Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

We lost two giants of the entertainment world in the month of September, actors who I admired for decades. They each graced both stage and screen. And both filled their mantels with a large collection of awards.

Dame Maggie Smith

Dame Maggie Smith won two Academy Awards, a Tony, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, and seven Olivier Awards. Like so many British actors, Smith tackled Shakespeare at an early age. Among other Shakespearean roles, her beautifully restrained Desdemona opposite Laurence Olivier’s Othello has been immortalized on film by the BBC. She won her first Oscar as the title character in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a teacher who encouraged her female students to question conventional thinking. Her second Academy Award came for a more flamboyantly funny turn as an actress married to a gay man, and nominated for an Oscar, in Neil Simon’s California Suite. Playing her husband in that film was Michale Caine.

But for all the success, she told interviewers, she was able to go lead a relatively private life because, as she put it, “Nobody knew who the hell I was.”

That changed with two iconic roles. First came Professor Minerva McGonagall, a stern but loving professor, in the “Harry Potter” series. Smith appeared in seven of the eight Potter films. She worked on Potter even while being treated for cancer. And then came her role as the Dowager Countess of Grantham in “Downton Abbey”, the series and the films. Already in her seventies, Dame Maggie became a household word.

Julian Fellowes, the creator and writer of Downton Abbey, said in a statement to Variety, “Maggie Smith was a truly great actress, and we were more than fortunate to be part of the last act in her stellar career. She was a joy to write for, subtle, many-layered, intelligent, funny and heart-breaking. Working with her has been the greatest privilege of my career, and I will never forget her.” Smith died September 27 in a hospital in London. She was 89 years old.

James Earl Jones

Earlier in the month we learned of the death of James Earl Jones, one of the great American actors on both stage and screen. I regret never having seen Maggie Smith perform on stage, but I was fortunate to see Jones play Troy Maxson in Fences on Broadway. His deep, resonate voice shook the rafters in a Tony award winning performance. And while that was the only time I saw Jones on stage, he appeared in many roles, a total of twenty-one Broadway productions. He won another Tony for his performance in The Great White Hope, and a Tony for life achievement.

Jones’s deep, authoritative, voice was like no other. Disney needed a regal sound for Mufasa, the reigning monarch of Pride Rock, in the original animated The Lion King? Ted Turner required the voice of a basso deity to intone his network’s lead-in and sign-off, “This is CNN”? Directors wanted a personality that radiated command, in films such as Clear and Present Danger and The Hunt for Red October? Whether it was a kingship or an admiralty, Jones seemed born to play it.

But Jones is probably best known for his iconic role as the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga. He first voiced the character in the original 1977 film, Star Wars: A New Hope, and continued to lend his voice to Darth Vader in the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Here Jones’s deep, resonant voice brought a powerful and menacing presence to the character, making Darth Vader one of the most memorable villains in cinematic history. Although David Prowse physically portrayed Darth Vader in the suit, it was Jones’s voice that truly defined the character. Jones reprised his role in later Star Wars films, including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

And then there was Field of Dreams. I’ve written before about how this is one of my all-time favorites, and the role Jones played in it. I cannot imagine any other performer delivering the “Ode to Baseball” Jones’s character delivers as a monologue with as much impact. You have to hear it to understand.

Jones passed away on September 9, 2024, at his home in Dutchess County, New York. He was 93 years old.

#####