Judi Dench Tears Up Over Maggie Smith’s Death

Judi Dench is grieving her fellow dame.

In response to a question about the Sept. 27 death of longtime friend Maggie Smith, the British dame, 89, reportedly became overcome with emotion at a Cheltenham Literature Festival event on Saturday, Oct. 5.

As reported by The Times, actor Brendan O’Hea asked Dench onstage what she meant when she had once compared grief to petrol. “The last week has been tricky for you because you lost your great friends,” he said, referring to Smith, who died at age 89, and Frenzy star Barbara Leigh-Hunt, who died on Sept. 16 at age 88. 

“I suppose because the energy that’s created by grief … ” Dench responded before tearfully trailing off.

Dench starred with the late Oscar winner in 1985 film A Room with a View, remaining close friends through their next collaborations, 1999’s Tea with Mussolini, 2004’s Ladies in Lavender, 2011’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its 2015 sequel.

They also appeared onstage together — notably, in Sir David Hare’s play The Breath of Life on London’s West End from 2002 to 2003.

The 2018 documentary Nothing Like a Dame (released in the U.S. as Tea with the Dames) offered a glimpse of their longtime friendship, along with fellow British Dames Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright.

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Before the documentary was released, one scene of the three talking already had people in stitches, thanks to Smith’s frankness. “We’re going to work forever if we’re asked,” Dench began in the clip.

“But you’re always asked first, if I may say so,” Smith quickly replied, with Dench laughing. “I’m turning on you. It’s all coming out now!”

Smith died peacefully in a hospital, per the Sept. 27 statement released by her sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.

“It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith,” 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.”

Dench had previously said in a 2023 interview with The Times that grieving for her felt “unbelievably cathartic. You fortify yourself and use what you are going through as energy. Like petrol. It has helped me cope with the pain.”

At the Cheltenham event, the Shakespeare in Love Oscar winner added that she plants trees in a garden at her home in Surrey in memory of deceased friends.

Of a tree meant to evoke her late stage costar Stephen Hanley, she said, “It’s a wonderful white trunk. He was a very, very tall actor, wasn’t he? And he was very pale. The tree is like him.”