Dame Maggie Smith: Sussex star of stage and screen dies aged 89

Tributes will flood in for the actress perhaps above all known for the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey.

Dame Maggie, who has long been a West Sussex resident, appeared at Chichester Festival Theatre in the 1990s in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads. She also collaborated with Bennett on The Lady in the Van.

A statement from her sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin 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."

Other work included The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for which she won an Oscar and also

A Room With a View and Gosford Park.

She spoke of her life in Sussex on the Graham Norton Show while talking about The Lady in the Van. The piece was based on a true story in Bennett’s life and Dame Maggie Miss Mary Shepherd, a transient woman living in her car on Mr Bennett’s (played by Alex Jennings) driveway.

Speaking on the show Dame Maggie said: “She (Miss Shepherd) lived in Storrington which is quite near where I live. I live in a village next door. There used to be a huge nunnery in Storrington and when I go there, which I do sometimes, I go to Waitrose and various things, I always think, I wonder what was it like when she was here as a sort of young person.”

When asked by Graham Norton if her appearance in Downton Abbey had made people recognise her more she said: “Funnily enough I was in Waitrose in Storrington and a little boy was at the checkout with his mother and kept looking at me. He kept looking at me and looking at me and I said ‘can I help you?’ and he said ‘it’s alright it will come to me in a minute’. I thought it was so sweet.”