’60s ‘Dish’ Maggie Smith Says, ‘That Was Never Me’

Many Americans know Dame Maggie Smith as the elegant and formidable Dowager Countess of Grantham. But at 81, Smith is now starring in a role that’s a long way fromDownton Abbey. In The Lady in the Van, Smith is Mary Shepherd — a homeless woman who lived in a derelict van parked in playwright Alan Bennett’s driveway for 15 years.

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