London, Sep 28 (FN Bureau) Actress Dame Maggie Smith, known for the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey, has died at the age of 89, her family has said here on Friday, the BBC reported. A legend of British stage and screen, she won two Oscars during her career – for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1970 and California Suite in 1979, the Daily Mirror newspaper of Sri Lanka reported.She had four other nominations and received eight Bafta awards.Hugh Bonneville, who co-starred in Downton Abbey with Dame Maggie, paid tribute, saying: “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent. “She was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances. My condolences to her boys and wider family.”
In the Harry Potter films, Dame Maggie played the acerbic Professor Minerva McGonagall, famous for her pointed witch’s hat and stern manner with the young wizards at Hogwarts. Some of her other most memorable roles include the 1985 Merchant Ivory film A Room With a View, in which she played the chaperone Charlotte Barlett, accompanying Helen Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch to Italy. The role won her nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe, media reports said. Her career began in theatre, but she gained her first Bafta nomination in the 1958 melodrama, Nowhere to Go.Dame Maggie’s career spanned eight decades, with early acclaim coming when she gained her first Bafta nomination for Nowhere to Go in 1958, the BBC reported. In 1963, she was offered the part of Desdemona in Othello at the National Theatre by Laurence Olivier, and two years later it was made into a film and Smith was nominated for her first Oscar.