Downton

DOWNTON Abbey and Harry Potter star Dame Maggie Smith left a £16million fortune to her two actor sons, probate records published nearly two years after her death reveal.

The double Oscar winner, who died at a London hospital in September 2024 at the age of 89, left a net estate valued at £15,977,325.

Her will divides the bulk of that fortune equally between her sons Christopher Stephens, who works under the stage name Chris Larkin, and Toby Stephens.

She also left her West Sussex farmhouse, Douglas Lake Farm at Fittleworth, to a family trust she had set up with the two brothers in 2019.

The five-bedroom house, where she raised her sons and lived for more than 40 years, sits on a secluded plot with barns, a stable and a vineyard.

Born Margaret Natalie Smith in Ilford, Essex, in 1934, she was brought up in Oxford and made her stage debut at the Oxford Playhouse aged 17.

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She won her first Oscar in 1970 for playing the teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and a second in 1979 for California Suite.

She was made a Dame in 1990 and her other films included A Room with a View, Sister Act, Gosford Park and The Lady in the Van.

A generation of children knew her as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, a role she played across a decade from 2001 to 2011.

Her role as the acid-tongued Violet Crawley in six series of ITV’s Downton Abbey from 2010 won her three Emmy awards and a fresh television audience around the world.

In all she won two Oscars, seven Baftas, four Emmys, three Golden Globes and a Tony award, and was appointed a Companion of Honour by the late Queen in 2014.

King Charles and Queen Camilla also paid tribute, saying: “As the curtain comes down on a national treasure, we join all those around the world in remembering with the fondest admiration and affection her many great performances, and her warmth and wit that shone through both off and on the stage.”

Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe, said: “I will always consider myself amazingly lucky to have been able to work with her, and to spend time around her on set. The word legend is overused but if it applies to anyone in our industry then it applies to her. Thank you Maggie.”

Hugh Bonneville, who played her son in Downton Abbey, said: “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.

“She was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances.”

Her sons announced her death in a statement issued through her publicist, in which they thanked hospital staff for their care during her final days.

They said: “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.”

She married the actor Robert Stephens in 1967, the father of her two sons, and after their divorce married the playwright Beverley Cross in the mid-1970s.

Mr Cross wrote the musical Half a Sixpence and the screenplays for the fantasy adventure films Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans.

Her will directs that any copyright, royalties and unpublished works she inherited from him after his death in 1998 should be shared out separately.

The proceeds are split equally between his daughter Philippa Maughan, his son Shaun Cross and her own two sons.

She signed the will in September 1996, when Mr Cross was still alive and named as her main beneficiary, but he died 18 months later.

The full value of everything she owned came to £16,003,613, with debts and expenses of just over £26,000 taken off to reach the final figure.

Speaking in a magazine interview in 2019, she was dismissive of the two roles that had made her famous to a new generation of viewers.

She said: “It wasn’t what you’d call satisfying. I didn’t really feel I was acting.”

She added that she was grateful for both jobs, which between them introduced her to millions of filmgoers who had never seen her on stage.

Dame Maggie once summed her life up by saying: “One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act and one’s still acting.”

Talent runs in Downton Abbey star Phyllis Logan’s family as her husband is a fellow actor

Downton Abbey’s Phyllis Logan isn’t the only famous member of her family.

The 70-year-old actress is best known for playing the resolute yet compassionate housekeeper Mrs Hughes in the hit period drama.

She played the character across all six seasons of the ITV series and also returned for the subsequent feature films, including Downton Abbey (2019), Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022), and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025).

Mrs Hughes, also known as Elsie Carson, ran the entire servant branch of Downton Abbey alongside Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier), after he replaced her husband, Charles Carson (Jim Carter), as butler.

The character was involved in a number of memorable storylines during her time in Yorkshire, including a cancer scare, and her slow-burn romance with Mr Carson.

It turns out that talent runs in actress Phyllis’s family, as her husband is also an actor who appeared in Downton Abbey. Phyllis is married to English actor and writer Kevin McNally. They met in 1994, before marrying in August 2011.

Kevin began his acting career in the BBC’s TV adaptation of I, Claudius, but is best known for playing Joshamee Gibbs in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

That’s not all, as he also shared the screen with his wife in Downton Abbey. Kevin notably played Horace Bryant in the series, who was the father of Major Charles Bryant (Daniel Pirrie).

Charles fathered a child with housemaid Ethel Parks (Amy Nuttall) before dying in the war. Horace initially refused to acknowledge or support the child, before later stepping in.

Fans have been left speechless after realising Phyllis’s real-life connection to Kevin, whose Downton Abbey character looks completely different from his role in Pirates of the Caribbean.

“Just found out that Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes) is married to Kevin McNally (horrible Mr. Bryant)!!” one person wrote on Reddit. Another added: “The dude from Pirates of the Caribbean? That’s awesome,” while a third said: “I had no idea they were the same person. He looks so different in DA.”

Someone else wrote: “I had to google who Mr Bryant was as I’d forgotten and wow I didn’t recognise the actor at all,” with another similarly sharing: “The fact that so many are amazed at how different those two characters are attest to McNally’s acting skill.”

Downton Abbey is streaming for free on ITVX