Dame Maggie Smith’s death a ‘huge loss’, NZ actor says

New Zealand actors are among those paying tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, who died on Friday aged 89.

Jennifer Ward-Lealand, an actor and the president of the professional performers’ union Equity New Zealand, said Dame Maggie was a rare breed of actor.

Her death was “a huge loss to the acting community”, both in her native United Kingdom and around the world.

“There are not many performers left like her who were part of a really venerable legacy. She straddled live performance and screen works, but also the old world of acting and the new.

“When she started in the early ’50s and the ’60s, there was a real considerable change of style and material being written and produced, and she was right in the middle of that, and then in some really landmark productions.”

Ward-Lealand said Dame Maggie famously had a professional rivalry with Laurence Olivier: “He sort of met his match when he met Maggie Smith.”

The 89-year-old English actor’s six-decade career continued right up until 2023, Ward-Lealand said.

“To think that in her 70s she was doing Downton Abbey, still working, still a really hard-working actor … and then of course being able to garner a whole new audience with the Harry Potter films.

“She was someone who obviously loved to work, loved her craft and loved working with actors, and I bet she was an absolute hoot.”

Meanwhile, local glaucoma advocates said Dame Maggie did a huge amount to raise awareness of the eye condition, which is also known as the silent disease.

The actor was vocal about having glaucoma, which can cause blindness, and in 2012 she became patron of Britain’s International Glaucoma Association, which was later renamed Glaucoma UK.

Jenna Tuuta said Dame Maggie’s wide-ranging acting CV made her the ideal spokesperson for the disease, which could affect all ages.

“She acted for 70 years or so, and she had a huge reach. Glaucoma is known as something suffered by people in their older years. But you can have glaucoma at any age including childhood.

“So if you look at Maggie and think of her [Harry Potter character] Professor McGonagall, you’ll be attracted to what she has to say and … it might lead you to think, ‘yes, I should go get checked for glaucoma.'”

Tuuta said half of sufferers did not know they could have glaucoma, and they might not realise anything was wrong with their vision until it was too late.

As a result, Dame Maggie’s work was “incredibly important” at highlighting this “insidious disease”.