From CNN….
Dame Maggie Smith, one of Britain’s best-known actresses whose long career ranged from starring opposite Laurence Olivier in “Othello” on stage and screen, to roles in “Harry Potter” and “Downton Abbey,” has died, her sons announced in a statement shared by their publicist Clair Dobbs.She was 89.
“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end,” the statement reads. “She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.”
O’Bservation:
Before 'Downton Abbey', Dame Maggie was better known for her work in the theatre and in the movies. She had very few credits on the small screen, mostly “Plays of the Week”, an adaptation of “David Copperfield”, a few TV movies, and only one other fictional character in a TV series, and that was a one-off episode. (But she also appeared in three episodes of ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ as herself, so that’s saying something.)So for her to be eligible for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, one might think it had be due to her playing herself, making it a League of Themselves technicality.
And one would be wrong.
From the ‘Downton Abbey’ wiki:
Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (b. 1842 - 1928), was the matriarch of the Crawley Family by her marriage to the late Earl of Grantham and a relative of the MacClare Family via her niece and goddaughter, Susan MacClare, Marchioness of Flintshire. She is the mother of Robert Crawley, the 7th Earl of Grantham, and of Lady Rosamund Painswick, and the grandmother of Robert and his wife Cora's three daughters: Mary, Edith, and Sybil. Through her granddaughters she has five great-grandchildren: Mary's children, son George, and daughter Caroline, Sybil's daughter Sybbie, Edith's children, daughter Marigold and son Peter.
Born in 1842, Violet was the daughter of a Baronet and had at least one sister, the mother of her niece and goddaughter, Susan MacClare, Marchioness of Flintshire, and one aunt. While she was born into the aristocracy, her family was relatively impoverished and she brought almost no money with her upon marriage. When she married the Earl of Grantham sometime before 1860, she brought her upper class blood but little money into her marriage. After her wedding, she was "pursued" by Lord Hepworth's father.
At some point as a young girl in the 1850s and 1860s Violet wore "the bustle, the crinoline, and the leg of mutton sleeve."
Violet gave birth to two children, a son and heir, Robert and a daughter, Rosamund. Not following in their mother's footsteps, her children married into money rather than nobility. The Countess was against Robert's engagement and marriage to the American heiress Cora Levinson, in 1889, but did reap the benefits of her fortune.
Violet visited Russia, where she met Prince Igor Kuragin, at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 1874. Violet later reveals to Isobel they fell madly in love and attempted to elope. They planned to leave on his yacht, but were intercepted by Kuragin's wife, who had discovered their romance. She pulled Violet out and sent her back to her own husband.
Born
1842
Died
1928 (aged 86)
Downton Abbey, Yorkshire
Marital status
Widow of Patrick Crawley, 6th Earl of Grantham
Residence
Dower House, Downton, Yorkshire
Title
Dowager Countess of Grantham
It was special circumstances which gained her entry into the Hall: the Dowager Countess was so powerful a character, that it took two forms of the media to contain her and gain her the three separate titles to qualify....
52 episodes
2010 – 2015
That was followed by two theatrically released movies which I have removed from the Cineverse and placed on Earth Prime-Time….
DOWNTON ABBEY (2019)
DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA (2022)
This was not a special dispensation just because I liked the character so much. There has been precedent for this situation, with various movies absorbed into the TV Universe.
Welcome to the TVXOHOF, Countess.
Good night and may God bless, Dame Maggie.
