Gryffindor is in mourning today.
Dame Maggie Smith, the British actress known to this generation as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the "Harry Potter" series and Violet Crawley in "Downton Abbey", passed away Friday morning at the age of 89, her family reported to various media sources.
Her biography over seven decades of performing includes two Academy Awards, five British Academy Film awards, four Emmy Awards (three for the Downton Abbey role), three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for "Lettice and Lovage" in 1990.
But it was her role of Professor McGonagall, who was the head of Gryffindor House of Hogwarts and the deputy headmistress under Albus Dumbledore and helped fight off the assaults of Lord Voldemort, that endeared her to a whole new faction of American fans.
