No. 3 is the Bard himself. The previous night, the actress was lauded at a glittery event where she was given a Legacy Award by Ontario's Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Her four-season stint with the repertory company that began in 1976 served to recharge the latter half of her career.
"I'm a little overwhelmed," she says of the ceremony. "It was lovely. But I felt I had died. It's like an obituary as it goes through your life."
The truth is, despite often being cast as retirees these days -- the plots of both the surprise summer hit Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet have her characters seeking hip replacements -- Smith is nowhere near to closing the book on her acting life.
Smith cast her own spell as Prof. Minerva McGonagall, a stern taskmaster and a fierce protector of her wand-waving charges, in the eight-film Harry Potter fantasy franchise that began in 2001 and ended last year.
Will she miss the hallowed halls of Hogwarts? "No, it was 10 years, and that's a lot."
However, she is pleased to be reunited with Dumbledore himself, Michael Gambon, who plays a blustery opera director with a penchant for theatrical apparel in Quartet.
For Hotel, Smith took a break from her usual aristocratic "grotesques" as Muriel, a Cockney former housekeeper whose fear of the unknown prevents her from enjoying her time in India.
And she herself had to get used to a different pace of life while on location in Rajasthan.
Hoffman might be the lone Maggie Smith admirer who has yet to see a single episode of the British import that elevates an upstairs-downstairs period piece about a family struggling to maintain their noble status amid the turmoil of the early 20th century.
"How can you break my heart like that?" implores the dame.
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http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/story/2012/09/17/maggie-smith-of-thee-we-sing/57790798/1
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