“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it too the food.” — W.C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield was born on this day in Darby, Pennsylvania, USA in 1880. Today is the 133rd anniversary of his birth.
His father, James, was an imigrant from Sheffield, England. He fought in the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry in the American Civil War and was wounded in the war. His mother, Kate, who was of German ancestry, was 15 years younger than James. James was a clerk after the war. He sold vegetables and was a part time hotel-keeper when W.C. came along.
It is hard to tell the myth from reality in W.C. Fields’ youth. It depends on where you look. But he seems to have gone to school for about four years before joining his father in selling vegetables on a horse drawn cart. W.C. also worked in a department store and and oyster house. His relationship with his father, who was an alcholic, was not good.
At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father (who hit him on the head with a shovel), he ran away from home. [IMDB]
Fields told tales of living on the street, sleeping in a whole in the ground and stealing food and clothing to stay alive. In reality, though he did run away it was usually to his grandmothers and return home the next day.
His first regular job was delivering ice. By age thirteen he was a skilled pool player and juggler. …In 1893 he was employed as a juggler at Fortescue’s Pier, Atlantic City. When business was slow he pretended to drown in the ocean (management thought his fake rescue would draw customers). By nineteen he was billed as “The Distinguished Comedian” and began opening bank accounts in every city he played. [Ibid]
Fields at 15 (Image courtesy wcfields.com]
By 23 he was opening at the Palace in London and performing with Sarah Bernhardt at Buckingham Palace. Starting in 1915 he was in theZiegfeld Follies for six years. 1915 was also his first movie, Pool Sharks. In 1923 he was in the musical Poppy. The play was made into a movie, Sally of the Sawdust in 1925 by legendary D.W. Griffith.
Here he is in the Diner Sketch from Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Other film highlights include David Copperfield (1935), You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man(1939) , My Little Chickadee(1940) and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941).
He made over 37 moves for Paramount before switching to Universal
W.C. Fields was an actor whose flawless timing and humorous cantankerousness made him one of America’s greatest comedians. [Biography]
He died in 1946 on Christmas Day from an alcohol-related stomach hemorrhage. He was 66 years old.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a book by my favorite author, upon turning 200 years old, will be written about A LOT in this blog. Seriously I’m thinking about baking a birthday cake today. I’m just that excited. [YES, I get this excited about Jane Austen, I realize its not everyone’s cuppa, but bear with me. It will be over soon and tomorrow I’ll be back to proper Thought of the Day bioBLOGS. Promise.]
So, as you may have noticed, for the past week I’ve been giving you my take on the major players in Pride and Prejudice. Today I thought we’d take a look at the different adaptations over the years.
The Originals
First the source… the Austenian Holy Grail if you will, the first editions. I was lucky enough to attend a Jane Austen Society of North America meeting that started at the Goucher College Special Collection Library. Their Jane Austen collection is the largest in North America and it houses several first editions and first illustrated editions.
Opening page of a 200 year old first edition Pride and Prejudice.
These beautifully letter pressed editions came in three volumes and are handsomely bound and typeset. The type size, letter and line spacing, weight and size of the books were perfectly designed for long afternoons when reading was a prime source of entertainment. One look at these beauties and you will never want to read another trade paper back again.
Goucher also has first illustrated editions and the illustrated editions that followed. It is fascinating to see how the look of the characters changed through the times.
An early illustrated edition of Pride and Prejudice from the Goucher Library.
From the original we move to adaptations. What happened BEFORE Mr. Bingley moved to Neitherfield? What happened AFTER Darcy and Lizzie got married? There are hundreds of these books out there and they vary in genre and quality. As an Austen fan I get one or two spin-off books every holiday and birthday. I recommend Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife and Darcy & Elizabeth and the trio of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman books for those of you yearning to know what MIGHT happen next.
Here’s my second Austen bookshelf.
I’m all for anything that brings new reader to Austen. So I enjoyed the Marvel Comics version of Pride and Prejudice.
Cover of Pride and Prejudice (Graphic Novel)
I like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies too — I found myself reading along, enjoying the original Austen prose and then BAM Zombies. It was fun.
Oh, here are some more books that didn’t fit on those other shelves.
I liked Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and its companion Rude Awakenings for their Alice through the looking glass approach to P&P. And I’ll give a thumbs up the more romance-y Definitely Not Mr. Darcy too.
Others are either on the “To Read” pile or have been read so long ago that I don’t remember them well enough that I can’t give you n review. That’s the problem with a lot of these book adaptations… they don’t stick with you like the original.
The Multimedia
On to film. If you were to gather a table full of Jane Austen fans and ask them which is their favorite film version of Pride and Prejudice you’d probably get a half-dozen answers.
In 1940 Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in a “Hollywoodized” version of the novel. I liked the lead’s chemistry and think they did a good job portraying Elizabeth and Darcy. But the movie takes huge liberties with the novel — from the hoop skirts, to cutting out characters and scenes, to adding new scene (archery any one?), to rewriting the reason Lady Catherine’s visit to Longbourn.
Elizabeth Garvey and David Rintoul took on the famous Lizzie and Darcy in the BBC 1980 series. It is my friend and fellow JASNA:MD member Joyce Loney’s favorite of the movies. She’s a big fan of Garvey’s Elizabeth. And, she writes:
David Rintoul’s Darcy is stiff (okay, some people have called him a stick), but he cracks during the Pemberley visit and he finally relaxes during the proposal scene. Amy Patterson has a great article (Choose Your Darcy) in the current issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World, and she says that David Rintoul “gets closer than any other to capturing the essence of this wonderful, complicated, shy, angry and passionate hero.”
But Loney’s favorite Darcy, and mine, is Colin Firth. Firth played opposite the beautiful Jennifer Ehle in the A&E mini series in 1995. Ehle is my favorite Lizzie and Alison Steadman and Benjamin Whitrow are far and away my favorite Mr. and Mrs. Bennets.
Pride and Prejudice (Photo credit: elycefeliz)
At six hours the A&E version fits in almost all the book. And I believe it is the truest film adaptation out there. I could (and do) watch it again and again. It is a delight (with or with out the wet shirt.)
Gurinda Chadha brought a distinctly Bollywood approach to her Bride & Prejudice version in 2004. The movie, complete with colorful blockbuster musical numbers, spans three continents and stars Aishwarya Rai as Lalita (Lizzie), Martin Henderson as Darcy, Namrata Shirodkar as Jaya (Jane) and Naveen Andrews as Balraj (Bingley). Obviously there are a lot of changes from the original novel, but it is fun and bright and they did a great job conveying the heart of the story.
2005 brought us Kiera Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen in Joe Wright’s take on the Novel. Like the Greer Garson version this one leaves out characters and compresses the novel — I guess it has to in order to fit into the 129 minute running time. Personally I had a lot of hope for this version because I love a lot of the actors in it, but, sorry it just falls flat. Tons of style but not so much substance… and when you start with Pride and Prejudice there’s just not excuse for that. There are moments in the movie that are terrific — I thought Macfayden and Knightly were wonderful in the “taciturn” dance and the proposal scene (though why it was in a down pour I don’t understand.) And I give this version the best sound track award. I loved the music. I also really liked Simon Woods as Bingley.
The last adaptation I’m going to cover is also the most current. In fact it is still going on, the brilliant Lizzie Bennet Diaries. The LBD have completely reimagined the story as a video blog circa 2013 LA. Click HERE to go to the home page. From there you can follow the story from the top, explore twitter and tumblr accounts for both the characters and the actors (as well as the producers and director.)
The Wrap Up
I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on Pride and Prejudice. I thank those of you who played along and commented here and on Google and Facebook. As always, please drop me a line an let me know what you are thinking.
“I was always in trouble from an early age. I had a fraught relationship with my parents, who were very traditional. Doing plays at school was a joyous release.”–Naveen Andrews
[Image courtesy FanPop.com]
Naveen William Sidney Andrews was born on this day in London, England in 1969. He is 43 years old.
Andrews was raised in the Wandsworth neighborhood of South London in a conservative parents, both of whom are first generation immigrants from Kerala, India. He attended London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
He broke into film with the role of Bike in London Kills Me (1991).
In 1996 he played Kip, a British sapper, in The English Patient. Kip’s relationship with Hana is a gentle, romantic shadow of the sensual, adulterous relationship between Almasy and Katharine Clifton. Here he is defusing a bomb…
He was clearly having a good time with his role of Bairaj (Bingley) in Bollywood’s Bride and Prejudice. Bonus: we get to see him dance and sing.
He played a considerably darker character on Lost for 116 episodes. Sayid Jarrah is a former member of Iraqi’s Special Republican Guard. His character is equally well versed in mechanical and radio engineering and in torture. On an Island where nothing is as simple as it appears, and all the heroes come with a big helping of “anti-” … Sayid isn’t a bad person to have on your team.
“I like playing somebody who has to apologize to their kid, all the time, for screwing up. That seems really real.” —Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Elaine Benes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus was born on this day in New York, New York, USA in 1961. She is 52 years old.
Louis-Dreyfus was born into a wealthy family. Her father, Gerard Louis-Dreyfus, is a billionaire and the chairman of Louis Dreyfus Energy Services. Her mother is a writer. They divorced with Louis-Dreyfus was a baby and she went with her mother to live in Washington DC. She studied acting at Northwestern University.
English: “The Golden 50th Anniversary Jubilee” cast photo: Brad Hall, Gary Kroeger, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Paul Barrosse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She worked with Chicago’s Second City comedy group before moving to New York and joining the cast of Saturday Night Livefor a three-year stint from 1982 to 1985. She left the show to do movies — landing supporting roles in Hannah and Her Sisters, Soul Man, and North among others, and to do prime time TV. She co-starred in Day by Dayfor that show’s two season run, and did a number of guest spots.
The Seinfeld gang. (Image courtesy NBC.)
But Louis-Dreyfus really broke through with her role as Elaine Benes on the Seinfeld show. She
proved that she could hold her own as the sole female member of Seinfeld’s do-nothing quartet of neurotic New Yorkers. With her “big wall of hair,” signature shoes and penchant for over-enthusiastic exclamations, Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine was no mere foil, but rather a full participant in the show’s increasingly popular, irony-laden comic shenanigans. [Star Pulse.com]
She won her first Emmy award for the role in 1996. The show ran for nine seasons.
After Seinfeld she starred in the short-lived comedy Watching Ellie with fellow Second City alum Steve Carell. She had recurring rolls on high profiles shows like Arrested Development, The Simpsons and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The New Adventures of Old Christine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Staunton, an only child, lived with her mum and dad over her mother’s hair dressing salon. Her mother was also a gifted natural musician who could pick up songs by ear (but couldn’t read music.) She passed on her love of music to Staunton who attended La Sainte Union Convent Catholic school. After graduation she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Staunton wasted no time launching her career following graduation, becoming associated with such prestigious venues as The Old Vic and the National Theatre. [Moviefone: Imelda Staunton Biography.]
Musical theatre and Shakespeare fill her Stage CV. She won the prestigious Olivier Award twice.
On film she landed a role in the ensemble movie Peter’s Friends with Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie. She worked with Branagh and Thompson again in Much Ado About Nothing. Then paired up with Laurie as Mr. and Mrs. Jennings in Thompson’s wonderful adaption of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility in 1995. (Thompson both wrote the screen play and starred in the film). She was Maria in Twelfth Night and the nurse inShakespeare in Love.
As Staunton’s numerous stage roles continued to earn her critical success, frequent television and film roles made her a familiar and endearing face to the general public. [Ibid]
She stepped away from the crowd with a starring dramatic role in Vera Drake.
Her undeniably affecting portrayal of the title role — a selfless housewife and cleaning woman who makes a name for herself performing illegal abortions — earned her near-universal praise. After earning accolades from both The Venice Film Festival and The New York Film Festival as well as the Los Angeles and Chicago film critic associations, Staunton had undeniably arrived when the role earned her a Best Actress nomination for the 77th Annual Academy Awards. [Ibid]
She took home a BAFTA for Vera.
Français : Avant-Première Mondiale d’Harry Potter et les Reliques de la Mort, à Londres, le 7 Juillet 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 2007 she, like many other classically trained British actors, found a new audience when she took a role in a Harry Potter film. Staunton played the nasty Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor in a fluffy pink cardigan, Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Some Ministry officials in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, from left to right: John Dawlish, auror; Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister; Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic; and Kingsley Shacklebolt, auror. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She laced up a corset again for her supporting role as Miss Octavia Pole in the BBC’s delightful adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford (and again for Return to Cranford).
Julia Mackenzie and Imelda Staunton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Staunton has lent her voice to a number of acting projects including and animated version of the Wind in the Willows, The Adventures of Mole, The Adventures of Toad, The Ugly Duckling, and Chicken Run. She’s even did a turn as the voice of Interface on Dr. Who.
I’m an instant star. just add water and stir.” —David Bowie
[Image courtesy Fashion Office Buzz)
David Robert Jones was born on this day in Brixton, London, England in 1947. He is 66 years old.
He attended local schools in Brixton and Bromley. He took choir– his voice was given a grade of average. — and learned to play the recorder. At home his father bought a stack of American 45s and introduced young David to Rock and Roll. Inspired by Little Richard and Elvis Presley he amped up his music cred by adding ukulele and tea-chest bass to the mix.
At age thirteen, inspired by the jazz of the London West End, he picked up the saxophone and called up Ronnie Ross for lessons. Early bands he played with – The Kon-Rads, The King Bees, the Mannish Boys and the Lower Third –provided him with an introduction into the showy world of pop and mod, and by 1966 he was David Bowie, with long hair and aspirations of stardom rustling about his head. [David Bowie.com]
His self titled, and bizarrely campy, debut album came out in 1967. [It’s pretty hard to listen to any of the songs now, but if you must experience it try The Laughing Gnome Song — http://youtu.be/mWoT9elA-oY complete with squeaky gnome co-star.]
Bowie’s professional career took off with the 1969 release of his Space Oddity album. The record reach #5 in England. Space Oddity (aka “Major Tom”) was the break out single, and it remains both a Bowie classic and a pop anthem.
But the longer, more complex, and beautiful Cygnet Committee shouldn’t be overlooked.
His third album, The Man Who Sold the World took on a harder rock feel, and introduced us to the Spiders from Mars.
Here’s the title track:
And another favorite — All the Madmen:
Album #4 was Hunky Dory released in 1971. So it’s time for a little ch-ch- Changes
And Life On Mars…
[I’m limiting myself to just two clips per album… grrr. But you could go pull the YouTube version of Oh! You Pretty Things too.]
Next up it was a full concept album with The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Here’s Starman..
and Ummmmmm Yeah…… Ziggy Stardust…
1973 brought Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups, followed the next year with Diamond Dogs featuring Rebel, Rebel…
Young Americans came out in 1975. The title song reached #28 on the Billboard Charts…
Here he is grooving another hit from the album, Fame, … Station to Station introduced Bowie’s Thin White Duke character while continuing the funk and soul sound of Young Americans. Here’s Golden Years.
Low began Bowie his Berlin Trilogy. It is one of his best. [I also love Sound and Vision and Breaking Glass] Here’s Always Crashing The Same Car...
Part two of the Berlin Trilogy was Heroes which came out in 1977. I’ve got to go with the title track on this one…
His thirteenth album, and the last in the Berlin Trilogy, was Lodger. Here’s Look Back in Anger.
..
The Berlin Trilogy was a critical and artistic success, but not immediately financial success.
Both came with Bowie’s 14th Album Scary Monsters(And Super Creeps) which hit #1 in the UK and did well in the US.
Bowie went pop and super dance-y with Let’s Dance. Singles China Girl, Modern Love and Let’s Dance all did well. Let’s Dance sold 6 million records.
After Let’s DanceBowie kind of fell of my RADAR, frankly. But he continued to write and sing and put out albums for another two decades:
Tonight (84)
Never Let Me Down (87)
Black Tie White Noise (93)
Buddha of Suburbia (93)
Outside (95)
Earthling (97)
Hours (99)
Heathen (02)
Reality (03)
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, but he didn’t attend the ceremony or the concert.
After The release of Reality and its related A Reality Tour Bowie went into the woodwork.
Apart from the odd rare sighting at a charity function and one or two snatched paparazzi shots, David has kept an extremely low profile [David Bowie.com]
But now it appears he is back. Today he release a new single, Where Are We Now, and he is promising a new album, his 30th, in March!
First, let me be clear, the North and South of which I speak is the wonderful Victorian novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, not the 1980’s mini series about the Civil War. If you haven’t read it do yourself a favor and put it on your reading list… Click HERE for the free Guttenberg file to read on-line or HERE for the Kindle file
—————————————————————————————-
Richard Armitage played John Thornton in the 2005 BBC miniseries North and South.
Who: John Thornton
From: North and South
Written by: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Date of Publication: 1855
Why: John Thornton is a self-made man whose stoic exterior conceals a heart waiting for the love of the right woman. He has spent his life building a business and taking care of his mother and sister. He’s the owner of a mill in the fictional city of Milton in northern England. He has “never loved any woman before.” His “life has been to busy,” his “thoughts too much absorbed with other things.” But, when a beautiful young woman, Margaret Hale, comes to the city from the rural, gentrified, south the walls of indifference he has built up around his heart begin to tumble. …Are the two of them so different in manners and customs…(and is their timing too flawed) for love to bloom?
Pros: Strong, loyal, generous, disciplined, intense, genuinely concerned with both his worker’s health and the mill’s financial viability.
Cons: Hot tempered and initially inflexible with his workers. Bad timing.
Shining Moment: During a strike against the mill (it’s a town-wide strike) he has brought in Irish workers to run the mill. When the town’s workers hear about the scabs they storm the mill. Thornton protects the Irish workers, and, at Margaret’s urging, attempts to talk to the rioters and calm them. (ALSO: the ending, but I wont give that away.)
Least Shining Moment: When Margaret first see’s Thornton. He’s in the mill and has caught a worker smoking. The slightest flame can set the entire works ablaze and he beats the worker for his carelessness.
And you should really watch the 2005 BBC mini series of North and South. (Which has the added bonus of co-starring Brendan Coyle — Downton Abbey’s Mr. Bates — as mill worker Nicholas Higgins.)
“That’s the main thing that attracts me – characters who have big journeys. I like playing those people.” — James McAvoy
Scottish Actor James McAvoy at Hollywood Life Magazine’s 7th Annual Breakthrough Awards (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
James Andrew McAvoy was born on this day in Port Glasgow, Scotland in 1979. He is 33 years old.
The son of a psychiatric nurse and builder McAvoy has a sister and a half-brother. His parents divorced when he was seven and he went to live with his maternal grandparents. McAvoy was raised Catholic and attended St. Thomas Aquinas school in Joranhill, Glasgow. He considered becoming a priest, but followed his acting instincts instead.
His first professional gig came at 15 when he landed a role in the film The Near Room. He had small roles in movies and guest spots in TV series while in school. He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2000.
McAvoy continued to build his CV with high-profile guest spots on series like HBO’s Band of Brothers (he was Pvt. James Miller on “Replacements”) and BBC’s Inspector Lynley, Foyle’s War, and State of Play.
He had the lead role in Rory O’SheaWas Here as a disabled man whose enthusiasm shakes up the world around him.
McAvoy’s dark side came out for his haunting performance as Joe Macbeth in ShakespeaRE-TOLD’s Macbeth. with the always wonderful Keeley Hawes as Ella (Lady M) and Richard Armitage as Peter Macduff. [They only RE-TOLD four of the Bard’s plays — all of them interesting and worth a look — but this one is the real gem in the series.]
I’ve got two words to say about his next movie…” Mr. Tumnus. “
From fantasy to drama biopic McAvoy next played the naive personal physician to Ugandan leader Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Needless to say things go south quickly as the doctor gets in way over his head and Amin shows himself to be a brutal dictator. (McAvoy won the BAFTA; Scotland in 2007 for his work on the film.)
He played a trio of romantic roles (albeit in very different genres) in Penelope, Starter for 10, and Becoming Jane (as Tom Lefroy to Anne Hathaway’s Jane Austen) in 2006 and 2007.
McAvoy landed the role of Robbie Turner in the movie version of Ian McEwan‘s novel Atonement. (He won the Empire Award for Best Actor in 2008 for his role in Atonement.)
He shifted gears to play a fish out of water action hero in Wanted opposite Angelina Jolie. Then went back to historical drama with The Last Station–a movie about Leo Tolstoy’s last days — and The Conspirator — the story of Mary Surratt’s involvement in the Lincoln assassination.
Most recently he’s been seen on the big screen as Professor X in the X-Men prequel — X-Men: First Class, and heard in a duo of voice parts as Gnomeo in Gnomeo & Juliet and Arthur in Arthur Christmas.
According to IMDB he has FIVE movies coming out in 2013:
Welcome to the Punch
Filth
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby; Hers
Trance
And, rest assured, there’s another X-Men in the works.
“I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost – it’s there and then it’s gone.” —Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith was author J. K. Rowling’s personal choice for the role of McGonagall in the film series. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Margaret Natalie Smith was born on this day in Ilford, London, England in 1934. She is 78 years old.
The daughter of a secretary and a public health pathologist, she has twin older brothers. When Smith was 4 the family moved to Oxford where her father took a position at Oxford University.
Upon graduating from high school,
Smith attended the Oxford Playhouse School in 1951-53. She made her professional stage début in 1952, playing Viola in an Oxford University Dramatics Society production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. [Biography]
She worked on Broadway in a comedy review, New Faces of 1956. 1956 also saw her first film role, an uncredited part in Child in the House. She did a number of guest spots on television shows before she landed a larger role in 1959’s Nowhere to Go. (For which she won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts “Most Promising Newcomer” award.)
Back home she worked with the National Theatre of Great Britain, and had her break out role as Desdemona opposite Laurence Olivier’s Othello in 1964. The duo “reprised their roles in a film version of Othello the following year.” [Ibid] The film earned Smith her first Oscar nomination
While at the National Theatre, she acted in classic dramas by major authors such as Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov. [Ibid]
She played Beatrice to Robert Stephens’ Benedict in the 1967 television version of Much Ado About Nothing.
In June of 1967 Smith and Stephens married (’67 – ’74) and had two sons, Chris Larken and Toby Stephens. Both of boys grew up to become actors.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the story of a headstrong Scottish school teacher, won her both an Oscar and a BAFTA award in 1969. In 1978 she won her second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actress in California Suite.
By the mid ’80s she was winning accolades (and awards) for more mature roles, like her turn as Charlotte Bartlett in A Room with a View, Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden, Lady Random inTea With Mussolini, and as the elitist Constance, Countess of Trentham in the wonderful Gosford Park.
In 1975 she married playwright and librettist Beverly Cross, who died 1998.
In 1990 she won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in Lettice and Lovage on Broadway.
While she donned a pointy hat and tartan accented witch robes for the role of Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series, she continued to perform in an eclectic mix of movies, television and stage shows in both England and the US.
She won an Emmy for My House in Umbria in 2003, and two more as the Dowager Countess of Grantham, Cousin Violet Crawley in Downton Abbey.
On the big screen she recently won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel(2012). You can also see her Quartet with Michael Gabon and Billy Connolly.
In 1990 Smith was made a Dame commander of the Order of the British Empire.
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