Dame Maggie Smith battled double health woes on the set of the final Harry Potter film - as well as fighting cancer she was also struck down with agonising viral infection shingles.
The Oscar winner underwent chemotherapy in a London hospital in 2008 to treat breast cancer.
She battled through to return to work on the final wizard movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, last year (09), but was left weeping on set - because the skin rash she caught on top of her cancer was so painful.
Smith tells Britain's Sunday Express, "The cancer was hideous. It takes the wind out of your sails and I don’t know what the future holds... I had shingles, as well, on my head.
"I have never known anything quite so painful. I was doing a lot of crying."
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I sees the actress reprise the role of Minerva McGonagall and it will be the first time that we have seen her on the big screen since Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang earlier this year.
She is currently working on Downton Abbey and has lent her voice to Gnomeo and Juliet as well as having projects such as Quartet, The Hunter and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in the pipeline.
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