There ain’t nothin’ like a dame

Dame Maggie, that is.

It’s not a very original headline, I know, but irresistible. In the same vein, I held off as long as I could, but we have to feature Dame Maggie Smith in a Smith Sunday. You knew it was coming, didn’t you? I suspect Dame Maggie is, currently, our most famous Smith. And, with the premiere of Season 3 of Downton Abbey last Sunday. . .how could we not mention her?

With an illustrious career on stage and screen dating back to 1952, she is one of the United Kingdom’s greatest exports. I am happy to say I’ve been a fan since I saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on TV. (Saturday Afternoon at the Movies was better then before Ted Turner bought all the great films.) Maggie Smith’s name in the credits will get me to a movie theater or into a Broadway house as quick as anyone’s. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life as I did at Lettice & Lovage, and it’s one of the few Broadway plays I’ve seen twice. If you want a lesson in timing, you could do far worse than study Dame Maggie.

Pure magic, long before she became Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—although I, frankly, think she always was. I can’t imagine anyone would disagree that was a piece of the purest perfect casting.

Today, there are a lot of clips for your viewing pleasure. Start with a five minute scene from the stage production of Lettice & Lovage. Then, move on to Smith’s current audience favorite with the Dowager Countess’s top 10 moments form Season 1 of Downton Abbey. Finally, there is a much longer, half-hour retrospective of just a few career highlights. You’ll see her perform with Laurence Olivier, Bette Davis, Michael Caine, Cher and Whoopi Goldberg, among others, and if you hang on to the end, there’s a delightful musical turn in which she teaches Carol Burnett to speak Cockney!

The end of Act I, Lettice and Lovage