Maggie Smith's “First Wives Club” Costar Bronson Pinchot Remembers Actress — and Why She 'Whacked' Him on Set (Exclusive)

"I had loved her as an artist, but from that moment, I loved her as a person," Pinchot tells PEOPLE of the late Smith, who died Friday, Sept. 27, at age 89

Bronson Pinchot is paying tribute to his First Wives Club costar Maggie Smith — and remembering their hilarious first meeting.

Amid the sad news of the legendary actress's death at age 89 on Friday, Sept. 27, Pinchot, 65, tells PEOPLE that he first met Smith on "a funeral-home set" during production of their classic 1996 comedy.

"No one introduced us; they just sat us together," he says. "I started to tell her that her performance as Desdemona in Othello had moved me so much I had to be literally carried out of the movie theater."

Smith's response? "She picked up her clutch purse and crisply whacked me with it, saying sweetly but firmly, 'We'll have none of that,' " Pinchot recalls. "I had loved her as an artist, but from that moment, I loved her as a person."

Pinchot gave more details about the encounter in a June chat with PEOPLE, joking that when he saw 1965's Othello — starring Smith opposite Laurence Olivier, in a role that landed the actress her first of six Oscar nominations — "I got so emotional that my girlfriend and my sister literally carried me out like a scarecrow because I was so broken."

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After telling Smith about his reaction, Pinchot said of the purse moment, "She smacked me with it [in the chest] like we're colleagues and you don't need to be telling me that I'm something great."

"And it was the most affectionate, eloquent [moment], because what she was saying was, 'Look, we're equals here. ... Oh, God, I just adored her," he added.

The actor also recalled how he was "able to pay her back" when Smith got an abscess in her tooth on set and he found her crying in her makeup trailer, claiming she wasn't permitted to "go take care of it" at the moment. So Pinchot tracked down producer Scott Rudin to sort it out.

"I said, 'Maggie Smith is crying because she's got an abscess on her tooth, and they told her she couldn't go to the dentist.' And he said, 'Who told her?' I said, 'I don't know, but Maggie Smith is crying,' " Pinchot told PEOPLE. "And he got a limo and put her in it and took her to a dentist."

Smith's sons Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin said in a statement that the actress "passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27th September."

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Related: Whoopi Goldberg Remembers Sister Act Costar Maggie Smith After Her Death: 'A Great Woman and a Brilliant Actress'

"An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," the statement continued.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days," Stephens and Larkin added.

The brothers concluded, "We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time."

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