Dame Maggie Smith has died at the age of 89, leaving behind a remarkable body of work emcompassing television, film and theatre.
She played her first part on the stage in 1952 at the age of 17, as Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse, with her televison debut coming two years later in Oxford Accents produced by Ned Sherrin.
Smith’s first major film role was in 1959’s Nowhere to Go, for which she received the first of her 18 BAFTA Award acting nominations.
It was the start of a career that saw her become one of the most recognisable faces in cinema, and one of the most prolific.
Her accolades include two Academy Awards (for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Tony Award, and six Laurence Olivier Award nominations. Smith was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.
Other Oscar-nominated performances included in Othello, Travels with My Aunt, A Room with a View, and Gosford Park.
Away from the awards ceremonies, she was best known for appearing as Violet Crawley in the period drama Downton Abbey and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series.
Here are her best 11 films, according to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
1. A Room With A View
Remarkably Maggie Smith has three films that have a perfect 100 per cent rating. The first is Merchant Ivory costume drama A Room With A View, adapted from E. M. Forster's novel of the same name. It follows a young woman's romance in Edwardian England, with the prospective couple played by Helena Bonham Carter and Julian Sands. Smith plays chaperone Charlotte Bartlett. It won three Academy Awards, including for Best Adapted Screenplay. | Contributed
2. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
Maggie Smith's second perfect film is The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, which saw her co-star with Bob Hoskins. Her titular character is a woman from a good family who becomes impoverished, moves to Dublin and is attracted to her landlady’s widowed brother. | Contributed
3. The Missionary
The third 100 per cent rated film in Maggie Smith's filmography is 1982 British comedy The Missionary. Smith plays Isabel Lady Ames, a wealthy woman who Michael Palin's missionary meets on a boat tavelling from Africa to England. She agrees to fund his mission but on one condition - that he spices up her less-than-satisfying sex life. | Contributed
4. Nothing Like A Dame
Maggie Smith plays herself in her fourth best reviewed film. Released in 2018, it sees her chat to fellow acting dames Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, and Joan Plowright - interspersed with scenes from their careers on film and stage. It has a near-perfect 98 per cent rating. | Contributed