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Maggie Smith

Probably the greatest actress of all time.

Her legendary career started in 1950 and she has not stopped working sense.

On the stage she could hold her own against Olivier, Gielgud, Ashcroft, Redgrave, etc. From Shakespeare to Marlowe to Mamet to Shaffer.

She appeared in some of the best films- Nowhere to Go, the V.I.P.'s, The Pumpkin Eater, Othello, The Honey Pot, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Oh! What a Lovely War, Travels with My Aunt, Murder by Death, Death on the Nile, California Suite, Quartet, Clash of the Titans, Evil Under the Sun, The Missionary, Lily in Love, A Private Function, A Room with a View, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, Hook, Sister Act 1 & 2, The Secret Garden, Richard III, The First Wives Club, Washington Square, Tea with Mussolini, The Last September, Gosford Park, Harry Potter series Ladies in Lavender, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 1 & 2, Quartet, The Lady in the Van, and Downtow Abbey.

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by Anonymousreply 78June 27, 2022 5:54 PM

[quote]Probably the greatest actress of all time.

Yet can't do an American accent.

by Anonymousreply 1June 25, 2022 3:51 PM

She's not

by Anonymousreply 2June 25, 2022 3:51 PM

[quote]Probably the greatest actress of all time.

MARY!

by Anonymousreply 3June 25, 2022 3:53 PM

Nice tits

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by Anonymousreply 4June 25, 2022 3:54 PM

I love her and agree, OP.

She’s a phenomenal actor.

by Anonymousreply 5June 25, 2022 3:55 PM

I saw her in Lettice and Lovage in London. She was hysterically funny. Truly the greatest comic actress of all time.

by Anonymousreply 6June 25, 2022 3:56 PM

[quote] Yet can't do an American accent.

I agree. That accent was horrible in Suddenly Last Summer.

by Anonymousreply 7June 25, 2022 4:02 PM

You think that list represents some of the best movies of all time? You have no credibility.

by Anonymousreply 8June 25, 2022 4:03 PM

R8 Sister Act is a legend.

by Anonymousreply 9June 25, 2022 4:07 PM

She's always been one of those actors that makes you perk up and pay close attention when you see her, because you KNOW that anything they say will be worth watching!

Even if the script isn't good. IMHO that's the highest level of acting, the kind where the actor can make the a weak script more entertaining than it has any right to be.

by Anonymousreply 10June 25, 2022 4:09 PM

She’s a great actress, but of all time? Really?

by Anonymousreply 11June 25, 2022 4:13 PM

She apparently refused many roles that involved nudity

by Anonymousreply 12June 25, 2022 4:20 PM

*

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by Anonymousreply 13June 25, 2022 4:23 PM

[quote]Probably the greatest actress of all time.

LOL!

by Anonymousreply 14June 25, 2022 4:29 PM

One of my favorite roles of hers is in The Secret Garden

by Anonymousreply 15June 25, 2022 4:40 PM

OP is a dumbass.

Like the rest of you trolling, dull cunts.

by Anonymousreply 16June 25, 2022 4:51 PM

Who is the greatest actress then? Maggie is at the top of the list for sure.

But DL will probably say some shit like Mia Farrow

by Anonymousreply 17June 25, 2022 4:53 PM

Comic acting is the hardest thing to pull off. Any actor can look depressed and play a sob-story role. Try surprising people and making them laugh without being an overt clown like Lucille Ball. Ain't easy but Maggie makes it look easy.

by Anonymousreply 18June 25, 2022 5:27 PM

She once said that she learned how to do comedy from Kenneth Williams.

by Anonymousreply 19June 25, 2022 5:34 PM

That’s DAME Maggie Smith to you!

by Anonymousreply 20June 25, 2022 5:37 PM

Sorry, Vanessa Redgrave holds that honor.

by Anonymousreply 21June 25, 2022 5:37 PM

R21 How so? Vanessa is great in The Bostonians, Murder on the Orient Express, Howard's End, and a few others, but she will always be a few steps behind Maggie.

by Anonymousreply 22June 25, 2022 5:43 PM

Sez you.

by Anonymousreply 23June 25, 2022 5:45 PM

Terrible actress

by Anonymousreply 24June 25, 2022 5:51 PM

Hay Fever

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by Anonymousreply 25June 25, 2022 8:16 PM

Maggie Smith

Peggy Ashcroft

Vanessa Redgrave

Judi Dench

Cybil Thorndyke

Gladys Cooper

Helen Mirren

Glenda Jackson

Emma Thompson

Angela Lansbury

by Anonymousreply 26June 25, 2022 8:42 PM

I would rate Glenda Jackson and Vanessa over her.

by Anonymousreply 27June 26, 2022 2:26 AM

[quote]She apparently refused many roles that involved nudity

Thank God.

by Anonymousreply 28June 26, 2022 2:31 AM

[quote] Probably the greatest actress of all time.

No.

by Anonymousreply 29June 26, 2022 2:35 AM

L&L

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by Anonymousreply 30June 26, 2022 2:38 AM

[quote] "and she has not stopped working sense."

Oh, dear. And I cannot believe it took thirty-one posts to get to this. You are slipping, DL.

by Anonymousreply 31June 26, 2022 2:51 AM

R19, I'm currently watching the Carry On films and it's so obvious how much she borrowed - and in some ways refined and enhanced - from Kenneth Williams.

by Anonymousreply 32June 26, 2022 3:04 AM

The Millionairess

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by Anonymousreply 33June 26, 2022 3:08 AM

[quote] On the stage she could hold her own against … Ashcroft

Dear OP, in which production did Maggie Smith and Peggy Ashcroft appear together?

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by Anonymousreply 34June 26, 2022 3:27 AM

A Coupla White Chicks, r34.

by Anonymousreply 35June 26, 2022 3:30 AM

R33: She was excellent in The Millionairess, and I wish there were more BBC performances of her doing Shaw. Her knack for doing black comedy made her perfect for a Shavian play.

I remember reading that at one point, Preston Sturges was planning to adapt The Millionairess into a film starring Katharine Hepburn. Pity that it never came to fruition.

by Anonymousreply 36June 26, 2022 3:31 AM

Kate did it in the West End, r36.

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by Anonymousreply 37June 26, 2022 3:42 AM

[quote] On the stage she could hold her own … From Shakespeare to Marlowe…

Are you talking about a play by Christopher Marlowe? Which one?

by Anonymousreply 38June 26, 2022 3:45 AM

[quote] That accent was horrible in Suddenly Last Summer.

That accent was creepily like Blanche Devereaux.

It was an unfortunate distraction in this production which was faithful to the the script but could never rival Kate Hepburn's tour de force.

by Anonymousreply 39June 26, 2022 4:00 AM

She was great in Love and Pain and the whole Damn Thing where she falls in love with the most beautiful 22 year old Timothy Bottoms. She was 39.

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by Anonymousreply 40June 26, 2022 4:03 AM

R38 - She worked with both of them - at The Globe and The Rose.

by Anonymousreply 41June 26, 2022 4:04 AM

[quote] The Globe and The Rose.

OK, The Globe Theatre 1599-1642, The Rose theatre 1587-1606.

by Anonymousreply 42June 26, 2022 4:34 AM

[quote] On the stage … from …Mamet to Shaffer.

OP. Are you talking about a play by David Mamet? Which one?

by Anonymousreply 43June 26, 2022 5:18 AM

She was wonderful and funny onstage when I saw her in Los Angeles in Noel Coward's [italic] Design for Living [/italic] , one of her co-stars being her then-husband Robert Stephens (Denholm Elliott was the third in that play about a threesome of lovers). My favorite memory of that production is that a couch got a big laugh and a round of applause.

by Anonymousreply 44June 26, 2022 5:22 AM

R42 - not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are ya?

by Anonymousreply 45June 26, 2022 5:23 AM

Dame Maggie is fantastic. She's one the greatest actresses I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. I still look forward to whatever she chooses to work in and I'd love to have her as a dinner guest.

by Anonymousreply 46June 26, 2022 5:30 AM

Englishpeople say Maggie has taken on Edith's mantle.

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by Anonymousreply 47June 26, 2022 5:32 AM

Stratford...

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by Anonymousreply 48June 26, 2022 5:38 AM

She repeats herself incessantly. So she is great I suppose at always playing the same character.

by Anonymousreply 49June 26, 2022 5:45 AM

"My House in Umbria" is my favorite movie staring Dame Maggie. But, I'm an affable chap, and easy to please.

by Anonymousreply 50June 26, 2022 5:47 AM

What is it about gay men that prevents us from saying something reasonable, like "Maggie Smith is a genuinely great actress," but instead have to assert a ridiculously unsupportable claim like "Maggie Smith is the greatest actress of all time"?

I think it's our competitiveness and our need for attention. So OP makes the unreasonable claim, and instead of talking about how fine Maggie Smith is (which is what the OP ostensibly wanted), he has to spend his time instead supporting his ill-thought-out claim.

by Anonymousreply 51June 26, 2022 2:27 PM

R51 You must be new here! DL is nothing but a bunch of bitchy fat old men who are heir apparent to the thrown.

by Anonymousreply 52June 26, 2022 2:33 PM

Oh dear!

by Anonymousreply 53June 26, 2022 2:52 PM

I love Ian McKellen impersonating Maggie here.

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by Anonymousreply 54June 26, 2022 2:58 PM

talk about two withering queens!

by Anonymousreply 55June 26, 2022 3:00 PM

She is very, very, very good. But she's not even the best British actress of her generation. I'd give that to Vanessa Redgrave. My favorite British actress of all time is probably Deborah Kerr or Vivien Leigh.

by Anonymousreply 56June 26, 2022 3:01 PM

Smith is the queen of high comedy. But probably couldn't match Redgrave for her roles in LONG DAY'S JOURNEY, CAMINO REAL, MAGICAL THINKING onstage and ISADORA, JULIA, CAMELOT, HOWARD'S END on film. Still, who cares? I'm glad they both flourished in my lifetime.

by Anonymousreply 57June 26, 2022 4:44 PM

Stratford

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by Anonymousreply 58June 26, 2022 4:52 PM

R50 I love that too, was her first Emmy win as the retired prostitute who loves her gin. I was lucky enough to see her in "A German Life" in London a few years ago, she held the stage completely alone and was mesmeric.

by Anonymousreply 59June 26, 2022 5:14 PM

Sorry, before I get chastised, Redgrave did Orpheus Descending in NY, not Camino Real.

by Anonymousreply 60June 26, 2022 7:23 PM

[quote] I get chastised

The OP has already been chastised for all the errors in the OP.

by Anonymousreply 61June 26, 2022 10:35 PM

R25 Maggie slaps that older man who tries to court her whereas she knows she should be slapped for being such a shameless coquette.

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by Anonymousreply 62June 26, 2022 11:14 PM

Maggie said she lived a perfectly normal life until Downton Abbey started. Shee said American tourists didn't know who she was until that and Harry Potter. Even with two Oscars and lots of popular films including the Sister Act franchise. I knew her going back to Murder by Death, and purposely went to see California Suite, Death on the Nile and Evil under the Sun because she was in it. and later on A Room with a View and Judith Hearne. I wish I could have seen Clash of the Titans on the big screen, but she's always been a part of my cinematic life.

by Anonymousreply 63June 26, 2022 11:58 PM

Any discussion of Maggie has to include her lovely work in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads.

by Anonymousreply 64June 27, 2022 1:12 AM

A new face...

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by Anonymousreply 65June 27, 2022 1:15 AM

R64 Link to the Talking Head please?

by Anonymousreply 66June 27, 2022 1:17 AM

R65 A satirical song with excellent diction.

by Anonymousreply 67June 27, 2022 1:19 AM

Bed Among the Lentils, r66...

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by Anonymousreply 68June 27, 2022 1:19 AM

I liked her in Quartet with Alan Bates as her bisexual and womanizing husband.

by Anonymousreply 69June 27, 2022 1:20 AM

I adore Maggie Smith and Vanessa Redgrave both, but if I had to make a case for either of the greatest actress (of her generation, of the century, whatever), I'd be Team Smith all the way.

As others have noted, Smith is matchless in high comedy -- Redgrave, by contrast, is only occasionally successful in comic mode (like that Snow White thing she did for TV) but more often at sea there.

Onscreen, anyway, Smith hasn't gotten as many opportunities to score with dramatic/serious parts, but when she's gotten the chance (BED AMONG THE LENTILS, as already noted, but also THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE and LOVE, PAIN AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING), her work is every bit as powerful as Redgrave's.

I suppose that I should admit that I've never seen Smith live, since she hasn't done anything on an American stage since LETTICE AND LOVAGE. I've seen Redgrave 4 times, however, ranging from the transcendent (LONG DAY'S JOURNEY and, of all things, Jesse Eisenberg's THE REVISIONIST) to the oracular (YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING) to the underwhelming (DRIVING MISS DAISY).

by Anonymousreply 70June 27, 2022 1:24 AM

People are also forgetting she played Desdemona alongside Laurence Olivier's Othello and Frank Finlay's Iago. She was the one everyone was talking about.

by Anonymousreply 71June 27, 2022 1:35 AM

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

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by Anonymousreply 72June 27, 2022 1:44 AM

[quote] Desdemona … She was the one everyone was talking about.

I don't know to who you were talking but Maggie Smith has been avoiding Shakespeare and all the big dramatic roles for forty years. She played Desdemona because the National Theatre in the 60s was a repertory company and she obviously favoured the comic roles over the dramatic.

by Anonymousreply 73June 27, 2022 2:00 AM

R73, I assume that you say "40 years" because Smith did play Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra at Canada's Stratford Festival in the '70s. Apart from her wonderful performance in Ian McKellen's RICHARD III movie, however, you may be right about her avoidance of Shakespeare.

As for her favoring comic roles over dramatic ones, I suppose that's possible. I suspect, however, that it's more a function of the rep she's offered -- or do you have evidence of her turning down dramatic parts?

by Anonymousreply 74June 27, 2022 2:32 PM

I love the story about Maggie going to the theater while in New York and seeing a play featuring Dana Ivey. She said she overheard someone next to her killing their friend that the woman on stage looked like Maggie Smith, chuckled to herself and was grateful that she wasn't recognized.

by Anonymousreply 75June 27, 2022 2:40 PM

Telling, not killing. Sorry for the sudden change that I didn't see in proofreading.

by Anonymousreply 76June 27, 2022 2:42 PM

Hippolyta

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by Anonymousreply 77June 27, 2022 2:54 PM

R75 Maggie Smith looks like Dana Ivey.

by Anonymousreply 78June 27, 2022 5:54 PM
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