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Dame Maggie Smith’s storied career took her from the stage and Silver Screen to the biggest blockbusters. Though best known by younger generations for her roles as Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter series and as Dowager Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey, Smith’s career also includes Shakespearean and literary classics like Othello and A Room with a View. No matter the dialogue, direction, or costuming, Smith delivered emotionally nuanced performances. If anything speaks as highly of her talent as her Oscars, it’s the accolades of her co-stars. Here are the top 10 best Maggie Smith performances, in no particular order.
The Secret Garden (1993)
The Secret Garden is the story of a newly-orphaned girl sent to live in England. The estate? Impressive and mysterious. Mrs. Medlock? An intimidating, overwhelming force, swooping in at the worst moments to shut down the protagonist’s explorations. It’s a fun and energetic performance, even if it wasn’t enough to elevate the movie’s reviews. Despite its just-okay reception, The Secret Garden retains mysterious and enchanting vibes, crucially supported by Smith’s performance.
Othello (1965)
Unlike we’re talking Greek tragedies, you don’t get much more classic than Shakespeare. Othello ranks amongst the bard’s best and most popular works, with a dozen boiling levels of thematic tension. Your performance needs to be special when you’re acting across from Laurence Olivier. Maggie Smith was up to the challenge as Desdemona. Step aside, Dune. The result was an incredible film, one of the best performances of her career. It’s also one of the best Othello adaptations we’ve seen.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel includes a packed ensemble. Smith nonetheless stood out alongside the likes of Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and Tom Wilkinson. The film doesn’t always make the most of its outstanding cast and arguably takes longer to wrap up than it should, but it’s a charming exploration of life after youthful follies have (mostly) been laid aside. Without The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, you haven’t seen the full spectrum of Smith’s talent.
Travels With My Aunt
Smith’s role as Augusta Bertram couldn’t have done much more to distance her from her work as Jean Brodie, and that was the point. Proving her range and earning another wave of award nominations, Smith’s Bertram is a far funnier, looser side of the actress. Loosely based on the eponymous ’69 Graham Greene novel, Travels With My Aunt is worth watching for the costume changes alone, but we’ll take Maggie Smith as the next best reason.
A Room With a View
A Room With a View establishes a great tension between Charlotte Bartlett (Smith) and Lucy (Helena Bonham Carter). One of the film’s big draws is its depiction of how both women, in different ways, wrestle with societies in which neither is completely comfortable. It’s a performance that earned Smith her fifth Oscar nod and second Golden Globe Award, for good reason, as it’s one of the best Maggie Smith films overall.
California Suite
Alongside Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Richard Pryor, and others, it would almost be easier to list those who didn’t star beside Maggie Smith in California Suite. It’s an imperfect movie elevated by an exceptional cast, throwing some of the best comics of the day onto a set, giving the whole thing one good snowglobe shake, and seeing what transpired. California Suite ranks amongst the best Maggie Smith films for variety alone, even if it’s a sometimes uncomfortable experience.
Downton Abbey
The slow death of the water cooler didn’t kill off water cooler conversations, as the hit historical drama Downton Abbey proved week after week. Violet Crawley had some of the best one-liners and comebacks of the entire series, including the iconic “I have plenty of friends I don’t like.” Great writing stands on its own, but Smith’s delivery cemented the humor as solidly as the TV series’ more serious moments.
The Harry Potter Series
For many of us, whatever other hat Maggie Smith may wear, she will always be Minerva McGonagall. The Head of House Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry played a substantive role in every Harry Potter film. Yet it’s Smith who gave the character her depth. Smith brought charm, humor, and thinly veiled threats, ensuring Harry and his friends never stepped too far out of line.
Like Travels with My Aunt, the Harry Potter films let Smith show off a more playful side of herself. It also let her serve as a guiding light for a new generation of young co-stars, including Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson. The franchise also gave us Dame Maggie Smith turning into a cat, a transformation that never gets old if you’re used to her more serious roles.
Gosford Park
You can draw a straight line from Gosford Park to Downton Abbey. Thankfully, every point on that line would be a cinematic treat. As Countess Constance Trentham, Smith got yet another chance to lampoon the British aristocracy. Gosford Park lacks Downton‘s more reserved and formal cinematography, freer and less serious but no less enjoyable. Combining that cinematography (along with Julian Fellowes’s writing and Robert Altman’s direction) with Maggie Smith’s stone-faced comedic chops makes this one of the actress’s best films.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
If you had to pick just one film to represent Smith’s acting chops, this might be it. Jean Brodie (Smith) is a free-spirited teacher at a not-so free-spirited Scottish girls’ school in the ’30s. Brodie values love, art, and idealism over more boring and trivial matters, so it’s no surprise those things become the focus of her education.
This unorthodoxy quickly draws the ire of headmistress Miss Mackey (Celia Johnson), leading Brodie off the rails. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is one of the best Maggie Smith films, a warm and textured piece, and an Academy Award winner for Smith. making it a must-see for fans of her work.
