Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville has hailed Dame Maggie Smith as a “true legend of her generation”.

Bonneville, who played Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, the son of Dame Maggie’s character Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, praised his late co-star’s “sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent”.

He joined a host of famous faces in paying tribute on Friday, including the Prime Minister and American actors Whoopi Goldberg and Rob Lowe.

Bonneville said: “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.

“She was a true legend of her generation and thankfully will live on in so many magnificent screen performances.

“My condolences to her boys and wider family.”

Kristin Scott Thomas said Dame Maggie “saw through the nonsense and razzmatazz” of acting, and “had a sense of humour and wit that could reduce me to a blithering puddle of giggles”.

She starred opposite the actress in the 2014 drama My Old Lady and wrote on Instagram: “So very, very sad to know she has gone. She was a true inspiration. She took acting very seriously but saw through the nonsense and razzmatazz.

“She really didn’t want to deal with that. She had a sense of humour and wit that could reduce me to a blithering puddle of giggles. And she did not have patience with fools.”

Thomas added that you “had to be a bit careful”, but she “absolutely adored her”, called her comedic timing “perfection” and vulnerable roles “heartbreaking”.

She added: “The last time I saw her she was very cross about being old. ‘Maddening’, I think she said.”

Goldberg said she felt “lucky” to have worked alongside her in Sister Act, where Dame Maggie played Reverend Mother Superior.

The US actress shared an old picture on Instagram of the two on set, dressed as nuns, describing her as a “great woman”.

Lowe, who appeared with Dame Maggie in 1993 BBC drama Suddenly, Last Summer, referred to his late co-star as a “lion”.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: “Saddened to hear Dame Maggie Smith has passed. I had the unforgettable experience of working with her; sharing a two-shot was like being paired with a lion.

“She could eat anyone alive, and often did. But funny, and great company. And suffered no fools. We will never see another. Godspeed, Ms Smith!”.

Truly, Madly, Deeply actress Juliet Stevenson told Times Radio that Dame Maggie was “a goddess”.

She said: “For me, I think that there was literally nothing that she couldn’t do. If you look at the body of her work over 70 years, she started in theatre, she did a long period with Laurence Olivier at his first National Theatre, playing Shakespeare.

“She was on Broadway by the age of 22, she did high comedy, tragedy, and she conquered Hollywood. Her versatility was almost unrivalled.

“For me, she’s the greatest, really”.

TV presenter Gyles Brandreth described her as “wise, witty, waspish, wonderful”.

In a post on X, Bafta said she was a “legend of British stage and screen”.

Dame Maggie won five Bafta film awards for acting and also received the Bafta fellowship in 1996.