text:
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith  (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having received highest achievement for film, television and theatre, winning two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards. Hailed as one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990 for contributions to the Arts, and a Companion of Honour in 2014 for services to Drama.

Smith began her career on stage as a student, performing at the Oxford Playhouse in 1952, and made her professional debut on Broadway in New Faces of '56. Over the following decades, Smith established herself alongside Judi Dench as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. On the Broadway stage she received Tony Award nominations for Noël Coward's Private Lives (1975) and David Hare's Night and Day (1979), winning Best Actress in a Play for Lettice and Lovage (1990).

Smith's breakout film role was in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. For her comedic role as an Oscar loser in California Suite (1978) she received her second Academy Award this time for Best Supporting Actress. Her other Oscar-nominated roles were in Othello (1965), Travels with My Aunt (1972), A Room with a View (1985), and Gosford Park (2001). She rose to popular fame portraying Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011). Other notable films include Death on the Nile (1978), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), Quartet (2012) and The Lady in the Van (2015).

On television she gained newfound attention and international fame for her role as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Julian Fellowes's period series Downton Abbey (2010–2015) as well as the 2019 film and the 2022 film. The role earned her three Primetime Emmy Awards. She also won for the HBO film My House in Umbria (2003). She is the recipient of several honorary awards including the Society of London Theatre Special Award, the BAFTA Fellowship and the British Film Institute Fellowship.

Early life
Margaret Natalie Smith was born on 28 December 1934 in Ilford, Essex. Her mother, Margaret Hutton (née Little; 1896–1977), was a Scottish secretary from Glasgow, and her father, Nathaniel Smith (1902–1991), was a public-health pathologist from Newcastle upon Tyne, who worked at the University of Oxford. During childhood, her parents told Smith the romantic story of how they had met on a train from Glasgow to London via Newcastle. She moved with her family to Oxford when she was four years old. She had older twin brothers, Alistair (died 1981) and Ian. The latter went to architecture school. Smith was educated at Oxford High School until age sixteen, when she left to study acting at the Oxford Playhouse.

Career

Theatre

1952–1969: Theatre debut and National Theatre
 In 1952, aged 17, under the auspices of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, Smith began her career as Viola in Twelfth Night at the Oxford Playhouse. She continued to act in productions at the Oxford Playhouse including, Cinderella (1952), Rookery Nook (1953), Cakes and Ale (1953), and The Government Inspector (1954). In 1956 Smith made her Broadway debut playing several roles in the review New Faces of '56, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre from June to December 1956. In 1957, she starred opposite Kenneth Williams in the musical comedy Share My Lettuce, written by Bamber Gascoigne.

In 1962, Smith won the first of a record six Best Actress Evening Standard Awards for her roles in Peter Shaffer's plays The Private Ear and The Public Eye, again opposite Kenneth Williams. After seeing Smith in The Double-Dealer at The Old Vic, she caught the eye of Laurence Olivier, who invited her to become part of his new National Theatre Company soon after it was formed at The Old Vic in 1962. She soon became a fixture at the Royal National Theatre in the 1960s. British theatre critic Michael Coveney wrote that during her eight years in the company, Smith developed a fierce rivalry with Olivier writing, "He knew immediately he'd met his match – that she was extraordinary. He said that anyone who can play comedy that well can also play tragedy and he offered her the likes of Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello. But having got her into the company they became not enemies, but professional rivals. Never before had anyone on stage been quicker than him and now, it seemed, there was a contest." On The Graham Norton Show in 2015 Smith admitted that Olivier had slapped Smith across the face during a production of Othello in 1964. She appeared opposite Olivier in Ibsen's The Master Builder, and played comedic roles in The Recruiting Officer and Much Ado About Nothing all in 1964. Smith started with the company at its inception in 1962 with Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon and continued acting with the company for eight years.

1970–1979: International acclaim and awards success
In 1970, Smith played the title role in Ingmar Bergman's London production of the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, winning her second Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress.

From 1976 to 1980, Smith appeared in numerous productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, to acclaim; her roles included: Cleopatra in Anthony and Cleopatra (1976), Queen Elizabeth in Richard III (1977), and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1978).

In 1975, Smith starred in the Noël Coward comedy Private Lives as Amanda Prynne on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre. The play directed by John Gielgud received positive reviews. The New York Times theatre critic praised Smith's physical comedic skills writing, "Miss Smith's body spins, lurches, misses yards at a time before another foot comes down, ends in a paralysis that will require hypnosis to undo. The effect, because Noel Coward's situation is funny and because Miss Smith sends off that one little extra signal that spells extravagance, is hilarious, explosively so." Smith received her first Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination.

A few years later, Smith would return to Broadway in Tom Stoppard original play Night and Day as Ruth Carson in 1979. The play concerns a confrontation between British diplomat and an African leader over a local uprising that has attracted much media coverage. The diplomat's wife observes everyone else's behaviour throughout. The play received mixed reviews with Walter Kerr of The New York Times praising Smith's performance while critiquing the characters writing, "Which leaves us, theatrically and dramatically, where we began, with Miss Smith. The actress can, and does, do wonders. But she can't single‐handedly turn night into day." Smith received her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play nomination.

1980–1999: Tony win and further acclaim on stage
She won her third and fourth Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress, for her role as Virginia Woolf in Virginia (1981) and as Millament in The Way of the World (1984). She starred in the 1987 London production of Lettice and Lovage alongside Margaret Tyzack, receiving an Olivier Award nomination. She reprised the role in 1990, when it transferred to Broadway, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The play was written specifically for her by the playwright Peter Shaffer. "There is only one Maggie Smith, but audiences get at least three of her in Lettice and Lovage, the Peter Shaffer comedy that has brought this spellbinding actress back to Broadway after an indecently long absence and that has the shrewd sense to keep her glued to center stage."

In 1993, she portrayed Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's comic play The Importance of Being Earnest at the Aldwych Theatre in the West End, receiving her fourth Olivier Award nomination. The following year she starred in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women for which she garnered critical acclaim. Theatre critic Paul Taylor for The Independent wrote, "Maggie Smith has to be seen to be believed. The sudden subsidings into wretched senile tears; the frustrated, dismissive flappings of her arm as her mind gropes impotently for a mislaid fact; the comic cunning with which she tries to cover over her patches of blankness; the beadily aggressive suspicion and the moments of alert cackling triumph - Smith's performance which, at the moment, is firmly on the right side of caricature, captures all this and more. She received her record fifth Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance.

In 1997 Smith starred in another Albee play A Delicate Balance opposite Eileen Atkins. She received her fifth Olivier Award nomination for her performance as the witty, alcoholic Claire. Matt Wolf of Variety wrote, "This actress [Smith] continues to get laughs where no one else ever would...but she can be as revealing when quiet: admitting, sad-eyed, that "time happens" or sending the audience out for the first intermission on a note of doomy suspense." In 1999 she gained critical acclaim for her performance as Miss Mary Shepherd in Alan Bennett's drama The Lady in the Van. For her performance, she received her sixth Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress nomination.

2002–2019: Return to theatre
In 2002, Smith reunited with Dame Judi Dench for David Hare's stage play The Breath of Life. She toured Australia in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads in 2004. During 2007, Smith had a productive year appearing in films, television, and the stage. In March she starred in a revival of Edward Albee's stage play The Lady from Dubuque which ran at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End. David Benedict of Variety criticised the production with however praising Smith writing, "The exception is Maggie Smith, who arrives in the last minute of the first act and then dominates the second. Yet even the magnetically watchable Smith cannot save the evening as a whole."

In April 2019, after an eleven-year absence from theatre, Smith returned to the stage in Christopher Hampton's play A German Life as Brunhilde Pomsel at the Bridge Theatre in London. The new play by Christopher Hampton is a one-woman solo play consisting of Smith giving an extended monologue as Pomsel, an elderly German woman who, in her youth, wound up working as a secretary for Joseph Goebbels at the Ministry of Propaganda. Jonathan Kent took the directorial role. Variety theatre critic praised Smith's performance, writing, "It's a performance that combines the knowingness of hindsight with the naivety of youth, blasé enough to catch you off-guard when the magnitude of events suddenly cuts through". Matt Wolf of The New York Times wrote, "[Smith's performance] represents a new high in a six-decade career with no shortage of peaks", and added "The audience knows it is witnessing something special". Her performance won her a record sixth Best Actress Evening Standard award.

Television

1954–1993: Television debut and early roles
In 1954, she appeared in the television programme Oxford Accents produced by Ned Sherrin. In the mid-1970s, she made several guest appearances on The Carol Burnett Show. For her role on television as Mrs Silly in All for Love (1983) she received the first of her four Best Actress BAFTA TV Award nominations. In 1987, she starred as Susan in A Bed Among the Lentils, part of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series, receiving a second BAFTA TV nomination. Smith also received a third British Academy Television Award nomination for her role as Mrs. Mabel Pettigrew in the 1992 TV film Memento Mori, and her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role as Violet Venable in the 1993 PBS television film Suddenly, Last Summer.

1999–2007: Limited series and HBO projects

In 1999, Smith starred in the BBC television adaptation of the Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield alongside Daniel Radcliffe. Smith portrayed Betsey Trotwood for which she received a British Academy Television Awards and her second Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
In 2003, Smith received her first Primetime Emmy Award in the Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie category for her role as Mrs. Emily Delahunty in the HBO Television film My House in Umbria. She also received her 8th Golden Globes nomination for her performance in the television movie. In 2007 she starred in another HBO television movie, Capturing Mary alongside Ruth Wilson for which she was nominated for her fourth Primetime Emmy Award.

2010–2015: Downton Abbey and awards success
From 2010 to 2015, Smith appeared as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the British period drama Downton Abbey. The show became a cultural phenomenon, with her performance becoming a fan favourite. This role won her three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. In a March 2015 interview with Joe Utichi in The Sunday Times, Smith announced that the sixth season of Downton Abbey would be her last (it was in fact the last to be produced).

Smith participated in the filmed event National Theatre Live: 50 Years On Stage (2013) along with many actor of the stage including Michael Gambon and Judi Dench. The program features a variety of live performances from productions by the Royal National Theatre from the past five decades: The programme features a clip from the 1964 production of Hay Fever by Noël Coward starring Smith and Anthony Nichols which introduces her giving a live monologue from The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar featuring Maggie Smith. Michael Billington of The Guardian wrote of the event, "Obviously it was moving to see legendary actors, either through archival footage or live performance, repeating past successes."

On 30 October 2015, Smith appeared on BBC's The Graham Norton Show, her first appearance on a chat show in 42 years. During the show, Smith discussed her appearance in the comedy-drama film The Lady in the Van alongside Alex Jennings, which was directed by Nicholas Hytner.

2018: Nothing Like a Dame documentary
In 2018, Smith starred in a British documentary titled Nothing Like a Dame, directed by Roger Michell, which documents conversations between actresses Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright, which were interspersed with scenes from their careers on film and stage. The film was released in the United States as Tea with Dames.

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film a five out of five star rating, declaring it an "outrageously funny film". Guy Lodge of Variety called the film a "richly enjoyable gabfest" but that the film was "hardly vital cinema".

Film

1956–1968: Film debut and early roles

She appeared in her first film in 1956, in an uncredited role of a party guest in the British drama Child in the House, In 1959, she received the first of her eighteen British Academy Film Award nominations for her role as Bridget Howard in the film Nowhere to Go, her first screen credit. In 1963 she appeared in a supporting role as Miss Dee Mead in the British drama film The V.I.P.s starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Orson Welles. She earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film adaptation of Othello (1965) as Desdemona acting alongside Laurence Olivier, Derek Jacobi, and Michael Gambon.

During this time she also appeared in the British comedy, Go to Blazes (1962), Jack Clayton's The Pumpkin Eater (1964) with Anne Bancroft, and Young Cassidy (1965) directed by Jack Cardiff and John Ford. She also appeared in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's crime comedy The Honey Pot (1967) starring Rex Harrison
and Hot Millions (1968) opposite Peter Ustinov, and guest-starred as Music Hall Star in Richard Attenborough ensemble comedy and musical Oh! What A Lovely War (1969).

1969–1987: Oscars wins and widespread acclaim
Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Vanessa Redgrave had originated the role on stage in London, and Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, when she played the role in New York City. Smith was singled out for her performance in the film. Dave Kehr of Chicago Reader said that Smith gives "one of those technically stunning, emotionally distant performances that the British are so damn good at." Greg Ferrara wrote that the film "is one of the best British films of the decade. It is as captivating today as it was upon its release and its two central performances by Maggie Smith and Pamela Franklin are both stirring and mesmerizing. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the crème de la crème." The role also won Smith her first BAFTA Film Award for Best Actress.

In 1972, she starred as the eccentric Augusta Bertram in George Cukor's film Travels with My Aunt. She received her third Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance. She also appeared in the film Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973) directed by Alan J. Pakula.

In 1978, Smith played opposite Michael Caine in Neil Simon's California Suite, playing an Oscar loser, for which she received the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is, to date, the only person to win an Oscar for portraying a fictional Oscar nominee. For this role, she also won her first Golden Globe Award. Afterward, upon hearing that Michael Palin was about to embark on the film The Missionary (1982) with Smith, her co-star Michael Caine is supposed to have humorously telephoned Palin, warning him that she would steal the film.

Her other films at this time include Murder by Death (1976) with Vincent Canby of The New York Times writing, that the film had one of Simon's "nicest, breeziest screenplays" with David Niven and Maggie Smith "marvelous as Dick and Dora Charleston, though they haven't enough to do." Smith also starred as Miss Bowers in Death on the Nile (1978) alongside Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Peter Ustinov, and David Niven.

1981–1987: Merchant Ivory films and other roles
In 1981, Smith starred in the Merchant Ivory film Quartet alongside Alan Bates and Isabelle Adjani. The film premiered at the 34th Cannes Film Festival where it received positive reviews. Smith received her sixth BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance as Lois Heidler. Smith also played the goddess Thetis in Clash of the Titans (1981).

In 1982, she starred as Daphne Castle in the locked-room mystery film Evil Under the Sun opposite Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin and Diana Rigg. The following year, she appeared in the film Better Late Than Never alongside David Niven and Art Carney.

She won her second Best Actress BAFTA Film Awards for her role as Joyce Chilvers in the 1984 black comedy A Private Function with Michael Palin. Three pigs were used in the filming of A Private Function all named Betty. Producer Mark Shivas was advised by Intellectual Animals UK, that the pigs used should be female and six months old, so as to not be too large or aggressive. However, the pigs were "unpredictable and often quite dangerous". During the filming of one of the kitchen scenes, Smith was hemmed in by one of the pigs, and needed to vault over the back of it in order to escape. She also starred in the 1984 Hungarian-American film Lily in Love with Christopher Plummer. According to Smith's biographer, she referred to the film as "the ghoulash" and admitted to not understanding the Hungarian director's direction. She also called her co-star "Christopher Bummer".

In 1985 Smith appeared as Charlotte Bartlett in the Merchant Ivory Production of A Room with a View. The film received universal acclaim earning 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. The film starred Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Simon Callow, and Denholm Elliott. For Smith's performance she earned her fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and won her second Golden Globe Award and her third British Academy Film Award for Best Actress.

Smith won her fourth BAFTA Film Awards for Best Actress for the title role in the 1987 film The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. Pauline Kael wrote: "Clayton is a felicitous choice to direct a character study film about a woman's rage against the Church for her wasted life. His first feature was Room at the Top with Simone Signoret and he made The Innocents with Deborah Kerr and The Pumpkin Eater with Anne Bancroft – he knows how to show women's temperatures and their mind-body inter-actions. Maggie Smith becomes the essence of spinster – she makes you feel the ghastliness of knowing you're a figure of fun."

1990–1999: Dramas, comedies, and studio films
In the early 1990s, Smith appeared in various box office comedies. In 1991, Smith appeared as Granny Wendy in Steven Spielberg's 1991 hit movie Hook, a fantasy adventure film based on the Peter Pan character. The film starred Robin Williams as Pan, Dustin Hoffman as Hook, and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell. The film was a financial success making $300 million at the box office. In 1992, Smith starred as Mother Superior in the Whoopi Goldberg comedy film Sister Act and its sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). In 1996, Smith appeared in the comedy film The First Wives Club alongside Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler.

In 1993, Smith appeared in the film adaptation of The Secret Garden directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film was a critical success, Smith in particular was praised for her performance as Mrs. Medlock earning a British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1995, Smith portrayed the Duchess of York in another film adaptation this time of William Shakespeare's Richard III (1995) starring Ian McKellen in the titular role. The film adapts the play's story and characters to a setting based on 1930s Britain, with Richard depicted as a fascist plotting to usurp the throne. The film also starred Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, and Kristin Scott Thomas. Smith also starred in another film by Holland titled Washington Square (1997), playing the incurably foolish Aunt Lavinia Penniman.

She won her fifth BAFTA Film Awards, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, in which she played Lady Hester Random opposite Cher, Joan Plowright and Judi Dench. She also starred in The Last September opposite Michael Gambon and the film Curtain Call with Michael Caine in the same year.

2001–2011: Harry Potter and other roles

From 2001 to 2011, Smith gained significant international recognition and acclaim for playing Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies. Smith reunited with Daniel Radcliffe with whom she recently starred in David Copperfield from 1999. Smith appeared in seven of the eight films. The series was known for hiring legendary and iconic British actors, including Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Julie Walters. Without inflation adjustment, it is the third-highest-grossing film series with $7.7 billion in worldwide receipts. In 2016, while promoting, The Lady in the Van, Smith shared her experiences working on the Harry Potter films and working with the late Alan Rickman. "He [Rickman] was such a terrific actor, and that was such a terrific character that he played, and it was a joy to be with him. We used to laugh together because we ran out of reaction shots. They were always – when everything had been done and the children were finished, they would turn the camera around and we'd have to do various reaction shots of amazement or sadness and things. And we used to say we'd got to about number 200-and-something and we'd run out of knowing what to do when the camera came around on us. But he was a joy."

In 2001, Smith appeared in the British ensemble murder mystery Gosford Park, which was directed by Robert Altman. The film's cast included Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Charles Dance, Kristin Scott Thomas, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, and Stephen Fry. Her portrayal as the haughty Constance, Countess of Trentham earned Smith her sixth Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress alongside Mirren. The film premiered at the 2001 London Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim from critics including Roger Ebert, who awarded it his highest rating of four stars, describing the story as "such a joyous and audacious achievement, it deserves comparison with his [Robert Altman's] very best movies."

In 2002, she starred in the film Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood alongside Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn. She also acted with Judi Dench in the film Ladies in Lavender (2004) directed by Charles Dance. In 2005, she starred as Grace Hawkins alongside Rowan Atkinson and Kristin Scott Thomas in the black comedy Keeping Mum. Smith also appeared in the British costume drama Becoming Jane (2007), a film that centres around the life of Jane Austen, played by Anne Hathaway. She appeared in Julian Fellowes's fantasy drama film From Time to Time in 2009. In 2010, she played Mrs. Docherty in period fantasy comedy film Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang opposite Emma Thompson.

2012–present: Independent films and further roles
In 2012, she played Muriel Donnelly in the British comedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel alongside Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Penelope Wilton. The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight and received positive reviews. She received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the role. The film became a surprise box-office hit following its international release and was such a financial success, it spawned a sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015). Also in 2012, Smith starred in Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut, Quartet, based on Ronald Harwood's play. The film co-starred Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, and Michael Gambon. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews and garnered her a 10th Golden Globe nomination. The following year, Smith starred in the romantic comedy My Old Lady (2014) alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and Kevin Kline. The film received modest critical praise according to Rotten Tomatoes, with Smith's performance being a standout.

In 2015, she received rapturous reviews for her performance in the film The Lady in the Van (2015) which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. Kate Muir of The Times praised Smith's performance by writing, "Smith delivers a compelling performance in The Lady in the Van, as Alan Bennett's play comes to the big screen 15 years after it premiered at the Royal National Theatre." Smith received a Golden Globe Award and British Academy Film Award nominations for her performance.

In September 2019, a continuation of the Downton Abbey series in form of a feature-length film was in theaters entitled simply, Downton Abbey. The film was a financial success, and earned $194.3 million at the box office. She reprised her role as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess Of Grantham in Simon Curtis's 2022 historical-drama Downton Abbey: A New Era alongside Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery.

In 2020, it was reported that Smith would be starring in an Irish drama film, The Miracle Club, with Kathy Bates and Laura Linney. The film's plot is being described as a "joyful and hilarious" journey of a group of riotous working-class women from Dublin, whose pilgrimage to Lourdes in France leads them to discover each other's friendship and their own personal miracles." In 2021, Smith starred in the Netflix adaptation of the children's book by Matt Haig of the same name, A Boy Called Christmas. The film was directed by Gil Kenan and also starred Sally Hawkins, Kristen Wiig, Jim Broadbent, and Toby Jones. Smith was announced as starring in the film version of Christopher Hampton's A German Life, reprising the role she originated onstage in 2019 in London.

Acting credits, awards and legacy

Smith was appointed a CBE in the 1970 New Year Honours, and was made a Dame (DBE) in the 1990 New Year Honours, for services to the performing arts. Smith was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to drama in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours, becoming the third actress to receive the honour, after Dame Sybil Thorndike (1970) and Dame Judi Dench (2005). In 1971, Smith was conferred an honorary doctor of letters (DLitt) by the University of St Andrews. In 1986, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Bath. In 1994, Smith received an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Cambridge. In October 2017, Smith was conferred with an honorary fellowship of Mansfield College, Oxford.

Over her distinguished career she has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:
 38th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for Othello (1965)
 42nd Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, win, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
 45th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, nomination, Travels with My Aunt (1972)
 54th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, win, California Suite (1978)
 59th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for A Room with a View (1986)
 74th Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, nomination, for Gosford Park (2001)

She has also received a Tony Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards, five British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and five Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 1993, she was awarded with the BAFTA Special Award by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 1996, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented her with the BAFTA Fellowship, the highest honour the Academy can bestow. At the 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards, she was celebrated with the Society of London Theatre Special Award. In 2013, she was awarded with the Evening Standard Icon Award.

She was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Hamburg Alfred Toepfer Foundation in 1991. Smith was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of her outstanding contribution to film culture in 1992. She was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994. On 10 April 1999, Smith received the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre (The Will Award) presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in recognition of her significant contribution to classical theatre in the US. On 9 February 2014 she was inducted into the Actors Hall of Fame. Smith had a star on the London Avenue of Stars until all of the stars were removed in 2006. In September 2012, she was honoured with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Legacy Award. She accepted the award, presented to her by Christopher Plummer, in a ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. In March 2016, Smith was awarded the Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts. In April 2016, she was awarded the Bodley Medal by the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the performing arts.

Personal life

Marriages
Smith married actor Robert Stephens on 29 June 1967. They had two sons, actors Chris Larkin (born 1967) and Toby Stephens (born 1969), and were divorced on 6 April 1975. Smith married playwright Beverley Cross on 23 June 1975, at the Guildford Register Office, and they remained married until his death on 20 March 1998. When asked in 2013 if she was lonely, she replied, "it seems a bit pointless, going on on one's own, and not having someone to share it with". Smith has five grandchildren.

Health
In January 1988, Smith was diagnosed with Graves' disease, for which she underwent radiotherapy and optical surgery.

In 2007, the Sunday Telegraph disclosed that Smith had been diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2009, she was reported to have made a full recovery.

Charity work
In September 2011, Smith offered her support for raising the NZ$4.6million needed to help rebuild the Court Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand, after the earthquake in 2011 that caused severe damage to the area. In July 2012, she became a patron of the International Glaucoma Association, hoping to support the organisation and raise the profile of glaucoma. She is also a patron of the Oxford Playhouse, where she first began her illustrious career. Smith is a vice-president of the Chichester Cinema at New Park and a vice-president of the Royal Theatrical Fund which provides support for members of the entertainment profession that are unable to work due to illness, injury or infirmity.

On 27 November 2012, she contributed a drawing of her own hand to the 2012 Celebrity Paw Auction, to raise funds for Cats Protection. In May 2013, Smith contributed a gnome which had been personally decorated by her, for an auction to raise money for the Royal Horticultural Society Campaign for School Gardening.

In November 2020, Smith joined Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, and Ian McKellen for a conversation on Zoom entitled For One Knight Only, for the charity Acting for Others. Branagh described the group as "the greatest quartet of Shakespearean actors on the planet" as they talked about the highs and lows of their careers. In April 2021, Smith appeared in a streaming event alongside Kathleen Turner. The event was in support of The Royal Theatrical Fund, which provides support to those who have worked in the industry.

See also
 List of Academy Award records
 List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories
 List of Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
 Tale Spinners for Children
 University College Players

References

Further reading
 Maggie Smith: A Bright Particular Star by Michael Coveney, Victor Gollancz Ltd, September 1992, . Later revised as Maggie Smith: A Biography, 2015.
 Maggie Smith. A View From The Stalls by Caroline Février, The Book Guild Ltd, released 28 March 2018, 330 pages, .

External links

1934 births
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text:
Ex-LA City Attorney's Office Lawyer Pleads Guilty In DWP Billing Case
By City News Service, THE DAILY NEWS OF LOS ANGELES
https://www.dailynews.com/2022/04/05/ex-la-city-attorneys-office-lawyer…
LOS ANGELES — A former senior lawyer in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge connected to lawsuits involving the 2014 Department of Water and Power billing system debacle.
Thomas Peters, 55, of Pacific Palisades, entered his plea to one count of aiding and abetting extortion.
Sentencing was set for Aug. 2, but the hearing could be postponed, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Peters admitted threatening to fire one of the city's outside attorneys unless that lawyer paid $800,000 to a person who was threatening to expose incriminating information about the city's handling of the DWP litigation.
The defendant's plea agreement is the fourth prosecutors have obtained in the investigation involving the period in 2014 when DWP faced multiple class-action lawsuits over the flawed rollout of a new billing system — and the city was shoring up its response.
Peters was chief of the litigation branch of the City Attorney's Office, which had hired Paul Paradis, a New York-based lawyer, and Paul Kiesel, a Beverly Hills plaintiffs' attorney, as outside counsel in an anticipated suit against the vendor blamed for the billing mess.
The city's lawsuit, filed in March 2015, alleged that the vendor had caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The city agreed to pay Paradis and Kiesel nearly 20% of any recovery in the litigation — meaning the two lawyers stood to gain tens of millions of dollars, prosecutors said.
At the time, Paradis simultaneously represented Antwon Jones, a DWP ratepayer suing the city and the department for billing overcharges. By January 2015, the City Attorney's Office became aware that Paradis was simultaneously representing both the city and Jones.
In April 2015, an Ohio attorney whom Paradis had enlisted to purportedly represent Jones filed a Paradis-drafted lawsuit against the city and DWP. Paradis secretly agreed to accept — and eventually did accept — an illegal kickback of nearly $2.2 million for steering the lawsuit to the Ohio attorney. Paradis has agreed to plead guilty to a bribery charge.
By the spring of 2015, Peters was informed by a senior City Attorney's Office official that Jones v. City was a friendly lawsuit intended as a vehicle for the city to settle globally — and on its own terms — all claims related to the billing launch. Peters was also informed that Paradis had referred the case to the Ohio attorney for that purpose, and that the senior city attorney official had directed and authorized this strategy before the complaint was filed.
Despite objections from the city's counsel that a proposed $13 million attorney fee award was unjustifiably high, the city agreed to the fee proposal, according to federal prosecutors.
In July 2017, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued a final approval of the $67 million settlement agreed to by the parties in the Jones suit, including $19 million in plaintiffs' attorney fees.
According to his plea agreement, on Nov. 16, 2017, Peters learned from Paradis that a former long-time employee of Kiesel's had taken documents from the firm that would reveal the city's secret agreement with the Ohio attorney in the Jones lawsuit. The unidentified person threatened to reveal the documents if Kiesel did not pay her more than $1 million — later dropped to $800,000 — to return them.
During a meeting with Kiesel, Paradis and Paradis' law partner to discuss the threats, Peters ordered Kiesel to pay the monetary demands, or potentially be fired as the city's special counsel in the vendor litigation.
Peters did not have the direct authority to fire Kiesel, prosecutors said.
The following month, in December 2017, Peters met with other senior members of the City Attorney's Office and updated them on the status of the threats. Prosecutors said Peters was told to take care of the situation, and he agreed to do so.
Eventually, a friend of Kiesel — acting at the attorney's direction — approached the unidentified woman and asked to reinitiate negotiations of her monetary demands. At dinner shortly afterward, Kiesel agreed to pay $800,000 to the woman to prevent her from releasing the documents, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In May 2019, after Peters had resigned from the City Attorney's Office, he received an inquiry from the office asking what he recalled about the 2017 payment to the woman. Knowing that the office was probing whether Peters would, if asked by someone outside the city, reveal the extortion or the underlying collusion, Peters falsely replied that the matter had only involved an employment dispute.
According to his plea agreement, Peters made it known that he would continue to conceal the extortion and collusion by intentionally omitting from his reply that the "settlement" had involved Kiesel paying $800,000 in extortion money to conceal the city's collusion, that Peters had directed Kiesel to satisfy the woman's demands or be fired as special counsel, and that Peters had discussed the situation with and received direction from senior members of the City Attorney's Office.
City Attorney Mike Feuer said earlier this year that he was "furious and disappointed beyond words that someone I hired and placed faith in would commit this breach of trust — of the public, of my office and of me personally."
Feuer said that nearly three years ago, he asked for and received the resignation of Peters because of "unrelated past conduct, but at no time until today was I aware of Mr. Peters' illegal actions. With his admission of wrongdoing, we finally know the truth of what happened."
Feuer said that "the fact remains that I hired Mr. Peters and put him in a position of great responsibility. I own that choice. As with every decision in my office, the buck stops with me. Now it is my responsibility to lead our office, with hundreds of dedicated public servants, to continue to be a force for good in our city."
Despite Feuer's claims, NBC4 reported this week that the now-mayoral candidate's calendar shows that he was scheduled to attend the December 2017 meeting when the extortion issue was discussed.
"The city attorney attended multiple meetings over the years about the PWC/DWP litigation, and it appears from his calendar that he attended one on December 1, 2017," Feuer's spokesman Rob Wilcox told NBC4 in a statement. "The city attorney has no specific recollection of that meeting — more than four years ago — but certainly was not informed at that time, or any time, of any criminal malfeasance."
Responding to the revelation about Feuer's calendar, Jamie Court — president of the community advocacy group Consumer Watchdog — issued a statement calling for Feuer to resign.
"It's inconceivable that Mike Feuer was in the room when an order was given to pay off an extortionist to cover up the city attorney's misconduct and he didn't remember it," Court said. "The calendar entry corroborates a mountain of circumstantial evidence pointing to Feuer's involvement. He has disgraced the office of city attorney, and it's time for him to resign."
In addition to Peters and Paradis, federal prosecutors have obtained plea agreements from David Wright, 62, of Riverside, DWP's former general manager, and David Alexander, 54, of Arcadia, a former senior cyber official at the utility, stemming from corruption at the department.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A number of European security experts have signed an open letter addressed to EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, in which they call to triple the capacity of the European External Action Service (EEAS) East Stratcom Team, which operates the EU's only counteraction to the vasts amounts of anti-EU Russian disinformation – the Disinformation Review.
"The aggressive actions of the Kremlin are unprecedented in the modern era. Invasion of neighboring countries, massive bombings and killings of civilians, and the first annexation of a foreign land by force in Europe since World War II, constant violations of other states' borders, kidnapping foreign citizens, harassment of foreign diplomats, or massive cyber attacks are all in Russia's current regime toolkit.
write the authors, adding that the EU's response to the problem has been "irresponsibly weak" and the issue has been marginalized to the extent of claiming that no disinformation campaign exists.
An EU official familiar with the issue clarified to Euromaidan Press that the budget amendment that passed the EU parliament in October envisioned additional people and funds for the anti-disinformation service, but a few weeks later the funding was cut out and in practice no additional people were going to be allocated to the existing team. At present, the team is financed mostly by member states and not the EU.
the letter's authors conclude, warning Ms.Federini that if nothing is done to counter the threat, enemies of democracy will keep winning, and the damage to our societies might become beyond repair.
The EU originally established the Task Force team in March 2015 to address Russia's disinformation narrative and strengthen the bloc's own communication strategy. Since then, some 400 experts, journalists, NGOs, and officials have been involved in analyzing media reports and social media posts. The team releases a weekly Disinformation Review of pro-Kremlin disinformation stories and highlights the disinformation trends propagated in each respective country.
stated the report, which highlighted that the disinformation methods vary and are target themes, methods, and topics which are specific to each separate country.


Join Jenna V. for this special barre class just for expecting moms. You'll learn how to safely and effectively workout through every stage of your pregnancy. Get tips for getting the most out of your prenatal workouts while meeting some amazing women who are expecting a little one too. It's never too early to start building your mom community! You can sign up for this class using your current series or membership, or by purchasing a class at the drop-in rate.


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Q: zend framework - creating controller for admin/action1/action2 In zend framework, how do i create an action for this type of url:
example.com/admin/create/category

which would show a page for creating a new category
or
example.com/admin/edit/category/id

which would show a page to edit a category
here, admin would be the controller, create and edit would be the action but what about the last parameter 'category'? should i check for 'category' argument inside the controller actions or is there another way ?
thanks

A: Having this kind of issue, I suggest using zend route. Here's the link
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.controller.router.html
You can create multiple routes for each action if needed.

A: I think that the good way is to check for 'category' argument inside the controller actions. Based on its value you do what you want.

A: Assuming you have lots of different "things" you need to administer then i woudl suggest not using ana single admin controller but rather a Category controller. Then just secure the admin actions. Alternatively you sould have 2 controllers a Category controller and an AdminCategory controller...But either way you should have multiple controllers for the admin module....
Also keep in mind you can set up routes pretty much however you like... not every segment in the url needs to map to a parameter...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Dear Women: Velma Wiley
Home / Musings / Dear Women: Velma Wiley
posted on: Jun 13 2014
Before she was my landlady, Velma Wiley was my co-worker. We were housekeepers in a retirement home. I was nineteen. Velma was in her sixties. Although there were six of us on staff, I was usually paired with her, because the steady stream of chatter she kept up drove the other housekeepers nuts. There was a lot of eye-rolling in the break room when she got going. In fact, those women never hid their opinion that she was stupid. To be honest, her level of attachment to the world seemed to be on the most basic level. What would she make for dinner? Would it start to rain while she waited for the bus? Would the neighbor's cat come around again, wanting to be fed? Politics escaped her. The only national news event that caught her eye was the death of Elvis Presley. The Jonestown massacre didn't register at all. She had no idea who Squeaky Fromme was, or why she took at shot at President Ford.
Velma owned a small house in Boulder, Colorado. She lived in the basement apartment. Above her were two more apartments. One had a magnificent view of the Flatirons, which became our home over the summer of 1979. I was in college then, living a new life as a student. My husband, John, would enroll that fall. Velma seemed happy to have a couple of "youngsters" in the place. Our neighbor – her other tenant – was Betty Layman, 26, studying hotel management at CU. While Betty kept her distance, and didn't accept Velma's initiations to drop by anytime, John and I paid her several brief visits during which she rambled about her life in a way she never had at work, proof that she did actually know how to filter her monologs.
Over thirty years later, what stands out from those small moments? She had a canary named Tweetie. An entire wood-paneled wall had black and white photographs of a huge extended family, most of whom were long dead. One man, dressed in the style of the 1910's with round glasses and crossed eyes was identified as Cousin Ewart, to which Velma added, "but everyone called him Warty." She grew up on a sheep ranch in Wyoming. A young niece died at the age of two when she tumbled into a vat of boiling dip – some disinfectant, I assumed. Colorado and Wyoming were the only two states Velma had ever been in. Even something as bland as Kansas had an air of exotic mystery for her. That I was from the east coast was incomprehensible.
She used strange, colorful phrases when surprised. "Well, I'll be a son of a sea cook," she said when told that the night before a drunken young man had plowed his car into the foundation of her house, roaring across her barren lawn, missing the only tree there, and coming to a loud stop in a twelve-foot space between our front steps and Betty's identical set. The sound woke us and Betty instantly. Velma, and her brother and sister-in-law visiting from Wyoming (where else?) said they had heard nothing.
When the bottom of our water heater rusted out, and sent forty gallons of water through the panels of her drop ceiling and kitchen light fixture below, she said "Well, I'm as poor as Job's turkey!" as she sashayed about with a string mop. Velma was built like a soup can, but she was pretty light on her feet.
Another favorite was "That's enough to gag a maggot," reserved for anything disgusting she came across, like the remains of several crickets our cat had vomited up, not knowing they wouldn't sit well. In private, John and I speculated, giddily, what a gagging maggot might look like.
Velma played the piano, and sang along. "Beautiful Dreamer," and "Amazing Grace" were her favorites. She played right after dinner, while we were trying to watch the news on our ancient black and white television set – a relic from the 1950's, given to us by one of the residents of the nursing home who declared that it was bad for her eyes. The picture slanted at a 45 degree angle, putting a painful crimp in the neck, and yet somehow aligning with Velma's out-of-key howls.
Nothing ever seemed to make her sad or angry. Even when she developed liver cancer, her spirits held firm. The chemo was rough going at times, and I brought her my homemade carrot soup because I thought it might be easy on the stomach. It was. She asked for the recipe, then confessed that she didn't really feel up to making it.
She never spoke of her husband who had left her years before. She seldom mentioned her daughter, except to say the she had married a "bad character." She got hit by a car in the parking lot of a grocery store, and though her injuries weren't severe, she missed almost a month of work without pay. She didn't complain about money, though she had very little. I asked her once why so many bad things had happened to her. "Just lucky, I guess," was her answer.
We left Colorado in 1982 for Seattle. I never saw Velma again. Several years later, I asked a friend who was visiting Boulder to look her up. He said her name wasn't listed in the telephone book, which meant she'd probably succumbed to cancer by then. I can't begin to say if she had a good life, but from all appearances, it was a happy life. Given her circumstances, her constant positive attitude was astounding, and also inspiring. There have been a number of times over the years when I wished I could be more like her!
Boulderco-workerlandladyretirement homeWyoming
Lorie Dee Harriss
This was a beautiful story about my Grandmother! Thank you so much for writing this. I will cherish it.
What I remember about my grandmother, other than what you have written about her, is that she was a gentle soul. She loved her family. My mom told me that Grandma had some brain damage when she was a very young girl.
She is the reason I have read the entire Bible. When I would spend the night, we would talk for hours about her faitb and mine.
She may have made people roll their eyes at her but I can say that they should consider themselves blessed to have known her!! She was the kindest person they will ever come across.
Thank you for taking time to visit her and making her soup when she was so sick.
I miss her every day.
Lorie (Darner) Harriss


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St. Kate's Earth Week activities culminate at March for Science
With an eye to sustainability and environmental protection, throughout the week student groups across campus will give talks, screen a film, host a clothing swap, and cap things off with the March for Science. Photo by Catherine Tsen '11
Celebrating Earth Week 2017 at St. Kate's
In 1970, the first Earth Day brought together 20 million Americans to launch what is now considered the modern day environmental movement. This week, St. Kate's joins a billion people from nearly 200 countries worldwide to "diversify, educate and activate" about the impact of climate change on our environment.
With an eye to sustainability and environmental protection, throughout the week student groups across campus will give talks, screen a film, host a clothing swap, and more. Earth Week activities culminate on Earth Day (Saturday, April 22) with participation in March for Science–Minnesota. Student organizers were thrilled to find out that Minnesota was planning a local partner march.
"I knew right away we had to participate, and when I heard that it was happening on Earth Day, I knew it was the perfect way to top off our week's activities," says Nicole Szyszka '17, student sustainability coordinator for Earth Week. "I feel that it's really important for students to have access to the opportunity of going to the State Capitol, and knowing that St. Kate's is supporting them."
Szyszka herself will be at the March in Washington, D.C. Her Summer Scholars research team is presenting at Posters on the Hill early next week.
St. Kate's BioClub, the School of Humanities, Arts and Sciences, and Campus Ministry are organizing two buses to the local march in St. Paul. Seating is limited. Participants can reserve a ride here: http://stkat.es/sci-march [link no longer active - this event took place in 2017].
Full list of activities
Pope Francis and Earth Week
Location TBD, 12–1 p.m.
Science March Prep: Logistical Info and Sign Making
R-M Seminar Room, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Republic Waste Facility Tour
Food Justice Coalition Garden Tabling
2nd Floor CDC, 12–1 p.m.
Movie Screening of "At the Fork"
Mendel 101 at 7 p.m.
Fashion Association's Clothing Swap
2nd Floor CDC, 11:30 a.m. –1:30 p.m.
Alternative Bake Sale
2nd Floor CDC, 3 p.m.
Sustainability Panel
Rauenhorst Ballroom, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Biology Club Honey Salad Days
2nd Floor CDC or Community Garden, 11:30 a.m. –1:30 p.m.
St. Kate's at March for Science–MN
Minnesota State Capitol, 11 a.m. –2 p.m.
Buses from St. Kate's leave at 9:30 a.m. and return at 3 p.m. (approximate return depending on traffic)
Reserve a ride here: http://stkat.es/sci-march [link no longer active - this event took place in 2017]
CSJ Earth Day
CSJ Community Garden, 9 a.m. –12 p.m.
1884 Randolph Ave. West Lawn
By Sharon Rolenc


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Home » Trending News » Jennifer Lawrence Had a Typically Charming Reaction to Her BAFTA Win
Jennifer Lawrence Had a Typically Charming Reaction to Her BAFTA Win
Jennifer is working as often as she wants to, and she now seems to do at least one film per year that will garner her a few nominations. It should have come as no surprise that she was nominated for an Oscar the year after winning her first. Still, it's the thought of what she'll do as she continues to mature and log more experience that makes her so attractive as a professional. The girl is not afraid to look ugly for a role, and she's not even 24. There's a gracious (and fearless) confidence instilled in this woman.
We're gonna miss Jennifer when she disappears to start having babies soon. But in the meantime, she's still happily playing make believe, making some sweet coin while doing so and consistently dropping one-liners that make us lift a brow, grin from ear to ear and think, "She's such a charmer."
How does this girl get away with dropping so many F-bombs and come out smelling like a rose? That's precisely what she did when she learned that she won a BAFTA for her performance in David O. Russell's American Hustle. J.Law is now accustomed to being nominated for big awards, so she doesn't really set alerts on her phone, or have anyone call to remind her that a ceremony is taking place.
The BAFTAs basically serves as the British Academy Awards, and due to her shooting schedule, Jennifer wasn't able to attend–she's busy revisiting the role of Mystique in X-Men. When she was reminded that the BAFTA awards were taking place, she thought little of it. Then, she was told that she won the BAFTA for her role in American Hustle. She was in disbelief. She thought it was a cruel joke. So cruel of a joke, she offered a typical Jennifer Lawrence quip.
Wanna know what she said? Check out the video below.
Also Check Out: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Jennifer Lawrence!


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Ontological Relativity: Another Essay
by Mordecai Plaut
It is my intention in this paper to take up where Professor Quine has left off in his essay on ontological relativity. In order to gain momentum and to focus attention on certain points in his observations, I will first summarize the issues raised there. It is also hoped that, if necessary, this recapitulation will resolve any differences in word usage. While it must be remembered that I will have different emphases from those of Professor Quine, the first part of the paper is intended only as a paraphrase of his points.
Radical translation, as one might expect from its name, is the most extreme, and hence the clearest, case of ontological relativity. We find that translational hypotheses for an unknown language are directly dependent on the world view that we ascribe to the native speakers of that language. This is so because we can interpret the language only in a relative sense: relative to some background theory of the world that we choose to ascribe to the natives. We can translate a particular word as "rabbit" only if we suppose that the natives view the world as consisting of objects unified in space and constant over time. Should we suppose a different view of the world in our native, we could just as easily propose alternate translations incompatible with our original conjecture. There is no way of finally deciding for any among the various alternatives.
A given set of analytic hypotheses for translation can be made adequate by an appropriate ascription of world-view and, alternatively, a given world view can be ascribed as long as we choose the right analytic hypotheses.
These observations are easily transferred to more familiar situations, for ontological relativity begins at home. In theory, the problem we confront in interpreting the remarks of another speaker of our own language are no different from those we face when attempting an obviously new language, although in practice we are not as aware of the difficulties. Reflecting on the ubiquitous nature of the problem we might expect some principle which gives some order to the communication game.
Quine mentions the principle of charity as such a rule. Its content may be formulated as a general position assigning a preference to an ascription of nonstandard usage of common terms over a "silly" world-view on the part of our interlocutor.
This is not a mechanical principle and it does not result in the ascription of a uniform world view to everyone we meet. It seems to come from a desire to minimize our interlocutor's silliness by locating it in his word usage rather than in his beliefs about the world, but it is certainly imaginable that in some cases he may come out better if we assume minor deviations in his view of the world rather than major eccentricities of usage.
In any case, we are confronted with a knotty and disconcerting problem. Our difficulties are obvious when we do a radical translation, for we are unsure how to begin. Do we prefer elegance in the language or rationalism in the world? Even if we could devise some general rule for deciding such extreme choices, who is to say that there is no third choice -- a happy medium -- which makes both the empirical and the linguistic efforts of the natives very reasonable?
At home, although somewhat less knotty, our difficulties are more disconcerting. We are usually confident in our conjectures on the meaning of the speech of those who speak in our native tongue, but Quine's observations cannot but leave us somewhat uneasy (at least in an intellectual way) that we might have a radically different view of the world from "everyone else," if indeed "everyone else" has a single view of the world. For the lesson of the indeterminacy of translation is that analytic hypotheses of translation form a system only together with a background theory of what the world is like. This theory may be supplied explicitly or it may be implicit, but it must be there.
For another perspective on the situation we may consider things from a formal point of view. Formally, translating one language into another involves setting up a mapping from the expressions of one language into the expressions of another, from an unknown language into a known language. But not just any mapping is acceptable (even if the observations about indeterminacy are true, which they are).
We may identify three parts of any operating language: the expressions, the universe, and the mapping of the expressions onto the universe (called the model). Although the translation itself is represented merely as a mapping between expressions, it is the other two components that constrain the choice of mappings. All three components of the known language are available, as are the expressions of the unknown language. By the principle of charity we at first assume that the unknown universe is the same as ours. If we also knew the model, our procedure for translation would be very simple: given an expression in the unknown language, map it into the universe and use the inverse of the model of the known language to get the result.
However, we do not know the model in the cases considered by Quine (we do not know the universe either, but I will come to that later). Since the model of the known language is given, a conjecture for the mapping of an expression of the unknown language onto some of the known universe, is also (or perhaps mainly) a conjecture of part of the model of the unknown language. We can describe our aim in doing a complete translation as a full account of the model of the unknown language.
The problem that Quine poses is that our known language includes a number of different ways of partitioning the whole universe. The universe is partitioned into classes by equivalence relations, but we have a number of these in English which are adequate to partition the whole (material) universe. Our main check on translational conjectures is through the use of these equivalence relations. But since our checks are only within a set of equivalence classes, we can only tell if one ostended object, associated with a particular expression, is in the same class as another ostended object associated with the same word -- but there is no way to tell if we have the right set of equivalence classes!
We can certainly check on differences and similarities within a set of equivalence classes, but there is no way to check for equivalences across classes. In most cases we assume that the partitioning used by the speaker of the unknown language is the same as our own. In other cases, most notably when dealing with the languages of apparently primitive peoples, we are less inclined to assume for those speakers the same partitioning that we use.
The thing is that we can do a systematic translation of the unknown language using any one set of equivalence classes, but we must recognize that we have no claim to any absolutely correct translation. Our translation may be perfectly adequate, relative to the equivalence class we have chosen or, in Quine's terminology, relative to our analytical hypotheses of translation. But many other hypotheses, or partitionings, would also serve.
This is the situation that bothers Quine. We do not seem to be able to determine the correct equivalence classes.
It is to be emphasized that within such a class it is easy to distinguish the correct translation. Once we have made some choice of analytic hypotheses, ostension will be adequate to discriminate between any alternatives for translation of a particular expression. The only problem is that we cannot be sure that we had originally chosen the correct set of equivalence classes (i.e. the correct analytic hypotheses), but again, within a given set of equivalence classes there is one, and only one, correct translation from an unknown to a kown language, or in general between any two languages. Also, given a list of expressions and its model in one set of equivalence classes there is a unique transformation of that model for any (other) given set of equivalence classes (with Quine we are assuming such classes to be determined by equivalence relations).
For example, we can tell that a particular object (a book, say) is associated with a particular word ("book"). However exactly what the speaker has in mind by the book object is not fully determined. He may be pointing to a coherent material object, or he may be intending to point to what he sees as a material expression of some mystical force. We cannot ever find out for sure which he intends.
We may call a model with its transformation rules a translation form. There will of course be no unique such form for any pair of languages, nor can any preference be assigned a priori between the various alternatives even if there were some way of getting an exhaustive list of them. However, various translation forms can be compared from the perspective of a given, known language and, for an unknown language, they should all turn out to be equivalent in the sense that the various transformation rules convert all different translation forms into the same model for the same choice of equivalence class.
It may be instructive at this point to ask about the importance of determining the correct set of equivalence classes. That it is important and necessary to the task of the translator is assumed by Quine with little justification except his pointing out (with something of a shudder) how radically the various classes may differ. We have pointed out that once a set of equivalence classes is chosen to work with, we can construct a unique translation (within that class) and that there is also a unique conversion from a model (in the sense given to that term in this paper) in one class to a corresponding model in any other such class. (There are some constraints on the choices of other universes, such as size and richness of structure, but as long as we stay with these set of equivalence classes, which are only alternate partitionings of what is "basically" the same universe we will not run into any of these problems.)
The consensus seems to be that this does not complete the job of the translator, that he must still seek to determine the correct class. However, if Quine's observations are correct, his job is definitely done in one sense. He will do no more because he can do no more. Ultimately in the set of equivalence classes identity is inscrutable; there is no standard against which we can measure particular classes and of course no other way of identifying them except against some standard or other.
To reiterate, why is it that we care about which is the "right" set of equivalence classes? Why are we not satisfied with what we can definitely (though not necessarily easily) achieve, namely, the best translation within some chosen set of equivalence classes?
There would seem to be two types of answers. One would expostulate on the "radical differences" between the various distinct classes, pointing out that since the various classes are so different it is odd to suppose that they are all simultaneously suitable. The other would focus attention on the difficulty of choosing one class to work with; even if we were satisfied with translation within one equivalence partition, how are we to choose that particular partition?
Continues . . .
Related essay: How to Succeed in Knowing Without Really Seeing


a state of tension and flux / there is an unknown that exists somewhere between the analogue and digital – an intersection of sorts where the events that delineate participation are often defined by the technologies that underpins them – where the political, social and philosophical is marked by the statistical methodologies that have come to shape our current cultural climate where the real and the perceived are conflated by their identity, language and the systems they govern .
my work explores these ambiguous relationships . I comments on the relationship we have with the digital, the aggregation of information and end-user interactions . often referencing the nature of our media-saturated world, I am interested in the role that the image plays within our digital economies, the flows of information that they create and how embedded deep within their representation an alternate function lies within their interpretation .
I live and work in Wellington, New Zealand.


Your resume is the same thing as your CV. Call it what your prospective employer wants you to call it; they are the ones doing the hiring, right? Either way, this document may be the only thing anyone at the hiring organization ever sees. They may only look at the first half of the first page before they decide whether to put you in the "save" pile or the "discard" pile. So make that first 5 inches really good!
1. White space is your friend.
White space is just as important as space with print on it; sometimes, it's even more important. Do NOT fill up your resume with borders, bullet points, crazy fonts, or unnecessary descriptions. Make sure to offset crucial elements with indentations, carriage returns, and plenty of white space to draw the eye toward them, rather than obfuscate them.
Begin with a clear, specific Objective. "To acquire a job in international development" is as vague as it is unhelpful. "To acquire a job that will work toward reducing poverty in low-income countries via financing micro-institutions, securing food, and disseminating information" is specific and interesting. Your objective should change along with each organization to which you apply — you can find buzz words in their mission statements and on their websites.
3. Skills should be targeted toward achieving objectives.
Follow with a Skills section. This should highlight the skills you have acquired in your jobs, extra-curricular activities, and coursework. DO NOT LIST YOUR JOBS AND COURSEWORK here; instead, focus on the skills you can bring to the job you want. This section is your chance to convince your prospective employer that you have the skills necessary to attain your objective. Think analyze, write, compile, review, acquire, assess, lead, motivate, etc. Be sure to use parallel structure for each item — they should all be verbs, or nouns, or gerunds, or whatever you choose.
Your following sections (Education, Experience, Service Activities, Papers, etc.) should be parallel in style — same font size and type, same levels of boldness, italics, carriage returns, etc. Whether Education precedes Experience or vice versa depends on which will be more attractive to the job for which you're applying.
These sections need to highlight the tasks you performed (or skills you picked up) that will be most relevant to you moving forward. Did you plan a founder's ball for your sorority? Good for you. That doesn't help you work with lobbyists in Washington, DC. But I'll tell you what does — coordinating schedules, dealing with vendors, securing venues, organizing and overseeing committees, delegating responsbilities, hosting dignitaries, and mediating disputes among colleagues — all of which went into planning the ball. It's time to think of yourself and your experiences in a positive light.
5. That was SO high school.
If an organization requires that your resume be limited to one page, do so. If not, you can allow for two. Make sure the most crucial elements are on the first page — leave service activities, extra-curriculars, and the reference statement for the second page. Do not include high school events or honors unless they are extraordinary, such as winning a Nobel Prize. Did you win a Nobel Prize? Really? Is that why you don't have a job yet? Uh huh.
Speaking of high school, remember how fun it was to play around with borders and font sizes and neat styles? Don't do that here. If you're applying for a graphic arts position, you should have a portfolio where you show off those talents. Your resume is a place to show off your minimalism and ability to communicate information succinctly in 1-2 pages. Combining Wingdings with Garamond isn't going to convey your ability to do that.
Get ready to put your best image forward! That means this document is visually appealing and filled with a positive, strong image of who you are and what you can offer. Go get'em!


My high school friend, Neelon Crawford, passed through recently on his way from South Pole-sium, a gathering of Antarctic "veterans of the ice, historians, authors, artists of various kinds, descendants of those who had staked their lives on the pursuit of science and exploration" (see David Hirzel's post) to New Orleans for the opening of "Ralston Crawford and Jazz," his father's show at the New Orleans Museum of Art (through Oct 14, 2012).
Neelon and his brother John Crawford, both fine artists in their own right, were there for the opening and surrounding festivities and did this NPR interview with Diane Mack explaining their father's love for and connection with New Orleans.
Here's a snippet from NOMA's page on the show, along with one of the photos.
Though he is often remembered for his pre-World-War II precisionist paintings of urban and industrial subjects, Ralston Crawford produced a significant body of work after 1949 inspired by the culture of New Orleans. This summer, NOMA will present Ralston Crawford and Jazz, an exhibition that considers the relationships between music, photography, painting, drawing and film as they intersect in Crawford's work in New Orleans. Organized by the Sheldon Art Galleries, in Saint Louis, MO, the exhibition includes over 150 photographs, prints, paintings, drawings and films, many never before published.
Different aspects of New Orleans have inspired many artists and writers, but for Crawford, New Orleans jazz music had the most profound effect. In his work, Crawford imported the elements of jazz—syncopation, polyphony, and improvisation—and transformed them into visual strategies. Thinking along these lines, Crawford produced photographs of jazz musicians that are as punchy and rhythmic as the music that his subjects played. He made equally strong, graphic photographs of the cemeteries, weathered buildings, signage, and boats at dock. Always inventive, Crawford also interpreted these same scenes in lithographs, paintings, and films. This exhibition brings together works in all of these media and, in some cases, displays the painting, lithograph, or drawing, next to the photograph that inspired it.


Want to watch a visit to the set of Iron Man 3? Has Thor gone Brooklyn hipster? How can you win a trip to the Man of Steel world premiere? Which superhero film contains the #1 Halloween costumes this year? Where did DC Comics invade The Rocky Horror Picture Show? And what's the subject of the latest Superman fan film? Read about all of this and more in today's Superhero Bits.
Superhero Hype posted the Entertainment Tonight Iron Man 3 set visit. No new footage, but some decent behind the scenes stuff.
Artist Hanksy (yes, with an H) did this cool Thor art in Brooklyn.
Total Film asked 11 burning questions raised by the Iron Man 3 trailer.
Martian Glass Works did this Iron Man 3 stained glass which is just breathtaking. Via Nerd Approved.
Warner Bros. is auctioning off a Man of Steel package on this page, all proceeds go to the Arthritis Foundation.
Artist Daniel Norris got a little dark with this Thor poster via F Yeah.
The Avengers are the #1 Halloween costume according to moviegoers.


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In reply to: Andrew Vander Molen: "cameras"
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> 1) In the past the connectix VC was NOT recommended by some people.
> Why? and was this for both the USB and parallel version?
though so I can't speak from experience.
> Color and Cuseeme ?
have on the same system.


We've been loving making Atlanta one of our homes this year and couldn't have asked for a more supportive and beautiful community! We've been working hard, making, crafting, creating, and loving everything GA as of late, and today we want to show off our Atlanta style with a pop-up sale at Barre3 Atlanta South Buckhead. We'll be stationed there all day today (9/9) and tomorrow (9/10) showing off our goods and spreading the word about holistic and thoughtful skincare. Atlanta friends, pop on by to learn more about Kalón, check out our products, and purchase a little something special for yourself! And, it's a great excuse to check out Barre3 Atlanta SB studio! Your body is going to love you for it.


text:
HomeMP3@25: 1 – Tom's Diner
MP3@25: 1 – Tom's Diner
MP3@25 | 1: Tom's Diner | 2: Napster | 3: iMP3 | 4: At the Movies | 5: Legacy |6: Timeline | 7: Gift Shop
The 1982 a capella recording of Suzanne Vega's original song Tom's Diner – like Vega's own voice – has become synonymous with the history of the MP3's creation. As with all legends, the story is complicated.
Suzanne Vega with a certificate presented to her at Fraunhofer IIS (Karlheinz Brandenburg stands behind her), 3 August 2007. Photo: Daniel Karmann.
Legend has it that Karlheinz Brandenburg, one of the engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute who oversaw testing and refinement of the MP3 compression algorithm, heard this song and believed it would make the perfect test subject via which MP3 compression could be fine-tuned to perfectly reproduce the sound of the human voice. Brandenburg has himself offered multiple (conflicting) versions of the story, and the absolute truth may never be known.
The First Recording of a Human Voice vs 'The First MP3': At the top, the image of the sound of Édward Léon Scott de Martinville's voice singing the song 'Au Clair de la Lune' as etched by a needle into charcoal-darkened paper by his own invention, the Phonautograph – the first listenable recording of a human voice (1860). Below, a portion of the code inside 'the first MP3 file', Suzanne Vega's 'Tom's Diner' (a capella), viewed as a text file (2020).
The following portion of MP3@25 presents four versions of Tom's Diner which together deconstruct and rejoin Vega's work(s) with the ongoing legacy of the MP3.
Tom's Diner (a capella) 1987
Recorded 1986-1987. From the album Solitude Standing, released on A&M/PolyGram Records, 1 April 1987. Written by Suzanne Vega, 18 Nov 1981. Produced by Steve Addabbo and Lenny Kaye.
Part truth, part internet legend, the role played by Suzanne Vega (aka 'The Mother of the MP3') and this song in the birth of the MP3 is primarily apocryphal; yet, one of the engineers credited with fine-tuning the MP3 encoding algorithm, Karlheinz Brandenburg, did indeed use Tom's Diner (a capella) as one of several MP3 test tracks, and it was indeed selected because Brandenburg was impressed by the quality of its recording of Vega's (almost) unaccompanied voice.
Tom's Diner (a capella on Edison wax cylinder) 2012
Recorded at Building 11, Thomas Edison National Historical Park, Glenmont, West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, United States in February 2012.
In 2012, Vega was invited to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey, which preserves the home and laboratory of Thomas Edison, originally designed in 1887. While at the park, Vega was recorded onto a specially produced 2-minute Edison wax cylinder singing Tom's Diner unaccompanied in attempt to reclaim Vega's song and performance for the analog audio world.
moDernisT 2014
Conceived, produced, and recorded by Ryan Maguire
Ryan Maguire's conceptual composition amplifies the frequencies in Vega's 1987 recording that are stripped away when the original track is encoded into the MP3 format. These ghostly echoes amplify what has been lost, giving voice to parts of the original recording which now frequently go unheard in our contemporary world of compressed digital audio as the current standard for recorded sound. A detailed explanation of the composition process is published on Maguire's website.
Tom's Diner Edison Wax Cylinder MP3 file 2020
Created by Museum of Portable Sound Director & Chief Curator John Kannenberg on the 25th anniversary of the MP3, 14 July 2020. Released exclusively via this exhibition website.
Download MP3 object
Exclusive to this exhibition, we have created an MP3 file of the audio of Vega's Edison wax cylinder performance of 2013, which you can download by clicking on the Napster screenshot above. It is encoded at a consistent bitrate of 128kbps. It is yours to download, keep, and share.
Exhibition Home | Onto Part 2 > | Gift Shop


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