In Pictures: Maggie Smith reached peak of her fame decades after Oscar victory

Dame Maggie Smith won a best actress Oscar in 1970 but found an even wider profile in the last years of her career.

Dame Maggie Smith will be remembered by younger fans for her roles in the Harry Potter movies and for Downton Abbey, but had been at the top of the acting profession since the 1960s.

Her early performances were in the 1950s but she claimed the Academy Award for best actress in 1970 for her role in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, playing a seethingly ambitious teacher on a mission to make her girls the “creme de la creme”.

In her later years, her role as the waspish Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey saw her steal many a scene, while her place in the Harry Potter world as Professor Minerva McGonagall is secure.

Black and white head and shoulders shot of Maggie Smith — Maggie Smith (UK/TV Times/PA)

Jill Bennett, Tom Jones and Maggie Smith (left to right) with awards from the Variety Club of Great Britain in 1969 (PA)

Twice married, she leaves two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, who have both chosen to follow an acting career.

Maggie Smith, as Amanda, and Robert Stephens, as Elyot, in the Noel Coward comedy Private Lives in 1972 (PA)

Dame Maggie Smith with the King — The King (then the Prince of Wales) speaks with Dame Maggie Smith at the Prince’s Trust reception at the 2016 Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards (Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror/PA)

Dame Maggie Smith (left) and Dame Judi Dench arrive for a screening of Ladies In Lavender in 2004 (Ian West/PA)

Dame Maggie Smith at Westminster Abbey — Dame Maggie Smith during a wreath-laying ceremony in Westminster Abbey in 2007 to mark the centenary of the birth of Sir Laurence Olivier (PA)

Dame Maggie Smith on a film set in 2020 — Dame Maggie Smith on the set of the film A Boy Called Christmas in London in 2020 (Aaron Chown/PA)

Dame Maggie Smith at Wimbledon — Dame Maggie Smith in the royal box at Wimbledon in 2019 (Steven Paston/PA)

Dame Maggie Smith on a stamp — Maggie Smith in Hedda Gabler, 1970 on a Royal Mail stamp (Royal Mail/PA)

Dame Maggie Smith with the late Queen Elizabeth II — Dame Maggie Smith is made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle in 2014 (Dominic Lipinski/PA)