Dame Maggie Smith Battles Cancer

[fflagg]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 3:54pm

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVwVaW15S21x_Fd8On5BiYBk9O9Q

And good for her and her group to have the class to keep their mouths shut!

God bless her and send her the power to heal in her own time.

And God help any of you out there who asks "who's Maggie Smith?"

Put on MURDER BY DEATH, THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE, EVIL UNDER THE SUN, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, and others and learn how to act. :)

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 3:56pm

What a shame. Best wishes to her for a speedy recovery.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:10pm

"And God help any of you out there who asks "who's Maggie Smith?"

The Mother Superior in "Sister Act" and "Sister Act 2"

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:17pm

Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series also. I love this woman. My thoughts will go out to and stay with her.

[mauriposa]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:23pm

Oh no! ::sends happy thoughts for a full recovery::

Loved her in Hook, too.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:38pm

fflagg, I thought "Murder By Death" was what you were going to do to the person who asked you who Maggie Smith was.

And I was going to volunteer to help you with it.

I wish her nothing but the best. The world will seem a much blander place without her in it.

It's worth getting "Broadway's Lost Treasures: The Plays" just for the five minutes of her performing "Lettice and Lovage"

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:39pm

The 1st movie I remember her from is Murder by Death when I was a kid. And loved her in Tea with Mussolini. (Which I own)

Updated On: 3/18/08 at 04:39 PM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:45pm

God love her. I wish her a speedy and comfortable recovery.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:52pm

One of my favorite actresses ever.

Hoping and praying for the best.

[Magdalene]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 4:55pm

I'm sending good vibes her way---a class act!

[CapnHook]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 5:09pm

EVERYTHING she does is memorable, from GOSFORD PARK to SECRET GARDEN to HOOK and the SISTER ACT and HARRY POTTER films to her earlier work!

[madbrian]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 8:56pm

She elevates any movie with her presence. Her work in Gosford Park is remarkable.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 8:58pm

I was fortunate enough to see LETTICE AND LOVAGE, sondheimboy.

Best wishes to her.

[christhefish]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 9:06pm

she is one of those people who I would watch read the phone book.

praying for the best

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 10:15pm

Thinking pink for a dame there's truly nothing like.



I was privileged to see her Private Lives on Broadway when I was in college.

Here's 4 minutes of Lettice and Lovage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flEMcrmNo8w

[bschneid76]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 10:30pm

When my friend emailed me about this, I was in shock. Dame Maggie is my one and only Idol. She is a master at her craft and is superb in everything she does. She is one of the greatest actresses still working today, and will never disappoint!

My fave Maggie Smith films:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Murder by Death
Tea With Mussolini
Othello
Travels with my Aunt
Gosford Park
A Room with a View
and Keeping Mum
(the list could go on and on)

Get well soon Maggie!

[mattonstage]

Posted: 3/18/08 at 11:25pm

One of my favorite stage-dooring moments came with the great Dame Maggie. I had just seen a Tuesday evening performance of Lettice and Lovage with a friend. We met her at the stage door and I mumbled some incoherent platitudes (I was in awe) and when someone else asked for a photo, she said, "Yes, but please do hurry, I have to do this twice tomorrow." Just absolutely delightful. My very best to her on a speedy recovery.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 9:17am

I saw the Smith PRIVATE LIVES in London in the summer of 73 -- the gold standard Amanda, opposite John Standing. I'd never seen a comic performance like that one. And on other trips was overwhelmed by her work in lesser exercises like TRANSLATORS, opposite Edward Fox. In NY, she made NIGHT AND DAY unmissable, and LETTICE AND LOVAGE a better play than. She's a unique one-of-a-kind, one of a handful of actors whose indelible stamp on a role -- Jean Brodie -- makes it almost impossible to be played by someone else.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 9:23am

My favorite Maggie Smith performance is in Alan Bennett's TALKING HEADS, performing BED AMONG THE LENTILS. It can't be described except in superlatives like astounding and astonishing. She just sits there and talks to the camera, quiet and understated, and it is one of the greatest feasts of acting I've ever seen.

Why the hell isn't this on DVD?

And she made a hell of a Mrs. Venable in SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, too.

[lildogs]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 9:42am

Those are my two fave Maggie performances, Roscoe--I can probably still do her monologue from BED...inflections and all!

Her Violet is definitive if you ask me....

[Glebb]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 10:08am

Will never forget her in "Lettice and Lovage" (with Margaret Tyzack)!

Get well Maggie Smith.

[lildogs]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 10:17am

"I've just joined the ranks of the unemployed...Fairness is not one of our salient characteristics."

"Oh that's tacky...that's really tacky."

"You know, I like her. I really like her."

My ex was AD'ing a show in London with Mags and SARAFINA! was playing next to them and causing some carryover noise. When someone suggested hanging "the blacks" to muffle the sound, she says "Well, I think that's going a bit far."

Later, for the same show, the director gave her some blocking to which she replied "You want me to cross down left? I think it's the most idiotic piece of blocking I've ever received, but if you want me to cross down left, I certainly will."

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 10:20am

"You have cultivated a pleasing grayness, please don't attempt to modify it with color."

"God has no taste."

"That sounds like a question, Dr. Sugar."

[Glebb]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 10:21am

And how brilliant was she in "Gosford Park"?
"Yummie, yummie, yummie."

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/19/08 at 10:48am

Actually, I don't like her in GOSFORD PARK, she just seemed to be coasting through that one, but so was pretty much everybody connected with it. Doesn't dim her brilliance as an actress to pick up the occasional easy paycheck.