British theatre and cinema legend Maggie Smith dies aged 89

Oscar-winning British actor Maggie Smith, a star of stage and screen for more than seven decades, died in hospital in London on Friday, her sons announced, prompting a flood of tributes.

"It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning," Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens said in a statement.

Smith — who won a Tony, two Oscars, three Golden Globes and five Baftas —achieved late-career international fame for her depiction of the acerbic Dowager Countess of Grantham Violet Crawley in the hit television series "Downton Abbey."

The Bafta TV and film academy said in a statement that it was "saddened" to hear of her death, calling her "a legend of British stage and screen." It gave her a special award and fellowship to acknowledge her acclaimed career, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer said had made her a "true national treasure."

Born in 1934 in Oxford in central England, the daughter of an Oxford professor of pathology, Smith made her stage debut in 1952 with the Oxford University Dramatic Society.

She won a best actress Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and for best supporting actress for her depiction of Desdemona in "Othello" in the same year.

"An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end," her sons, both actors, said.

"She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said, adding their thanks for all the "kind messages and support" they had received.

‘Formidable talent'

Famed for her scene-stealing charisma, Smith's long and successful career got started with a string of successes in London's West End and on Broadway in the 1950s. She famously appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello" in 1959.

This led to her joining Olivier's celebrated 1960s National Theatre company where she earned critical acclaim alongside her husband, the actor Robert Stephens.

Smith's marriage to heavy-drinking Stephens, with whom she had her two sons, collapsed in 1973 and they divorced two years later.

She remarried shortly after to the screenwriter Beverley Cross, who died in 1998. In recent decades, some of her best known films included "Gosford Park" (2001), "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (2012) and "The Lady in the Van" (2015).

Her work on the wildly popular "Downton Abbey" and the "Harry Potter" films also introduced her to a younger generation.

Such was the appeal of "Downton Abbey" she said in 2017 she could no longer go out without being recognised.

"It's ridiculous — I led a perfectly normal life until Downton Abbey," she told the British Film Institute. "I would go to theatres, I would go to galleries and things like that on my own . And now I can't," she said.

Actor Hugh Bonneville, who played the son of the dowager duchess in the period drama, said: "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."

Smith was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1990 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Agence France-Presse