In music, a quartet (French: quatuor, German: Quartett, Italian: quartetto, Spanish: cuarteto, Polish: kwartet) is a method of instrumentation (or a medium), used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.

Western art music[link]

In Western art music, which is often referred to as "Classical music," string quartets are considered to be an important type of chamber music. String quartets consist of two violins, a viola, and a cello. The particular choice and number of instruments derives from the registers of the human voice: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. In the string quartet, two violins play the soprano and alto vocal registers, the viola plays the tenor register and the cello plays the bass register. Occasionally, string quartets are written for violin, viola, cello and double bass, representing the SATB format. The types of pieces written for this quartet are sometimes in the format of 2 main voices, (violin and cello) backed up by the viola and double bass respectively.

One of the early composers of string quartets, Luigi Boccherini, wrote 100 string quartets. Other important composers of string quartets include Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. The term "quartet" is also used to refer to a musical composition written for such a group. In string quartets, each player is typically given an allowing distinct part.

Another common type of Western art music quartet is the piano quartet, consisting of violin, viola, cello, and piano.

Wind quartets are scored either the same as a string quartet with the wind instrument replacing the first violin (i.e. scored for wind, violin, viola and cello) or are groups of four wind instruments. Among the latter, the SATB format woodwind quartet of flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon is relatively common.

An example of a wind quartet featuring four of the same types of wind instruments is the "Saxophone Quartet", consisting of Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone and Baritone Saxophone or (SATB). Often a second alto may be substituted for the Soprano part (AATB) or a Bass Saxophone may be substituted for the Bari. The groups usually perform a mix of classical and jazz. Saxophone Quartet literature is limited and most of the traditional style classical sheet music is transcribed from string quartet charts.

Jazz[link]

Quartets are widely used in jazz and jazz fusion music. A standard quartet formation in jazz is an ensemble consisting of a "horn" (e.g., saxophone, trumpet, etc.), a chordal instrument (e.g., electric guitar, piano, Hammond organ, etc.), a bass instrument (e.g., double bass or bass guitar) and a drum kit. This configuration is sometimes modified by using a second "horn" in place of the chordal instrument, or by using two chordal instruments (e.g., piano and electric guitar).

Popular music[link]

The quartet lineup is very common in pop and rock music. A standard quartet formation in pop and rock music is an ensemble consisting of two electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a drum kit. This configuration is sometimes modified by using a keyboard instrument (e.g., organ, piano, synthesizer) or a soloing instrument (e.g., saxophone) in place of the second electric guitar.^[1]

Vocal quartet[link]

Vocal quartets can consist of:
1st Tenor, 2nd Tenor (Lead), Baritone, and Bass for male groups;
1st Soprano, 2nd Soprano (Lead), Mezzo-Soprano, and Contralto for female groups;
Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor or Baritone, and Bass for mixed groups;
Tenor, Lead, Baritone, Bass for male or female quartets singing barbershop music

Western art music[link]

In the Western art music tradition, vocal music arranged for four singers in an opera or choral work is referred to as a quartet.^[2]

Popular music[link]

In 20th century US popular music, the term "vocal quartet" is used to refer to ensembles of four singers, usually of the same sex. This is particularly common for Barbershop quartets and Gospel quartets. Some well-known female US vocal quartets include The Carter Sisters; The Forester Sisters; The Chiffons; The Chordettes; The Lennon Sisters; and En Vogue. Some well-known male US vocal quartets include The Ames Brothers; The Chi-Lites; Crosby Stills Nash & Young; The Dixie Hummingbirds; The Four Aces; Four Freshmen; The Four Seasons; The Four Tops; The Cathedral Quartet; Ernie Haase and Signature Sound; The Golden Gate Quartet; The Hilltoppers; The Jordanaires; Mills Brothers; The Rascals; and The Skylarks. The only known U.S. drag quartet is The Kinsey Sicks. Some mixed-gender vocal quartets include The Pied Pipers; The Mamas & the Papas; The Merry Macs; and The Weavers; .

See also[link]

• Quintet

References[link]

Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE (born 19 October 1940) is an Irish^[1][2] actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlow in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as Professor Albus Dumbledore in the last six Harry Potter films (following the death of actor Richard Harris).

Early life[link]

Gambon was born in Cabra, Dublin, during World War II. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer, and his mother, Mary (née Hoare),^[3] was a seamstress. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent in North London, when Gambon was five. His father had him made a British citizen, a decision that would later allow Gambon to receive an actual, rather than honorary, knighthood and CBE.^[4]

Brought up as a strict Roman Catholic,^[5] he attended St Aloysius Boys' School in Somers Town and served at the altar.^[5] He then moved to St Aloysius' College in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London, whose former pupils include Peter Sellers and Joe Cole. He later attended a school in Kent, before leaving with no qualifications at fifteen. He then gained an apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong as a toolmaker. By the time he was 21, he was a fully qualified engineer. He kept the job for a further year, acquiring a fascination and passion for collecting antique guns, clocks, watches, and classic cars.

Career[link]

Early work[link]

At the age of 18, Gambon went off to attend drama school at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and studied classical acting for 3 years, eventually receiving a BA in Classical Acting. Gambon built a very solid CV whilst at RADA consisting of the works of William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov and many others. Aged 19, while at RADA, he joined the Unity Theatre in King's Cross. Five years later he wrote a letter to Michael MacLiammoir, the Irish theatre impresario who ran Dublin's Gate Theatre. It was accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career – and he was taken on.

Gambon made his professional stage début in the Gate Theatre Dublin's 1962 production of Othello, playing "Second Gentleman", followed by a European tour. A year later, cheekily auditioning with the opening soliloquy from Richard III, he caught the eye of star-maker Laurence Olivier who was recruiting promising spear carriers for his new National Theatre Company. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay, was hired as one of the "to be renowned" and played any number of small roles, appearing on cast lists as "Mike Gambon". The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being Hamlet, directed by Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole. Gambon played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in The Recruiting Officer and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, working with directors William Gaskill and John Dexter.

Theatre[link]

After three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the NT for the Birmingham Repertory Company, which was to give him his first crack at the title roles in Othello (his favourite), Macbeth and Coriolanus.

His rise to stardom began in 1974 when Eric Thompson cast him as the melancholy vet in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests at Greenwich. A speedy transfer to the West End established him as a brilliant comic actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair and sublimely agonising over a choice between black or white coffee.

Back at the National, now on the South Bank, his next turning point was Peter Hall's premiere staging of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, an unexpectedly subtle performance – a production photograph shows him embracing Penelope Wilton with sensitive hands and long slim fingers (the touch of a master clock-maker).

He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the harsh demands of the vast Olivier Theatre. As Simon Callow once said: "Gambon's iron lungs and overwhelming charisma are able to command a sort of operatic full-throatedness which triumphs over hard walls and long distances".

This was to serve him in good stead in John Dexter's masterly staging of The Life of Galileo in 1980, the first Brecht to become a popular success. Hall called him "unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful", even The Sunday Times' curmudgeonly critic of the day called his performance "a decisive step in the direction of great tragedy... great acting", while fellow actors paid him the rare compliment of applauding him in the dressing room on the first night.

From the first Ralph Richardson dubbed him The Great Gambon, an accolade which stuck, outshining his 1990 CBE,^[6] even the later knighthood, although Gambon dismisses it as a circus slogan. But as Sheridan Morley perceptively remarked in 2000, when reviewing Cressida: "Gambon's eccentricity on stage now begins to rival that of his great mentor Richardson". Also like Richardson, interviews are rarely given and raise more questions than they answer. Gambon is a very private person, a "non-starry star" as Ayckbourn called him. Off-stage he prefers to back out of the limelight, an unpretentious guy sharing laughs with his fellow cast and crew. While he has won screen acclaim, no-one who saw his ravaged King Lear at Stratford, while still in his early forties, will forget his superb double act with a red-nosed Antony Sher as the Fool sitting on his master's knee like a ventriloquist's doll.

There were also notable appearances in Old Times at the Haymarket Theatre and Volpone and the brutal sergeant in Pinter's Mountain Language. David Hare's Skylight, with Lia Williams, which opened to rave reviews at the National in 1995, transferred first to Wyndham's Theatre and then on to Broadway for a four-month run which left him in a state of advanced exhaustion. "Skylight was ten times as hard to play as anything I've ever done" he told Michael Owen in the Evening Standard. "I had a great time in New York, but wanted to return".

Gambon is almost the only leading actor not to grace Yasmina Reza's ART at Wyndham's. But together with Simon Russell Beale and Alan Bates he gave a deliciously droll radio account of the role of Marc. And for the RSC he shared Reza's two-hander The Unexpected Man with Eileen Atkins, first at The Pit in the Barbican and then at the Duchess Theatre, a production also intended for New York but finally delayed by other commitments.

In 2001 he played what he described as "a physically repulsive" Davies in Patrick Marber's revival of Pinter's The Caretaker, but he found the rehearsal period an unhappy experience, and felt that he had let down the author. A year later, playing opposite Daniel Craig, he portrayed the father of a series of cloned sons in Caryl Churchill's A Number at the Royal Court, notable for a recumbent moment when he smoked a cigarette, the brightly lit spiral of smoke rising against a black backdrop, an effect which he dreamed up during rehearsals.

In 2004, Gambon played the lead role (Hamm) in Samuel Beckett's post-apocalyptic play Endgame at the Albery Theatre, London.^[7] In 2005 he finally achieved a life-long ambition to play Falstaff, in Nicholas Hytner's National production of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, co-starring with Matthew Macfadyen as Prince Hal.

Films and television[link]

He made his film debut in the Laurence Olivier Othello in 1965. He then played romantic leads, notably in the early 1970s BBC television series, The Borderers, in which he was swashbuckling Gavin Ker. As a result, Gambon was asked by James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli to audition for the role in 1970, to replace George Lazenby. His craggy looks soon made him into a character actor, although he won critical acclaim as Galileo in John Dexter's production of The Life of Galileo by Brecht at the National Theatre in 1980. But it was not until Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (1986) that he became a household name. After this success, for which he won a BAFTA, his work includes such controversial films as The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, which also starred Helen Mirren.

In 1992 he played a psychotic general in the Barry Levinson film Toys and he also starred as Georges Simenon's detective Inspector Jules Maigret in an ITV adaptation of Simenon's series of books. He starred as Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the Hungarian director Károly Makk's movie The Gambler (1997) about the writing of Dostoyevsky's novella The Gambler. In recent years, films such as Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), Plunkett & Macleane (1998), and Sleepy Hollow (1999), as well as television appearances in series such as Wives and Daughters (1999) (for which he won another BAFTA), a made-for-TV adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Endgame (2001) and Perfect Strangers (2001) have revealed a talent for comedy. Gambon played President Lyndon B. Johnson in the television film Path to War. For this performance, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Mini-series or Movie and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture made for Television.

In 2004, he appeared in five films, including Wes Anderson's quirky comedy The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; the British gangster flick Layer Cake; theatrical drama Being Julia; and CGI action fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

In 2004, he began playing Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts's headmaster in the third installment of J. K. Rowling's franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, taking over the role after the death of Richard Harris. (Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role.) Gambon reprised the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was released in November 2005 in the United Kingdom and the United States. He returned to the role again in the fifth film, 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He appeared in the seventh film; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I and II, released in two parts in 2010 and 2011. Despite having deliberately misled an interviewer (something Gambon enjoys doing often, to mix things up a bit), he hasn't read the books, as evidenced in the Prisoner of Azkaban interviews.^[8] Similarly, he also misled another interviewer to believe that, when playing Dumbledore, he does not "have to play anyone really. I just stick on a beard and play me, so it's no great feat. I never ease into a role—every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. I'm not really a character actor at all..."^[9]

Radio[link]

In 1990 he played Jerry in Harold Pinter's Betrayal for BBC Radio 3. In 2006 he played Henry in Stephen Rea's play about Samuel Beckett's Embers for Radio 3.^[10] In 2007 he was Sam in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming for Radio 3.^[11]

Ongoing work[link]

He performed as Joe in Beckett's Eh Joe, giving two performances a night at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. He currently does the voice over to the new Guinness ads with the penguins.^[12] In 2007 he played major roles in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace, and the five-part adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford novels, both for BBC TV.

In 2008 Gambon appeared in the role of Hirst in No Man's Land by Harold Pinter in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, opposite David Bradley as Spooner, in a production directed by Rupert Goold, which transferred to the London West End's Duke of York's Theatre, for which roles each received nominations for the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. He also appeared as the Narrator in the British version of Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire.

After Pinter's death on 24 December 2008, Gambon read Hirst's monologue selected by the playwright for Gambon to read at his funeral, held on 31 December 2008, during the cast's memorial remarks from the stage as well as at the funeral and also in Words and Music, transmitted on the BBC Radio 3 on 22 February 2009.^[13]

In late 2009 he had to withdraw from his role of W. H. Auden in The Habit of Art (being replaced by Richard Griffiths) because of ill health. That same year he played his role as Mr. Woodhouse in a television adaptation of Jane Austen's famously irrepressible Emma, a four-hour miniseries that premiered on BBC One in October 2009, co-starring Jonny Lee Miller and Romola Garai.^[14] Gambon received a 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie nomination for his performance.

In April 2010, Gambon returned once again to the Gate Theatre Dublin to appear in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, which transferred to London's Duchess Theatre in October 2010.^[15]

Gambon appeared alongside Katherine Jenkins in the 2010 Christmas Special of Doctor Who, A Christmas Carol.^[16]

Personal life[link]

Gambon married Anne Miller when he was 22, but has always been secretive about his personal life, responding to one interviewer's question about her: "What wife?" The couple lived near Gravesend, Kent, where she has a workshop. Gambon was invested by Prince Charles as a Knight Bachelor on 17 July 1998 for "services to drama". (Queen Elizabeth II's approval for the award was notified in the 1998 New Year Honours List.) Anne Miller thus became Lady Gambon.^[17][18] They have one son, Fergus, an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow.

While filming Gosford Park, Gambon brought Philippa Hart on to the set and introduced her to co-stars as his girlfriend. When the affair was revealed in 2002, he moved out of the marital home and bought a bachelor pad. Hart, who worked with Gambon on the film, Sylvia in 2003, in late 2006 moved into a £500,000 terraced home in Chiswick, west London. In February 2007, it was revealed that Hart was pregnant with Gambon's child, and gave birth to son, Michael, in May 2007. On 22 June 2009 she gave birth to her second child, a boy named William, who is Gambon's third child.^[19]

Gambon is a qualified private pilot and his love of cars led to his appearance on the BBC's Top Gear programme. Gambon raced the Suzuki Liana and was driving so aggressively that it went round the last corner of his timed lap on two wheels. The final corner of the Top Gear test track has been named "Gambon" in his honour.

He appeared on the programme again on 4 June 2006, and set a time in the Chevrolet Lacetti of 1:50.3, a significant improvement on his previous time of 1:55. He clipped his namesake corner the second time, and when asked why by Jeremy Clarkson, replied, "I dunno – I just don't like it."

Work[link]

Theatre[link]

• Othello (Second Gentleman), Gate Theatre, Dublin, professional debut 1962, followed by a European tour
• Hamlet, National Theatre at the Old Vic, 1963
• Saint Joan, National/Old Vic, 1963
• The Recruiting Officer (Coster Permain), National/Old Vic, 1963
• Andorra, National/Old Vic, 1964
• Philoctetes, National/Old Vic, 1964
• Othello, National/Old Vic, 1964
• The Royal Hunt of the Sun (Diego), Chichester Festival and National/Old Vic, 1964
• The Crucible (Herrick), National/Old Vic, 1965
• Mother Courage and Her Children (Eilif), National/Old Vic, 1965
• Love for Love (Snap), National/Old Vic, 1965, also tour to Russia and Germany
• Juno and the Paycock (Jerry Devine), National/Old Vic, 1966
• The Storm, National/Old Vic, 1966
• Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun by John McGrath (Flynn), Birmingham Rep, 1967
• A Severed Head (Palmer Anderson), Birmingham Rep, 1967
• The Doctor's Dilemma (Patric Cullen), Birmingham Rep, 1967
• Saint Joan (Cauchon), Birmingham Rep, 1967
• Peer Gynt (The Button Moulder), Birmingham Rep, 1968
• Othello (title role), Birmingham Rep, 1968
• Macbeth, The Forum Theatre, Billingham, 1968
• In Celebration (Andrew), Liverpool Playhouse, 1969
• Coriolanus (title role), Liverpool Playhouse, 1969
• The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising (Wiebe), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1970
• Major Barbara (Charles Lomax), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1970
• Henry VIII (Surrey), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1971
• When Thou Art King (Hotspur), RSC Roundhouse, 1971
• The Brass Hat (Guy Holden), Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, 1972
• Not Drowning But Waving by Leonard Webb (Robin), Greenwich Theatre, 1973
• The Norman Conquests trilogy (Tom), Greenwich Theatre, 1974
• The Norman Conquests (Tom), Globe Theatre, London 1975
• The Zoo Story (Gerry), Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park lunchtime production, 1975
• Otherwise Engaged (Simon), Queen's Theatre, 1976 (replacing Alan Bates)
• Just Between Ourselves (Neil), Queen's Theatre, 1977
• Alice's Boys by Felicity Browne and Jonathan Hales (Bertie), Savoy Theatre, London, 1978
• Betrayal (Jerry), National Theatre, 1978
• Close of Play (Henry), National Lyttelton Theatre, 1979
• Richard III (taking over as Buckingham), National, 1980
• Othello (Roderigo), National, 1980
• Sisterly Feelings (Patrick), National, 1980
• The Life of Galileo (title role), National Olivier Theatre, 1980
• King Lear (title role) RSC Stratford,1982; Barbican Theatre, 1983
• Antony and Cleopatra (Antony), RSC Stratford, 1982; Barbican, 1983
• Tales from Hollywood (Ödön von Horváth), National, 1983
• Old Times (Deeley), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1985
• A Chorus of Disapproval (Dafyd ap Llewellyn), National Olivier, 1985
• Tons of Money (Sprules), National Lyttelton, 1986
• A View from the Bridge (Eddie Carbone), National Cottesloe Theatre, 1987
• A Small Family Business (Jack McCracken), National Olivier, 1987
• Mountain Language (Sergeant), National Lyttelton, 1988
• Uncle Vanya (title role), Vaudeville Theatre, 1988
• Veterans' Day (Walter Kercelik), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1989
• Man of the Moment (Douglas Beechey), Globe Theatre, London, 1990
• Othello (title role), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 1991
• Taking Steps, Stephen Joseph, Scarborough, 1981
• Volpone (title role), National Olivier, 1995
• Skylight (Tom Sergeant), National Cottesloe, 1995
• Skylight (Tom Sergeant), Broadway, 1996
• Tom and Clem (Tom Driberg), Aldwych Theatre, 1997
• The Unexpected Man (The Man), RSC The Pit, Barbican, 1998
• Juno and the Paycock (Captain Jack Boyle), Gaiety Theatre, 1999
• Cressida (John Shank), The Almeida Theatre at the Albery, 2000
• The Caretaker (Davies), Comedy Theatre, 2001
• A Number (The Father), Royal Court Theatre, 2002
• Endgame (Hamm), Albery Theatre, 2004
• Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 (Sir John Falstaff), National Olivier, 2005
• Celebration Pinter staged reading (Lambert), Gate Theatre, Dublin/Albery, 2005
• Eh Joe (Joe), Gate Theatre, transfer to Duke of York's Theatre, 2006
• No Man's Land (Hirst), Gate Theatre, transfer to Duke of York's Theatre 2008/09
• Krapp's Last Tape (Krapp), Gate Theatre, transfer to Duchess Theatre, 2010

Filmography[link]

Radio[link]

Video games[link]

• Ghosthunter (2003) – Lord William Hawksmoor
• The Elder Scrolls Online^[21] (2013)

CDs[link]

• Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - Music and Sonnetts (2011) – Michael Gambon, Robert Atchison and the Altamira Chamber Orchestra

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Who's Who in the Theatre, Fourteenth edition, Pitman (1967) for National Theatre at the Old Vic playbills
• Who's Who in the Theatre, Seventeenth edition, Gale (1981) ISBN 0-8103-0235-7 for Michael Gambon's own CV up to 1980
• Giant of the Stage: A Profile of Michael Gambon by John Thaxter, The Stage newspaper, (16 November 2000)
• Gambon: A Life in Acting by Mel Gussow, Nick Hern Books (2004) ISBN 185497736
• Theatre Record and Theatre Record annual indexes 1981–2007

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Gambon

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michael Gambon

• Michael Gambon at AllRovi
• Michael Gambon at the Internet Broadway Database
• Michael Gambon at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Gambon at Yahoo! Movies
• Biography at Tiscali UK
• 2004 Interview with Sir Michael Gambon The Guardian (23 April 2004)
• theartsdesk Q&A with Michael Gambon (25 September 2010)

Dame Maggie Smith DBE
Smith filming in Kensington Gardens, 7 March 2007
Born	Margaret Natalie Smith (1934-12-28) 28 December 1934 (age 77) Ilford, London, England, UK
Other names	Dame Maggie Smith
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1952–present
Spouse	Robert Stephens (1967–74, divorced) Beverley Cross (1975–98, his death)
Children	Chris Larkin, Toby Stephens

Dame Margaret Natalie "Maggie" Smith, DBE (born 28 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress. She has had an extensive career both on screen and in live theatre, and is known as one of Britain's pre-eminent actors. She made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 60 years. She has won numerous awards for acting, both for the stage and for film, including seven BAFTA Awards (five competitive awards and two special awards including the Bafta Fellowship in 1996), two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, two Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, two SAG Awards and a Tony Award. Dame Maggie is the only actor ever to win this collective of awards and is one of the most successful and acclaimed actors of the film era.

Her critically acclaimed films include Othello (1965), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Travels with My Aunt (1972), California Suite (1978), Clash of the Titans (1981), A Room with a View (1985) and Gosford Park (2001). She has also appeared in a number of widely-popular films, including Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992) and as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series. She currently stars in the critically acclaimed drama Downton Abbey as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, for which she has won an Emmy.

Early life[link]

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, London. She is the daughter of Margaret Smith (née Hutton), a Glasgow-born secretary, and Nathaniel Smith, a Newcastle upon Tyne-born public health pathologist who worked at Oxford University.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} She has older twin brothers, Alistair and Ian, who went to architecture school.^[6] Smith studied at Oxford High School.

Career[link]

Smith began her career at the Oxford Playhouse with Frank Shelley and made her first film in 1956. She became a fixture at the Royal National Theatre in the 1960s, most notably for playing Desdemona in Othello opposite Laurence Olivier and winning her first Oscar nomination for her performance in the 1965 film version.

She appeared with Ronnie Barker at the Oxford Playhouse in the play The Housemaster and various others. Barker did not think much of her, saying "she only had two styles-either grand and rather camp, or sharp cockney".^[7]

In 1969, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as an unorthodox Scottish schoolteacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a role originally created on stage by Vanessa Redgrave in 1966 in London. (Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play when she created the role in New York.) Smith was also awarded the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the brittle actress Diana Barry in California Suite, acting opposite Michael Caine. Afterwards, on hearing that Michael Palin was about to embark on a film (The Missionary) with Smith, Caine is supposed to have humorously telephoned Palin, warning him that she would steal the film. She also starred with Palin in the black comedy A Private Function in 1984.

Smith appeared in Sister Act in 1992 and had a major role in the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, where she appeared as the formidable Lady Hester. Indeed, many of her more mature roles have centred on what Smith refers to as her "gallery of grotesques", playing waspish, sarcastic or plain rude characters. Recent examples of this would include the judgmental sister in Ladies in Lavender and the cantankerous snob Constance, Countess of Trentham, in Gosford Park, for which she received another Oscar nomination.

Other notable roles include the querulous Charlotte Bartlett in the Merchant-Ivory production of A Room with a View, a vivid supporting turn as the aged Duchess of York in Ian McKellen's film of Richard III, and a little known but powerful performance as Lila Fisher in the 1973 film Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing with Timothy Bottoms. Due to the international success of the Harry Potter movies, she is now widely known for playing the role of Professor Minerva McGonagall, opposite Daniel Radcliffe, with whom she had previously worked in the 1999 BBC television adaptation of David Copperfield, playing Betsey Trotwood. She also plays an older Wendy in the Peter Pan movie Hook, and Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden. In 2010, she appeared as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the first and second series of the British period drama Downton Abbey.

She appeared in numerous productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, to acclaim from 1976 through to 1980. These roles included Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Virginia Woolf in Virginia, and countless lead roles with long-time Stratford icon Brian Bedford including the Noël Coward comedy Private Lives.

On stage, her many roles have included the title character in the stage production of Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van and starring as Amanda in a revival of Private Lives. She won a Tony Award in 1990 for Best Actress in a Play for Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage, in which she starred as an eccentric tour guide in an English stately home. In 2007, she appeared in Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque at Theatre Royal Haymarket.

She appeared in a 1954 BBC television programme, Oxford Accents, produced by the late Ned Sherrin.^[8] She was one of the performers, playing several roles, in New Faces of 1956 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre from 14 June to 22 December 1956.^[9][10] She was "in Orange" in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, based on the book by Bamber Gascoigne, that opened at the Lyric Hammersmith on 21 August 1957. With Anthony Bowles as musical director, it transferred to the Comedy Theatre on 25 September 1957 and to the Garrick Theatre on 27 January 1958. Smith's musical numbers in this performance included: Love's Cocktail (solo), On Train He'll Come (solo), Party Games (solo), Bubble Man (with Kenneth Williams) and Menu (with Kenneth Williams).^[11] Eight photos from this performance as well as an article on Smith appeared in the November 1957 issue of Theatre World magazine.^[12] One of Smith's earliest acting citations was as nominee for Most Promising Newcomer to Film of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Nowhere To Go in 1958.^[13] In Hollywood, Smith was a nominee for the Golden Globe Awards New Star of the Year (Actress) in 1964 for her performance in The V.I.P.s. In 2012, she earned another Golden Globe Awards nomination (her ninth) for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for series 1 of Downton Abbey.^[14] Smith won her second Emmy Award for this role.^[15]

In 2012, Maggie played Muriel in the British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. She is also starring as Jean Horton in Quartet, based on Ronald Harwood's play, directed by Dustin Hoffman.

Smith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1970 New Year Honours^[16] and was raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in the 1990 New Year Honours.^[17]

In 1986, she was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Bath.^[18] She also received honorary degrees from the University of St Andrews in 1971 and the University of Cambridge in 1995.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Smith has been married twice. She married actor Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967 at Greenwich Register Office. The couple had two sons: actors Chris Larkin (born in 1967) and Toby Stephens (born in 1969),^[4] and divorced on 6 May 1974.^[4] Smith is a grandmother via both her sons.^[20][21]

She married playwright Beverley Cross on 23 August 1975 at the Guildford Register Office; he died on 20 March 1998.

In 2007, the Sunday Telegraph's Mandrake diary disclosed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was subsequently reported to have made a full recovery.^[22]

Filmography[link]

Television and cinema[link]

Theatre roles[link]