Obituary: Maggie Smith

Eight favorite films highlight a life of great acting

Unrelenting, focused and purposeful. These are words that come to mind to describe Maggie Smith. The actress continued to impress me repeatedly over the years in a wide variety of great performances. Among the films I reviewed in which she co-starred or appeared are the mixed, mediocre Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) and a few Harry Potter pictures based on the J. K. Rowling literary series.