This December, TCM once again remembers and honors some of the legendary actors we lost in 2024. On, December 10, we start with an evening of programming dedicated to Dame Maggie Smith and continue with select film tributes to Alain Delon, Shelley Duvall, M. Emmet Walsh, Anouk Aimee, Janis Paige and Darryl Hickman on December 27.
Remembering Maggie Smith: December 10 at 8pm | 5 Movies
One of Britain’s most revered national treasures, witty, enigmatic Dame Maggie Smith held court on stage and screen for over 70 years. The recipient of two Oscars—Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978)—three Golden Globes, four Emmys, countless BAFTA awards, a Tony and then some, Smith bounced back and forth between mediums and big-budget and independent fare throughout her entire career. And she wasn’t just funny; Smith’s voice, delivery and technique could make the most humdrum line a riot.
Born in Ilford, Essex in 1934, Margaret Natalie Smith grew up in a strict lower middle-class household. Her mother scoffed that with her features Smith would never make it as an actress, but nevertheless, she prevailed. She developed her uncanny sense of humor and biting sarcasm early; a high school tutor remembered Smith delivering a speech from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at age 14: “She had, even then, marvelous comedy timing, and she never made a mistake.”
As a teen, Smith worked in repertory English theater at the Oxford Playhouse and eventually won acclaim on London’s West End. There, a movie scout spotted her, and she made her credited film debut in the British noir Nowhere to Go (1958). In the early 1960s, Smith was recruited by Laurence Olivier to join the National Theatre, where she stayed for a number of years, during which time she married and had two boys. In a rare 1963 interview with “Observer,” Smith summed up her preference for the stage: “The theatre is full of people looking for prefabricated security. They find it there. Nowhere else.”
In his biography “Maggie Smith: A Bright Particular Star,” Michael Coveney wrote that Smith’s “inner life is the source of her acting and out of bounds to everyone else.” Her strict, secluded childhood lent to a sense of irreverence, fierce need for privacy and a meticulous approach to her craft. Nicknamed “The Acid Queen” by co-workers, Smith was known for always being ready with a sharp one-liner, but she could also easily become impatient with fellow actors.
Smith’s international stardom flourished in between plays with movie appearances in the star-studded The V.I.P.s (1963), the biographical Young Cassidy (1965) and the eccentric camp classic The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a role originally offered to Julie Andrews. “After repeatedly stealing other peoples’ pictures, she now becomes a star in her own right,” the “Daily Mail” observed of Smith’s Academy Award-winning role and fame.
Her first post-Oscar appearance on screen was George Cukor’s peculiar adventure Travels with My Aunt (1972). The rest of the 1970s proved tumultuous personally and professionally, as Smith’s marriage floundered and her comic idiosyncrasies started wearing thin on the big screen—and her opportunities there were on the decline, too. Things turned around with a multi-year stint at the Stratford Festival in Canada at the end of the decade, where she played a variety of roles, including Cleopatra. “It was a wonderful new beginning and a very liberating time,” she told journalist Richard Ouzounian.
The 1980s and 90s saw the star return to film and TV, mostly portraying sharp-witted older women in pictures big and small, including A Room with a View (1985), Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992) and Tea with Mussolini (1999). Ironically, after over 50 years in the business, Smith’s role in the Harry Potter series as Professor Minerva McGonagall, as well as “Downton Abbey” as the scene-stealing fan favorite Violet Crawley, brought about the widest recognition of her career in the 21st century. In fact, according to Stephen Tapert’s “Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women,” Smith stands as the highest-grossing Best Actress Oscar winner of all time with a collective box office total of over $8 billion.
In Memoriam: December 27 at 8pm | 6 Movies
Alain Delon (1935-2024) was discovered by his future agent George Beaume and Hollywood talent agent Henry Willson at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. Delon had no previous acting experience but would reach international acclaim after starring in Purple Noon (1960) and Rocco and His Brothers (1960). An unstable childhood translated into a rebellious nature that continued into adulthood; scandals from the murder of his bodyguard to highly publicized love affairs kept Delon in the news—and bolstered his image playing mysterious rogues who possessed a blasé allure. The star tried his hand at Hollywood in the mid-1960s, returning to his native France later in the decade where he dominated in crime thrillers like Le Samourai (1967), La Piscine (1969) and The Sicilian Clan (1969). He continued acting until the 2000s and even produced and directed occasionally, including helming the 2008 TV movie Love Letters co-starring another actor we’re paying tribute to, Anouk Aimée.
Shelley Duvall (1949-2024) never intended to become an actress until she fortuitously met director Robert Altman at a party in Texas. Enchanted by her, Altman cast Duvall in Brewster McCloud (1970), and she spent her early career working with him in seven films, including McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Nashville (1975) and 3 Women (1977). The latter, a TCM premiere, won Duvall Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. The star’s unconventional persona served her well in a range of roles from The Shining (1980) to Popeye (1980) to Roxanne (1987) and beyond. In the 1980s, she formed Platypus Productions and Think Entertainment, for which she created and produced award-winning series like “Faerie Tale Theatre,” “Nightmare Classics” and “Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories.”
M. Emmet Walsh (1935-2024) was a beloved character actor who appeared in over 200 movies and TV shows during his five-decade career. Walsh’s authentic performances playing everything from crooks to cops and comedy to drama kept him busy in major commercial fare and indie flicks alike, including What’s Up Doc? (1972), Mikey and Nicky (1976), Reds (1981), Blade Runner (1982), My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) and Knives Out (2019). He earned glowing notices as an unscrupulous private eye in the Coen Brothers’ first film, Blood Simple (1984), as well as an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. Welcomed into the Character Actor Hall of Fame in 2018, Walsh once said of his wide-ranging roles, “I want to be remembered as a working actor. I'm being paid for what I'd do for nothing.”
Anouk Aimée (1932-2024) selected her stage name from her first film role in La Maison sous la mer (1947). Raised by thespians, young Aimée studied dancing and acting; the former aided her turn as a cabaret performer in Lola (1961). Throughout her 70-year career, the enigmatic actress, named one of the 100 sexiest movie stars by “Empire” in 1995, worked extensively in Europe and the U.S. Her best-known roles came in the 1960s in the likes of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8 ½ (1963) and Claude Lelouch's acclaimed A Man and A Woman (1966). Lelouch’s romance won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film and Original Screenplay. Aimée became the first woman to earn a Best Actress nomination for a French-language picture, taking home a Golden Globe and BAFTA for her masterful performance.
Janis Paige (1922-2024) started performing at age five. Not long after her mother relocated to Hollywood, Paige was discovered at the Hollywood Canteen. She eventually signed with Warner Bros. and appeared in pictures like Hollywood Canteen (1944) and Romance on the High Seas (1948). Upon seeing her movie career languish in the early 1950s, the energetic star turned to the stage and the small screen making a splash on Broadway in “The Pajama Game” and starring in her own TV series in 1955, “It’s Always Jan.” Over the next several decades, Paige regularly appeared in Bob Hope’s USO variety shows and made appearances on a number of TV series. After temporarily losing her voice in the early 2000s, Paige was back charming audiences in a one-woman show packed with songs and stories from her luminous life.
Darryl Hickman (1931-2024) not only enjoyed a successful acting career but thrived in a variety of roles in the industry. Born in Hollywood, Hickman made his debut in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and appeared in such films as The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Fighting Father Dunne (1948). After a brief stint as a monk in the early 1950s, Hickman went all in on entertainment. While his younger brother Dwayne found more success as TV’s Dobie Gillis, Darryl appeared in radio series, TV programs and plays, including the Broadway hit “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” He turned his focus behind the scenes in the 1960s and ‘70s, serving as a CBS programming executive, TV writer, producer and acting coach. In 2007, he wrote “The Unconscious Actor: Out of Control, in Full Command,” a book detailing his thoughts on the craft and stories from his career.
