Her scene-stealing role in “Downton Abbey” made Maggie Smith a TV mega-star in the final decades of her career
Maggie Smith in “Downton Abbey” (PBS)
Dame Maggie Smith leaves behind a towering legacy in the wake of her death at the age of 89. The legendary actress spent almost 70 years dominating the stage and screens big and small on both sides of the pond. She won two Oscars, five BAFTAs, four Emmys, and a Tony over the course of many decades, during which she never stopped working and never stopped stealing scenes. She was a generational talent who meant something different to each generation: one of the faces of the ‘60s British invasion of Hollywood; a theatrical legend; character actress; comedic gem; and everyone’s favorite wizarding school deputy headmistress. Smith worked until almost the very end, which included being a supermodel for a 2023 Loewe campaign.
But it was the scathingly witty Dowager Duchess who came to define the final years of her illustrious career and made her one of the most beloved TV stars of the 2010s.
“Downton Abbey,” Julian Fellowes’ historical drama, ran for six seasons (plus two movies) between 2010 and 2015. The ITV/PBS update on the Upstairs-Downstairs format focused on the grand estate of the upper-class Crawley family in the early 1900s. As Britain underwent a period of massive social upheaval, defined by war and political change, the series showed the last shining days of the aristocracy and the servants who remained loyal to them. “Downton Abbey” was a major hit, earning 27 Emmy nominations after its first two seasons and becoming one of the most successful UK TV exports in years. Its large cast of British character actors, including Dan Stevens and Michelle Dockery, became stars, but it was Smith who became the series’ breakout.
As Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, the grand matriarch of the manor was, in many ways, a peak Maggie Smith role. “Downton” reunited Smith with Fellowes after her Oscar-nominated work in “Gosford Park,” where she played Constance, Dowager Countess of Trentham, an unbearable snob who nonetheless got all the funniest jokes and wielded her class privilege like a scalpel. Both duchesses were cut from the same cloth, although Violet had a softness to her that Constance did not. She was highly decorative, uninterested in modernity, and fiercely driven to ensure her family’s stature. While she had no time for social change or Americans — perhaps her biggest nemeses — she was loyal to the Grantham name and ready to be the ultimate battle axe in their honor.
The Dowager Duchess also got all of the best jokes. Smith was an accomplished comedic actress who kept up with the likes of Carol Burnett and Whoopi Goldberg and starred in Neil Simon and Noel Coward plays. When she delivered a one-liner, it landed with laser-like precision, and Julian Fellowes always gave her the most memorable moments of wit in “Downton Abbey.” She never lost her sophistication, even when delivering the kinds of insults that could be fatal (“Don’t be defeatist, dear, it’s very middle class.”) In a show that often got soapy and a tad too enamored of its uncritical portrayal of poshness, Smith could always be relied on to cut through the garbage with the right quote (“What is a weekend?”)
But she was no mere snob. Smith, like every British national treasure in the acting scene, was used to playing scolding old broads who viewed the world with a tight gaze and large alcoholic beverage. It’s the default mode for many actresses over the age of 60. Where Smith’s performances shone in this limiting mold, and what made her performance in “Downton Abbey” so enduring, was her refusal to be the butt of the joke. She was always in on it, albeit with a magisterial approach. There was also an undeniable warmth. Even at her cattiest, the Dowager Duchess’s dedication to her family was clear. Her reminiscences of her past, both good days and bad, were always moving. Moreover, she did so without descending into easy sentimentality.
Smith was a famously candid woman with no tolerance for nonsense (see her appearance in the documentary “Nothing Like a Dame,” where she regales the camera with her honest-to-a-fault anecdotes about working with Laurence Olivier and having to fight Judi Dench for all the best roles.) If a character was to be emotional, they had to earn it and she made it seem earned. Decades of training and theatrical prowess meant she could never phone it in, even if you wouldn’t have blamed her for skimping on the effort with some of those scripts.
Hilariously, Smith admitted on “The Graham Norton Show” that she’d never actually watched “Downton Abbey,” but when you’re that good in a show, do you really need to? Perhaps the endless trophies she won for the series blocked her view of the television. Smith won three Emmys and five SAG Awards for her troubles. Violet Crawley got her last hurrah in the 2022 film “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” passing away while surrounded by family and servants. Her portrait was added to the entry hall, to forever watch over her many descendants as they moved onto a brave new world.
Dame Maggie Smith was a once-in-a-lifetime talent whose career is impossible to distill into one mere obituary. Entire essays could be written on her most beloved roles and the works that made her one of the defining actresses of 20th century theater. But it’s a testament to her prowess and versatility that she turned a potentially one-note supporting part in a soap opera historical drama into one of many iconic performances in her back catalog.
“Downton Abbey” was but one arrow in a crowded quiver, but her indelible work in it reminded the world that she was a true star. At a time when even some of the best actors’ careers start to wind down, she received another boost into the spotlight and remained there until her final days.
What more could one ask for with a grand dame?
