What is the best Maggie Smith role of all time?

By YPB Team

Oscar winner, BAFTA legend, and the most beloved scene-stealer in British cinema — from Jean Brodie to Violet Crawley, her withering put-downs are a national treasure. Which Maggie is your Maggie?

Othello

A 1965 film adaptation where Smith plays Desdemona alongside Laurence Olivier, earning her first Academy Award nomination.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

A 1969 drama where Smith plays Jean Brodie, a charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher with fascist sympathies, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress.

California Suite

A 1978 Neil Simon comedy where Smith plays Diana Barrie, a British actress attending the Oscars with her gay husband, earning her second Academy Award.

A Room with a View

A 1985 Merchant Ivory adaptation where Smith plays Charlotte Bartlett, the prim chaperone who tries to manage her free-spirited niece in Florence.

Hook

A 1991 Steven Spielberg fantasy where Smith plays the elderly Wendy Darling, who implores a grown-up Peter Pan to remember who he was.

Sister Act

A 1992 comedy where Smith plays the uptight Mother Superior who must accept Whoopi Goldberg's show-stopping singer into her convent.

Tea with Mussolini

A 1999 Franco Zeffirelli film where Smith plays Lady Hester Random, a formidable expatriate Englishwoman living in Fascist Florence.

Gosford Park

A 2001 Robert Altman murder mystery where Smith plays Lady Constance Trentham, the acerbic, cash-strapped aristocrat who provides some of the film's sharpest wit.

Harry Potter Series

The 2001–2011 fantasy franchise where Smith plays Professor Minerva McGonagall, the stern but loyal deputy headmistress of Hogwarts.

Downton Abbey

A 2010–2015 ITV period drama where Smith plays Violet Crawley, the razor-tongued Dowager Countess whose withering one-liners became iconic.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

A 2012 comedy-drama where Smith plays Muriel Donnelly, a prejudiced housekeeper who travels to India for hip surgery and undergoes an unexpected transformation.