TV News

Maggie Smith Might End Her Run on Downton Abbey

The famed British actress announces a possible departure from the hit PBS series.

Maggie Smith as Dowager Countess of Grantham on the PBS series Downton Abbey.
Maggie Smith as Dowager Countess of Grantham on the PBS series Downton Abbey.
(© PBS/Everett Collection)

Maggie Smith, the Tony Award-winning star of the PBS series Downton Abbey, has told the London Times that her time with the series will come to an end after its sixth, and potentially final, season.

"They say this is the last one, and I can’t see how it could go on," she said. "I mean, I certainly can’t keep going. To my knowledge, I must be 110 by now. We’re into the late 1920s."

The 80-year-old Smith, who plays Dowager Countess of Grantham, has confirmed that she has no plans to retire after she wraps her role on the popular drama. "When you’re not working it’s scary, and when you are working it’s scary, because you don’t know if you’ve got the energy to get through the day," she said. "But the bleakness of not doing it, and missing out on the friendships that you make, is too much to bear."

Throughout her career, Smith has collected two Academy Awards, one for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and another for California Suite, and a Tony Award for Lettice and Lovage. Her role on Downton Abbey has earned her a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two consecutive Emmy Awards. She can currently be seen in the film The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. She recently finished shooting The Lady in the Van.