Judi Dench reveals her secret tribute to late friend Maggie Smith
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Legendary actor made the moving revelation in a special BBC tribute to the ‘Downton Abbey’ star. Dame Judi Dench has shared her poignant and deeply personal tribute to her late friend and fellow actor, Dame Maggie Smith. Smith, who enjoyed a celebrated career spanning more than 60 years, died aged 89 in September this year.
She and Dench worked together on a number of occasions, including in the 1984 film A Private Function and in 1999’s Tea With Mussolini, having first met in a dressing room at the Old Vic theatre in 1957. Arguably their most famous collaboration was 1985’s A Room with a View, though they also co-starred in 2004’s Thirties-set costume drama Ladies in Lavender, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in 2011, and the 2015 sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Dench is known to plant individual trees in memory of friends at her home in Surrey, where she has a private forest. She spoke about the tradition in an episode of Louis Theroux Interviews... where she showed the documentary-maker trees named after loved ones including Alan Rickman, Helen McCrody, Diana Rigg and her late husband, Michael Williams.
“Joe, who works for me, came in and he had one little crab apple,” she told the broadcaster. “And so I had it in my pocket at her funeral, which was a very nice thing to have.”. Dench reportedly broke down in tears when asked about her grief over Smith’s death during an appearance at Cheltenham Literature Festival in October.