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| One of Britain's acting treasures, Smith has scored innumerable triumphs on the stage (both in England and on Broadway) as well as on the screen. Trained at the Oxford Playhouse School, she made her stage debut in 1952 and her first film, Nowhere to Go in 1958. American moviegoers first noticed her in The V.I.P.s (1963), and her brilliant turn as Desdemona in Olivier's 1965 movie adaptation of Othello earned Smith an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress. Appearances in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), Young Cassidy (1965), The Honey Pot (1967), Hot Millions (1968), and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) didn't do much to boost her stock with American audiences, but her dynamic, Oscar-winning performance as an eccentric schoolmistress in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) finally established her here as a star. She snared another Best Actress nomination for her picaresque portrayal in Travels With My Aunt (1972), starred in Love and Pain (and the Whole Damn Thing (also 1972), and won her second Oscar playing, oddly enough, an actress who's nominated for an Oscar-and loses-in the funniest episode of Neil Simon's California Suite (1978). She worked for Merchant and Ivory in Quartet (1981) and then snagged another Oscar nomination for her impeccable work in their Room With a View (1985). Smith, whose range is seemingly limitless, appeared in many mainstream commercial films, often playing comedic characters. She made a charming Nora Charles-type female detective in Murder by Death (1976), played suspects in the all-star Agatha Christie whodunits Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982), and managed to make her presence felt in the special effects-laden fantasy Clash of the Titans (1981), as Thetis. She starred opposite Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin in The Missionary (1982) and A Private Function (1985), hilarious in the latter film as a socialclimbing shrew. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) gave her a plum role as a lonely Irish woman struggling in humble surroundings. She charmingly played an elderly Wendy in Hook (1991), Steven Spielberg's "Peter Pan" saga. She then costarred in a bona fide hit, Sister Act (1992, as the unamused Mother Superior), the all-star TV remake of Suddenly, Last Summer (also 1992), The Secret Garden and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (both 1993). In 1989 Smith was knighted by the British Crown, as a token of appreciation and respect for her prodigious dramatic accomplishments. |
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