I always loved Smith. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether it was good or bad that this generation knows one of the greatest British actresses in history for her work as Minerva or the Dowager Countess. I eventually came to the same conclusion I had with so many other great British actors such as Judi Dench and Ian McKellen. Considering everything they went through in their careers, they deserve the retirement package they got. Smith actually got the Oscar BEFORE the pop culture renaissance but in her case it got her three Emmys. I'm kindof perturbed about her not showing up any of them but apparently British Actors take our meager awards less seriously then we stuffy Yanks.

And here's a bit of trivia: when she was starring in California Suite in which she and Michael Caine play a married couple (cAINE is bisexual) going to the Oscars they filmed Smith and Caine going to the 1978 Oscars to present an award. The next year, Smith actually won for her work in a role where her character loses. Ah Hollywood, how devoid of irony you are.

Smith was actually a national treasure long before she started doing the Potter films: she actually earned her first nomination for her work in Laurence Olivier's Othello in 1965. When she won for Miss Jean Brodie she wasn't even there for it and all of Hollywood was stunned - everyone thought Jane Fonda was going to win for They Shoot Horses Don't They? She also won an Emmy for her work in the HBO movie My House in Umbria.

Smith was a world treasure and unlike Alec Guiness she never seemed to be mind about he remember for her most famous role in the her seventies.