Maggie Smith (1934-) is a two time Oscar®-winning English actress. She has acted on stage, film, and television for almost the last 70 years. Smith has appeared in over 50 films, and is one of Britain’s most recognizable actresses. Her IMDb page shows 84 acting credits since 1955. This page ranks 52 Maggie Smith movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts and her movies not released in North America theaters are not included in the rankings.
Maggie Smith Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Maggie Smith Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Maggie Smith movies by co-stars of her movies.
- Sort Maggie Smith movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Maggie Smith movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Maggie Smith movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Maggie Smith movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Maggie Smith movie won.
- Sort Maggie Smith movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
When Flora recalled that it was Maggie Smith’s birthday two days ago, it reminded me that I had been meaning to leave a post on this page, as I missed doing so when the page was put up a few months ago.
Some actors quickly decline after their prime years, while others become more recognized and popular with time. Maggie Smith is an outstanding example of the second category. One may have thought that the prime of Maggie Smith would have been when she won her Oscar for her wonderful performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, almost 50 years ago now! However, despite that academy award, it took some time for Smith to truly receive the recognition she deserved. In fact, for a decade after Jean Brodie, she was not very active on the big screen (though I guess she did a lot of theatre work), and seemed to have fallen mainly in supporting roles – notably earning another academy award, this time for best supporting actress, in California Suite. Then in the 1980s, Smith received more critical acclaim for her performances in A Room with a View, A Private Function and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.
But I feel that it was later, as she approached her 70s, with the commercial success of the Harry Potter films, together with other critically acclaimed performances in films like Tea with Mussolini, Ladies in Lavender, and the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as well as her landmark role in the Downton Abbey mini-series that Maggie Smith became something of an international legend. I do not know many actors or actresses who have achieved this level of recognition so late in their careers. Having been a fan of Maggie for many years, this is well deserved in my view.
I think it’s worth ending this post with a few roles from Maggie Smith’s earlier years that have now been largely forgotten, but show that she was a great actress even then, namely: in The VIPs, as Rod Taylor’s sensitive secretary; in Young Cassidy, again opposite Rod Taylor in an interesting Irish drama; in The Honey Pot, as a seemingly innocent nurse outwitting every-one else, and in Love, Pain and the Whole Damn Thing, as a middle-aged woman falling in love with a quirky, young American tourist played by Timothy Bottoms.
So for these, and many other memorable performances, I extend my happy birthday wishes to Dame Maggie Smith!
Hey PhilHoF17. This is an excellent comment. Your thoughts on Dame Maggie Smith are interesting, informative and spot on. You are right…..she won her Best Actress Oscar 50 years ago…..and she is still going strong. You are right again. She did not get many movie parts after her Oscar win. When she started getting those parts they were mainly in supporting roles. Essentially she has been a supporting actress for 40 years now. I liked her in California Suite…she and Caine make a good screen couple. They would make a few more movies together…but California Suite was their best.
I have avoided the Downton Abbey series….though everybody in my house loves that show and her performance in that show. Her Harry Potter role, introduced her to a new generation of people….thankfully she has made more roles since that franchise….it would be sad to think she is going from Harry Potter event to Harry Potter event in low budget comic-con events.
Nice mini- reviews on some Smith movies, I am not too aware of….but I will they seem interesting. Looking at my Letterboxd.com account…I see I have seen 4 of her movies in 2018. https://letterboxd.com/cogerson/tag/maggie-smith/reviews/
Good stuff as always….thanks for sharing such an awesome comment. Happy belated birthday to Dame Maggie.
Hi Bruce,
Hope the New Year has started well for you and your family.
Thanks for your thoughts on my comments and sharing your reviews of some of Dame Maggie’s films on letterboxd (I was not aware of your reviews on that site).
As for Downton Abbey, while I usually avoid soap opera, I confess to have seen the entire series enthusiastically with my family. It was very well made and acted, though it did run out of steam in the last seasons. Some of Maggie’s lines and delivery were just exquisite.
Hey PhilHoF17. My entire family, with the exception of me, loves Downton Abbey. It even sucked in our 23 year old Marine. I am sure I will watch the movie that is coming…which Maggie Smith is in…..the series might be something I check out later. I rarely watch any television shows. Though I did binge watch 4.5 seasons of Brooklyn Nine Nine this year…..having a character that loves Die Hard helped me like that show….does Dame Maggie reference Die Hard in Downton Abbey?…..lol.
As for Letterboxd…..at one point I was one of the most popular reviewers there…..but that required a lot of reading other people’s reviews….and I just do not have the time to do that anymore…but I have found it to be a great way to keep track of all the movies I watch. I highly recommend tracking your movies there.
Good feedback as always.
Hey Flora…when I was setting up the posts of the day…I saw it was Denzel’s birthday but not Dane Maggie’s Birthday. Good catch. Happy birthday to her as well.
Happy 84th birthday to Maggie Smith!