Downton Abbey's Maggie Smith Suffers Health Scare

Dame Maggie Smith, 77, has hinted at leaving the hit British series, Downton Abbey, before, and now a recent health scare that Smith experienced might make a return to season four of Downton less likely.

Smith, who plays the Dowager Countess of Grantham on Downton Abbey, the third season of which will premiere in January 2013 on PBS's Masterpiece Classics series in the United States, was taken to a private hospital on Friday in London to have some tests run after she was reportedly suffering from chest pains, according to the New York Post.

"It was a big scare for Maggie and she was really worried because she was in a lot of pain," a source told the U.K.'s Sunday Mirror. Smith was released the same day after "a routine medical procedure," reports E! Online, and is now "fine and well at home."

However, that doesn't mean that Smith coming back to Downton is at all assured. She still hasn't signed for the fourth season of the show. "She will have to think very carefully now about whether she stays in the show," the rep told the Post. "Her health always comes first and I am sure she will take advice from the experts."

In the past four years, Smith has also recovered from breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2008.

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