Its just been announced that one of the UK's greatest ever actresses, Dame Maggie Smith, passed away this morning (Friday, 27.9.24) at the age of 89, just 3 months short of her 90th birthday. She won an Oscar for the 1968 film "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and had a long and varied stage and film career but is probably best known to latter-day audiences as the Dowager in the t.v. series and films of "Downton Abbey" and as the transient woman in the 2015 film of Alan Bennett's "The Lady in the Van." R.I.P. Dame Maggie.

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