- Though not as high profile a change as replacing Richard Harris with Michael Gambon, she too was replaced in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), by Dawn French.
- A mezzo soprano, she studied opera at the Royal School of Music as a teenager. Her singing career was stillborn, however, due to an affliction with bronchial asthma. She consequently opted for an acting career instead, though her first position was as a teacher of speech and drama at Coventry Technical College. She gained her first acting experience with a repertory company in Stockport.
- On screen, she appeared mostly in matriarchal supporting roles, often as indomitable dowagers (very effectively so in Jeeves and Wooster (1990)), spinster aunts and aristocratic ladies. She starred in her own, short-lived BBC children's series, Simon and the Witch (1987), playing the title role.
- The role of Chessene in The Two Doctors: Part One (1985) was intended for her.
- Was nominated for Broadway's 1975 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "London Assurance."
- The fourth Harry Potter film series cast member to die.
- Spent much of her career on stage with the National Theatre (where she had a big hit as Madame Arcati in "Blithe Spirit", in 1976), and, after 1962, on-and-off for two decades, with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- Had one daughter, Wendy Spriggs (b. 1952), with her ex-husband Kenneth Spriggs.
- Grandmother to Jessica (b. 1979) and Rachael Lumley (b. 1982) via daughter Wendy.
- Performed in Shackleton (2002) with Kenneth Branagh, both of whom were in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), respectively.
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