Photo from PBS via YouTube
The quote was penned by Downton Abbey (2010-15) creator and writer Julian Fellowes, but spoken with brittle wit by Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess, as played by Dame Maggie Smith. One of the highlights of each episode of the series was waiting for one of her biting digs. The series was smart to leave while it was still loved, with the final episode serving as the annual Christmas special, broadcast on Christmas Day 2015. If you miss it like I do, the good news is that a film adaptation is currently in production.
Smith has enjoyed an extensive, varied career on stage, film, and television, spanning nearly 70 years. She has appeared in over 50 films. She made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of ’56 (1956). For her work on stage, she has won a record five Evening Standard Awards. She received Tony Award nominations for Private Lives (1975) and Night And Day (1979), winning a Tony for Lettice And Lovage (1990).
She has won two Academy Awards: Best Actress for The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978), one of only six actresses to have won in both categories. She has won five BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. A six-time Oscar nominee, her other nominations were for Othello (1965), Travels With My Aunt (1972), A Room With A View (1986), and Gosford Park (2001).
She won an Emmy Award in 2003 for My House In Umbria, plus three Emmys and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Downton Abbey.
Smith:
It’s true I don’t tolerate fools but then they don’t tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that’s why I’m quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.
IFC Films via YouTube
Until the release of the Downton Abbey film in December 2019, try Tea With The Dames, streaming on Amazon. If you love the art of acting, this filmed conversation with Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright, will banish your winter blues. The titular “dames” is used because this quartet of women are dames and Dames; all four have had the honorific officially bestowed on them by Queen Elizabeth II.
