Maggie Smith, star of 'Downton Abbey,' Harry Potter, dies at 89

LONDON - Maggie Smith, the British actress who won an Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and later became known to millions for roles in "Downton Abbey" and the Harry Potter films, has died. She was 89.

Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement to the Associated Press that she died early Friday in a London hospital.

"She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs.

Smith was regarded as one of the greatest female British actors of a generation that also included Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave.

"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" earned her an Academy Award for best actress, as well as the British Academy (BAFTA) award, in 1969. She also won a supporting actress Oscar for "California Suite" in 1978.

She received Academy Award nominations as a supporting actress in "Othello," "Travels with My Aunt," "Room with a View" and "Gosford Park," and a BAFTA award for supporting actress in "Tea with Mussolini." On stage, she won a Tony in 1990 for "Lettice and Lovage."

Smith gained a new generation of fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in the the globally successful "Downton Abbey" and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the massive Harry Potter franchise.

Her work in 2012 netted three Golden Globe nominations for "Downton Abbey" TV series and the films "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and "Quartet."

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, on the eastern edge of London, on Dec. 28, 1934. She married fellow actor Robert Stephens in 1967. They had two sons, Christopher and Toby, and divorced in 1975. The same year, she married the writer Beverley Cross, who died in 1998.

Smith was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the equivalent of a knight, in 1990.