Maggie Smith & Ian McKellen’s hilariously shady friendship remembered
passed away today at the age of 89. Rest in peace to a truly timeless dame.Born in 1934, Smith was a classically trained actor who made her mark on the London theater scene before establishing herself as a formidable force on film.
She received her first Oscar nomination in 1965 for Othello, one of her earlier film roles, and then won Best Actress just a few years later for her all-time-great work in the schoolteacher drama The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.Her other Oscar win was for Best Supporting Actress in 1978’s California Suite, an anthology comedy in which she plays an actress married to a closeted man (Michael Caine), who she famously calls f****t in one standout scene.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.Obviously it was for a role, so we’re not going to sit here and moralize about whether or not Smith could say the f-slur, but consider just how many projects she’s starred in that have been beloved by the queer community:She played the Reverend Mother in the Sister Act movies, stole scenes in The First Wives Club, was in the camp-tastic Clash Of The Titans and Merchant & Ivory’s gorgeous A Room With A View, delivered killer performances in whodunits like Evil Under The Sun and Gosford Park, schooled us all as Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter series (shame we’ll never know who wrote the books those movies were based on!), and was the ultimate H.B.I.C.
as Downton Abbey‘s Dowager Countess.Yes, Dame Maggie Smith has given the gays so, so much, and we’ll always love her for that.‘The Golden Girls’ set the template for these movies where older women can be funny, flirty, filthy, and more.But there’s one gay in particular who Smith had a very special relationship with, and that’s her fellow thespian and longtime friend Sir Ian McKellen.A classic “a girl and her gay” relationship, the two had a playful bond that has been an utter joy to watch over the decades, one built on an.
