Maggie Smith: A Biography (44 page)

Back on the London stage: Maggie as Millamant in a new production of
The Way of the World
by William Gaskill at the Haymarket in 1984, with Joan Plowright as Lady Wishfort

as Cocteau's glittering, incestuous Jocasta in
The Infernal Machine
at the Lyric, Hammersmith, in 1986, directed by Simon Callow

and triumphant (with a Tony award on Broadway) at the Globe in Peter Shaffer's
Lettice and Lovage
(1987), with Margaret Tyzack

As a part-time Dublin piano teacher with a crisis of confidence in religion, Maggie gave an emotionally raw and despairing screen performance in
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
(1987)

Two stage collaborations with director Nicholas Hytner: as Lady Bracknell in
The Importance of Being Earnest
at the Aldwych in 1993 with (left to right) Alex Jennings, Susannah Harker, Richard E. Grant and Claire Skinner

as the titular tramp in Alan Bennett's
The Lady in the Van
at the Queen's in 1999

Maggie has specialised in the high-style plays of American dramatist Edward Albee: flanked by Anastasia Hille and Frances de la Tour in
Three Tall Women
at Wyndham's in 1994

with Eileen Atkins in
A Delicate Balance
at the Haymarket in 1997

as an angel of death in
The Lady from Dubuque
at the Haymarket in 2007, with Robert Sella (foreground), Jennifer Regan, Maggie's own son Chris Larkin, and Vivienne Benesch

Betsy Trotwood in
David Copperfield
was a long-coveted role, and Maggie played her for BBC TV in 1999, with a ten-year-old Daniel Radcliffe (in the bath) making his professional debut as the young David. Maggie later recommended him as Harry Potter

Wizard line-up in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(2002): Maggie as Minerva McGonagall, Miriam Margolyes as Pomona Sprout, Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore and Alan Rickman as Severus Snape

Maggie and Judi Dench have been friends since their early days at the Old Vic in 1959. Their first film together was Merchant and Ivory's
A Room with a View
(1985), alongside Helena Bonham-Carter

they teamed again onstage as wife and mistress in David Hare's
Breath of Life
(2002) at the Haymarket.