The actor, who played Professor McGonagall for ten years alongside Radcliffe, was also well known for her roles in Sister Act and Downton Abbey.
Prior to starring together in Harry Potter, Radcliffe worked alongside Smith on 1999’s David Copperfield when he was 9 years old – and according to the Kill Your Darlings star in 2017, it was Smith who’d recommended him for the role of the boy wizard.
“I knew virtually nothing about her other than that my parents were awestruck at the fact that I would be working with her.
“The other thing I knew about her was that she was a Dame, so the first thing I asked her when we met was ‘would you like me to call you Dame?’ at which she laughed and said something to the effect of ‘don’t be ridiculous!’
“I remember feeling nervous to meet her and then her putting me immediately at ease.
“She was incredibly kind to me on that shoot, and then I was lucky enough to go on working with her for another 10 years on the ‘Harry Potter’ films.”
He went on to say: “She was a fierce intellect, a gloriously sharp tongue, could intimidate and charm in the same instant and was, as everyone will tell you, extremely funny.
“I will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her, and to spend time around her on set. The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her.
“Thank you Maggie.”
Tributes have poured in for the late great actor, whose death was announced via a statement by her sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.
They said: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September.
“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.
“She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”
Radcliffe wasn’t the only Harry Potter star to pay tribute to Smith.
Bonne Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in the movie franchise, wrote on social media: “You will be so missed by the Harry Potter community. My favorite scene with Maggie was when we were all learning to dance for the Yule Ball.
“She embodied that perfect balance of sass and loving care that McGonagall has.
“She kept Gryffindors on their toes. My deepest condolences to Maggie’s family at this time.”
In a statement issued via their publicist, her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens said: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith.
“She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September.
“An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days.
“We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”
The legendary actress was perhaps most well known for her role as Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter – heartbreakingly, she has become the 26th cast member to have died since the movies first became so loved all the way back in 2001.
Smith was also a beloved name throughout her entire career, with her being well known for her time on Downton Abbey and Sister Act.
Tributes have begun pouring in from fans online, devastated by the death of the beloved actor.
James Crooks, a film journalist, posted on Twitter saying: “An absolutely fantastic actress whose presence will be missed. So influential to British television and film too, what a shame.”
Gyles Brandreth posted a picture of the pair and said: “The saddest news: the death of Dame Maggie Smith marks the end of a golden era & a quite extraordinary life.
“She was a truly great actress, “one of the greats” & simply the best company: wise, witty, waspish, wonderful.
“One of a kind in every way & consequently irreplaceable.”
Another account posted on Twitter and said: “One of those news you think you’ll never hear because in your heart they’re just immortal.
“Rest in peace, Dame Maggie Smith. You’ll be deeply missed.”
One fan posted on Twitter to say: “Heartbreaking news. An iconic actress that will be dearly missed.”
Another pointed to her role in Harry Potter, saying: “Will always remember this as one of Maggie Smith’s most iconic scenes”.
Smith’s role as Minerva McGonagall was an iconic one, with Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe crediting her for getting him the role.
He said in 2011: “Well she got me the job at Potter, practically, so for anyone who doesn’t know that story, I basically owe everything to Maggie Smith because I worked with her on David Copperfield and then she came over to Potter as McGonagall and said to the director, you need to audition this boy.”
Gary Oldman, the actor who iconically played Sirius Black in the original set of Harry Potter films, has revealed he would be willing to come back as Dumbledore in the reboot TV show.
There has been a great deal of speculation on the possibility of returning characters, with many hoping that there will be some cast crossover from the films.
Whilst Warner Bros have put out their casting requirements for the main trio, you can imagine that Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson will have slightly aged out of their roles.
Other suggestions have been more reasonable than this, with the fitting if uncreative suggestion for Daniel Radcliffe to return as James Potter or Sirius Black.
Oldman, however, reckons he should come back if anyone as Dumbledore.
In an interview with Indiewire, he said that ‘no one’ has approached him to return as Sirius for the reboot, but that he still holds ‘a soft spot’ for the character.
He said: “I love Sirius. He wasn’t in it enough. He turned up and then he went through the veil”.
He went on to say: “I would bet my money that they will get a whole new cast of people.
“Maybe in a few years, I could do Dumbledore”, he said after clarifying he doesn’t expect to get a call to play Sirius Black again.
When discussing the upcoming reboot, Daniel Radcliffe was coy about the possibility of appearing in the series, but signs seem to be pointing away from this.
He said: “My understanding is that they’re trying to very much start fresh and I’m sure whoever is making them will want to make their own mark on it and probably not want to have to figure out how to get old Harry to cameo in this somewhere.
“I’m definitely not seeking it out in any way. But I do wish them, obviously, all the luck in the world and I’m very excited to have that torch passed.
“But I don’t think it needs me to physically pass it.”
David Vaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros, has previously said about the upcoming show:
“We’ve not been shy about our excitement around Harry Potter,” the executive said.
“We are just thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead. We can’t wait to share a decade of new stories with fans around the world on Max.”
Schedule to premiere in 2026, casting for the show has begun.
Before he became the Boy Who Lived and one of the world’s highest-paid actors, Daniel Radcliffe was just an 11-year-old kid with a flair for the dramatics who was dipping his toe in the TV pond.
Incredibly, it was his debut role in BBC One’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield which helped him muscle his way into the wizarding world and earn his spot as Harry Potter.
Fans of the legendary film franchise have unearthed old footage of the youngster’s first ever screen test, which is where director Chris Columbus realised he could stop his desperate search for the perfect kid to bring his vision to life.
The baby-faced actor managed to impress the crew and Columbus with his enthusiasm while reenacting a scene about a dragon egg as well as a heart-wrenching conversation about his dead parents.
Although the contents of the screen test might have been a mix of both magical weirdness as well as doom and gloom, Radcliffe seamlessly switched between each mood and expertly recited his lines.
Recalling the big day, he said previously: “I remember I auditioned and it was a whole scene about a dragon egg in the first film. Chris Columbus broke the real egg and made me laugh.”
Radcliffe might have been responsible for the filmmaker’s butter fingers though – as Columbus was well and truly captivated by the lad’s acting abilities, so it’s no wonder the dragon egg suffered.The 65-year-old said: “Dan’s screen test was amazingly charming and soulful. He was inexperienced as an actor, but there was one thing that Dan had that you couldn’t teach anyone, which was this sort of haunted quality.
“I just saw it in his eyes in more serious moments. That was the moment I think that we all felt when we saw that screen test to hire Dan as Harry Potter.”
He had quite a battle on his hands before Radcliffe walked through the door, as he had been unable to find anyone perfect for the part – until he sat down in a hotel room and stuck on the BBC’s David Copperfield back in 2000.
After watching the youngster’s role as the title character, Columbus quickly came to one conclusion: ” This is Harry Potter. “This is the kid we’ve been looking for for months.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Radcliffe has also revealed his hilarious reaction to the moment his life changed forever when he got the call that he would become the kid with a lightning scar on his head.
He explained: “Dad comes in and says, ‘I’ve just spoken to David Heyman, you’ve got the part’. And I cried. And I was in the bath.”
The actor fondly recalls it as the ‘best moment of his life’ – and let’s be honest, being in a nice hot bubble bath while receiving that news is just the icing on the cake.
Daniel Radcliffe is executive producing a documentary that looks into the life of his Harry Potter stunt double.
David Holmes was a teenage gymnast from Essex when he scored a role that no one would turn down.
He was cast as Radcliffe’s stunt double in the first six films, and was tasked with doing all the risky moments that the main star couldn’t do.
However, his life was changed forever during a freak accident on the set of Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
There was a planned stunt for an explosion but from the force of it, Holmes fell to the ground in a bad way.
He ended up being paralysed from the chest down and now lives his life in a wheelchair.
The Sky and HBO documentary will chart his life before and after the accident and will be called David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived.
“Over the next 10 years, the two form an inextricable bond, but on the penultimate film a tragic accident on set leaves David paralysed with a debilitating spinal injury, turning his world upside down,” a synopsis for the documentary says.
“As Daniel and his closest stunt colleagues rally to support David and his family in their moment of need, it is David’s extraordinary spirit of resilience that becomes their greatest source of strength and inspiration.”
The documentary will use ‘candid personal footage shot over the last decade, behind-the-scenes material from Holmes’ stunt work, scenes of his current life and intimate interviews with David, Radcliffe, friends, family, and former crew’.
“The film also reflects universal themes of living with adversity, growing up, forging identities in an uncertain world, and the bonds that bind us together and lift us up,” the statement added.
Radcliffe appeared on Holmes’ podcast called Cunning Stunts and the two discussed how much stunt doubles go through on film and TV sets.
The Harry Potter star was amazed at how these performers pull off some of the things they’re meant to do.
“I think there’s a myth around stuntmen that they are just superhuman in some way,” Radcliffe said.
“When the public see something really painful or horrible, they think it was a visual effect or that there’s some clever, safe way of doing it.
“Often that’s not the case.”
He added: “There’s no way of faking, for example, falling down stairs. When you get hit by a car, you’re still getting hit by a car, even if it’s going slower than it would.
“They find the safest way of doing it, but it can still hurt.”
David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived will premiere on November 15.
