Dame Maggie Smith died on Friday, September 27, at the age of 89. She was three months shy of her 90th birthday

Maggie Smith as Professor Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter (
Image: Videograb/Warner Brothers)

Dame Maggie Smith passed away Friday, September 27, at the age of 89. The iconic actress was just three months short of her 90th birthday. One of her most eclectic roles was playing Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter franchise from 2001 until 2011.

However, in 2007 while she was filming the sixth film in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 70s. She later went on to make a full recovery.

Despite the Downton Abbey star not revealing she had the disease until 2009, she still continued to work on set.

 

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph at the time, she said she was undergoing chemotherapy and was a little apprehensive about doing theater performances. “I’m not sure I could go back to theatre work, although film work is more tiring,” she said. “I’m frightened to work in theatre now. I feel very uncertain. I haven’t done it for a while.”

Upon learning she had cancer at her age, the news “knocked her sideways.”

“It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don’t know what the future holds, if anything. I don’t think there’s a lot of it, because of my age — there just isn’t. It’s all been. I’ve no idea what there will be,” she told The Times in 2009.

“I had been feeling a little rum. I didn’t think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign,” Maggie explained, adding that it took “longer to recover.”

Maggie died on September 27 at the age of 89 ( 
Image:
Getty Images)
During filming Harry Potter, she was hairless and felt “horribly sick” from the chemo, also donning wigs for her character. But she was able to “stagger through the last Harry Potter” because “the cancer was hideous.”

“I don’t know what the future holds, if anything,” Maggie admitted to the Times. “You feel so ghastly, you wouldn’t mind dying a lot of the time. The last couple of years have been a write-off, though I’m beginning to feel like a person now. My energy is coming back.”

Maggie appeared in the Harry Potter franchise from 2001 until 2011 ( 
Image:
PA)

Maggie went on to shoot the last two installments of the wizard fantasy franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2, released in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens released a statement on Friday, confirming the news of her death. “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September,” it read. “An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end.”

It continued: “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.”