British actor Maggie Smith died on Friday at the age of 89. Although her acting career spanned more than 70 years, her roles were in Harry Potter franchise and the series “Downton Abbey” – that is, roles she played later in life – that brought her to worldwide fame and, she said, made it almost impossible for her to go anywhere without being recognized.

Dowager Countess Violet Crawley, her character in “Downton Abbey,” is one of the most superbly acted roles of a generation. Seemingly a peripheral character, she often managed to steal the show with her biting humor, one-liners and comic timing. Offering audiences both light relief and pithy or searing aphorisms, she became, in many ways, the moral compass of the Downton world. (“Do you like these games where the player has to look ridiculous?” asks Sir Richard, Lady Mary’s then fiancée, in an aside during a game of charades. “Sir Richard,” the widow replies, “to live is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous.”)

Notably, the widow embodied tradition while still embracing progress – a balance that I believe many of us long for, as these two ideas are deceptively presented as being in opposition to each other.

My friend Hannah, a fellow Downton enthusiast, noted that our desire for both tradition and progress—and our collective resistance to this false dichotomy—is why people liked The Widow. And it’s the same reason why so many Americans have embraced Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz, the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate: He seems to represent tradition and progressivism at the same time. In this increasingly disorienting world, where previously fixed points, ideas and systems are disintegrating, preserving some things from the past can be a necessary and fundamental exercise. In the same way, the widow represented that duality, that vastness that many of us long for.

Smith’s skill as an actor allowed her to embody this range with such humility, humor and conviction. As Julian Fellowes, creator of the “Downton Abbey” series, said on NPR’s “Fresh Air” in 2012, Smith has “an extraordinary ability to bring many different aspects of a character into her character, but they never seem contradictory… a lesser actor would, you know, do that. , find it difficult to be kind and cruel at the same time, or superficial here, but quite deep here. But she manages to combine all these elements into a believable woman.”

Her character was hardy and pragmatic, but intensely loving and heart-oriented. “I’m not a romantic,” she tells cousin Isobel, “but even I have to admit that the heart doesn’t exist solely to pump blood.”

Isobel, who fervently pushed for progress and modernity, was the perfect opponent for the widow. The irony, of course, was that Isobel was ultimately more rigid (and therefore more conservative in her own way), while the widow was more flexible and expansive, moving greater ideological distances during her lifetime.

In a controversial moment during dinner, when the younger characters begin to argue, the widow tries to put an end to the disruption. “But I admire it when young people stand up for their principles,” says Isobel. “Principles are like prayers,” the widow jokes. “Noble, of course, but clumsy at a party.”

And there is both/and. I am not suggesting that we should praise respectability politics or discourage disruption. In fact, I think they are very important. But the truth contained in this joke feels deeply humiliating (not to mention funny) for someone like me, who can easily fall into self-righteousness.

In another scene, Lady Edith, the widow’s granddaughter, questions the “appropriateness” of having a black singer perform at Downton. “My dear, we rural people must be careful of being provincial,” her grandmother responds. ‘Try to enjoy your time in London a little more.’

The widow’s progressive worldview was reflected in prioritizing action over words, which itself may be an example of its own kind of openness: a willingness to engage with the world rather than withdraw from it and to oppose it. And accountability was just as important to the character. As she notes, “Meaning well is not enough.”

Smith’s Dowager Countess was the show’s moral compass. And apparently the show’s stuffiest and most classic character. She was rooted in the past and at the same time reached into the present. There is no better testament to Smith’s genius as an actor than her ability to embody both things at once.