While we're on the subject of all-time greats, let's talk about Julie Walters. Her character Molly Weasley is a warm, motherly type who accepts Harry as one of her own from the day she meets him. Despite her kind nature, she has it in her to kill, eventually striking down Bellatrix Lestrange in order to protect her own daughter.
Like Maggie Smith, Walters has been made a Dame by the Queen of England in recognition of her services to the acting profession. Walters admits that she was a problem child at school, being kicked out before completing her education due to misbehavior. She trained as a nurse before accidentally finding fame through her partnership with comedian Victoria Wood during the 1970s. Charmingly, she married a man who'd been called out to repair her car in the 1980s, and they live together on an organic farm.