Died at 91
female
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith CH DBE (December 28, 1934 − September 27, 2024) was a British actress. Known for her wit in comedic roles, she had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and was one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Laurence Olivier Awards. Smith was one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting. Smith began her stage career as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. Over the following decades Smith established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and Tom Stoppard's Night and Day (1979), and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990). She won Academy Awards for Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978). She was Oscar-nominated for Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985) and Gosford Park (2001). She portrayed Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011). She also acted in Death on the Nile (1978), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Quartet (2012) and The Lady in the Van (2015). Smith received newfound attention and international fame for her role as Violet Crawley in the British period drama Downton Abbey (2010–2015). The role earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards; she had previously won one for the HBO film My House in Umbria (2003). Over the course of her career she was the recipient of numerous honorary awards including the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1993, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1996 and the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 2010. Smith was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. Description above from the Wikipedia article Maggie Smith, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Do not touch the sword. Do not turn the key. Do not open the gate. In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn’t much a girl wouldn’t do for a glass of water. Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen’s reservoirs for as long as she can remember. But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone. When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares…but it turns out they’re real, and Saeris has landed herself right in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed. The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist’s magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him… or her. Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he’s the only way Saeris is going to make it home. Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the details...
