She was 89 years old.
An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.
Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, inDownton Abbey.
Photographed by Bert Stern,Vogue, August 1963.
Despite her success, Smith insisted she never had a plan for her career, preferring to work instinctively.
Its what turns up, quite honestly, she once said.
Her father, Nat, a lab technician, was more supportive, assiduously filing Smiths clippings.
Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, inDownton Abbey.
But he seemed haunted by a repressed sense of theatricality.
After retiring, he offered his medical research to the Bodleian library.
When it was rejected, he built a bonfire and burned it in the garden.
As Desdemona in Stuart Burge’s 1965 adaptation ofOthello, co-starring Laurence Olivier.
As a child, Smith was entranced by a series of books calledThe Swish of the Curtain.
A much better world, she once said to critic Nancy Banks-Smith.
Im never shy on stage.
With Lauren Bacall at the 1970 Academy Awards.
Always shy off it… its the real world thats the illusion.
I thought, There you go, thats someone very special; thats someone worth watching.
She was very striking with that red hair, very thin, very tall.
She was also very vulnerable, and very, very funny.
As Desdemona in Stuart Burges 1965 adaptation ofOthello, co-starring Laurence Olivier.
Looking backwhich is the only thing one seems to do nowit was just thrilling, she recounted.
Youd doOthelloone night, and doingHay Feverthe next was like going on holiday.
Maggies not relaxed at all, said playwright Peter Shaffer, who first met Smith in 1962.
Theres no such thing as a coffee break with Miss Smith.
In 1967, Smith married the charismatic actor Robert Stephens, often tipped to be the next Olivier.
The pair had two sons, now both actors.
They say it goes away but it doesnt, she said.
It just gets different.
Its awful, but what do you do?
After the busyness you are more alone, much more.
She was swift, however, to dismiss the label as arbitrary.
Everythings an icon, she said, after winning theEvening Standardtheatrical icons award.
If you have been around long enough you are an icon.
A rather dusty icon… or a national treasure.
With Lauren Bacall at the 1970 Academy Awards.
She did not find such precipitous level of fame agreeable, describing being mobbed on a trip to Paris.
What the hell do they do?
Perhaps they never go out.
Smith didnt spend too much time thinking about legacy.
It doesnt last, she said in the sameTelegraphinterview, thinking of her friends Lauren Bacall and Robin Williams.
The world is replenished all the time.
I dont think people remember.
She seemed unsentimental about growing older, and sanguine that she was working into her ninth decade.
My friend said without hesitation, 92!
Ive been that ever since.
They dont need to make me up any more, Im afraid.
Ive caught up with myself.
