Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie "Maggie" Smith, CH, DBE is an English actress. She has had an extensive, varied career in stage, film and television spanning over sixty years. Smith has appeared in over 50 films and is one of Britain's most recognisable actresses. She was appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empirein 1970. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empirein the 1990 New Year Honours for services to the performing arts, and Member...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth28 December 1934
CityIlford, England
People think of you differently if you've been in their homes. They think they own you because they watched you while they were eating dinner, or they can turn you up or down, or even freeze you.
I had been feeling a little rum. I didn't think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don't know what the future holds, if anything.
Theres a difference between solitude and loneliness
It's true I don't tolerate fools but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.
I am just surprised to be doing anything at my age actually. When you think of where I am now and where I've come from, I am very pleased and very grateful to be standing up and delivering Julian's great lines.
Don't be defeatist, dear, it's very middle class.
There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it's there it's stunning, and there is nothing to match that.
I tend to head for what's amusing because a lot of things aren't happy. But usually you can find a funny side to practically anything.
The chemotherapy was very peculiar, something that makes you feel much worse than the cancer itself, a very nasty thing. I used to go to treatment on my own, and nearly everybody else was with somebody. I wouldn't have liked that. Why would you want to make anybody sit in those places?
One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one's still acting.
I don't think films about elderly people have been made very much. I think of Cocoon and Driving Miss Daisy. But they always seem to be fairly successful, so it's a bit baffling as to why everybody has to be treated as if they were five-years-old.
Little girls, I am in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all my pupils are the crème de la crème. Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.
There were male colleges, and there were very few female colleges.
I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost - it's there and then it's gone.