE REHEARSAL, MARY, MARY, PRIVATE LIVES, PETER PAN, INTERPRETERS, THE INFERNAL MACHINE, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, and the London and Broadway productions of NIGHT & DAY and LETTICE & LOVAGE.
In several seasons at Stratford, Ontario between 1976-1980, she appeared in ANTHONY & CLEOPATRA, THE WAY OF THE WORLD, THREE SISTERS, THE GUARDSMAN, AS YOU LIKE IT, MACBETH, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, THE SEAGULL and VIRGINIA.
Her television work has brought her a Royal Television Society Award for Best Actress for TAKING HEADS: BED AMONG THE LENTILS and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for the title role in Granada TV's play MRS SILLY. She appeared in MEMENTO MORI, directed by Jack Clayton and SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, directed by Richard Eyre, both for the BBC.
Maggie Smith was awarded the CBE in 1970 and in 1989 she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire. She was awarded the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize in 1991, is a fellow of the British Film Institute, an Honorary D.Litt of Cambridge and St. Andrew's University and a patron of the Jane Austen Society.
She is married to the author and screenwriter Beverley Cross.