Margaret Rutherford
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| Dame Margaret Rutherford | |
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| Born | Margaret Rutherford May 11, 1892 Balham, Surrey, England |
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| Died | May 22, 1972 (aged 80) Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Spouse(s) | Stringer Davis (1945-1972) |
Dame Margaret Rutherford DBE (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
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[edit] Early life
Born in the (then) Surrey town of Balham, she was the only child of Mr and Mrs William Rutherford Benn (William Rutherford). Her father suffered from mental illness for many years, and on 4 March 1883, he battered his father to death.[1]
As an infant, Rutherford was taken to India, but was returned to Britain when she was three to live with her aunt, Bessie Nicholson, when her mother died.[2] She was educated at the independent Wimbledon High School and at RADA.
[edit] Career
Having worked as a teacher of elocution, she went into acting later in life - making her stage debut at the Old Vic in 1925 at the age of thirty-three. However, her physical appearance was such that romantic heroines were almost out of the question, and she soon established her name in comedy, appearing in many of the most successful British films of the mid-20th century. "I never intended to play for laughs. I am always surprised that the audience thinks me funny at all," Rutherford wrote in her autobiography.[3] In most of these films, she had originally played the role on stage. She married the actor Stringer Davis in 1945. They often appeared together in films.
In the 1950s, Rutherford and Davis adopted the writer Gordon Langley Hall, then in his twenties. Hall later had gender reassignment surgery and became Dawn Langley Simmons, under which name she wrote a biography of Rutherford in 1983.
In 1957, Rutherford appeared as Cynthia Gordon in the episode "The Kissing Bandit" of the American sitcom filmed in England, Dick and the Duchess, starring Patrick O'Neal and Hazel Court. In 1961, Rutherford first played the film role with which she was most often associated in later life, that of Miss Marple in a series of four films loosely based on the novels of Agatha Christie. Rutherford, then 70 years old, insisted on wearing her own clothes for the part and having her husband appear alongside her.
In 1964, George Harrison, when asked who his favourite girl film star was by Cathy McGowan on Ready Steady Go!, replied, "Margaret Rutherford".
Rutherford won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe for The V.I.P.s (1963), as the absent-minded Duchess of Brighton, opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. She also surpassed herself in Chimes at Midnight in 1966. She acted the part of Mistress Quickly so well, that Queen Elizabeth II entitled her as a noble lady.
She was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967.
[edit] Later life and death
She suffered from Alzheimer's disease at the end of her life. Sir John Gielgud wrote: "Her last appearance at the Haymarket Theatre with Sir Ralph Richardson in The Rivals, an engagement which she was finally obliged to give up after a few weeks, was a most poignant struggle against her obviously failing powers." [4]
Dame Margaret Rutherford is buried along with her husband, Stringer Davis, who died in August 1973, in the graveyard of St. James Church, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England.
Rutherford was a cousin of the left-wing Labour politician Tony Benn.
[edit] Selected stage performances
- Blithe Spirit
- The Way of the World
- The Importance of Being Earnest, as Miss Prism and in New York (1947) as Lady Bracknell, directed by John Gielgud
- The Rivals
- The School for Scandal
- The Solid Gold Cadillac (1965)
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | Talk of the Devil | Housekeeper | |
| Dusty Ermine | Evelyn Summers aka Miss Butterby, old gang moll | ||
| Troubled Waters | Bit role | uncredited | |
| 1937 | Missing, Believed Married | Lady Parke | |
| Catch As Catch Can | Maggie Carberry | ||
| Big Fella | Nanny | uncredited | |
| Beauty and the Barge | Mrs. Baldwin | ||
| 1941 | Spring Meeting | Aunt Bijou | |
| Quiet Wedding | Magistrate | ||
| 1943 | Yellow Canary | Mrs. Towcester | |
| The Demi-Paradise | Rowena Ventnor | ||
| 1944 | English Without Tears | Lady Christabel Beauclerk | |
| 1945 | Blithe Spirit | Madame Arcati | |
| 1947 | While the Sun Shines | Dr. Winifred Frye | |
| Meet Me at Dawn | Madame Vernore | ||
| 1948 | Miranda | Nurse Carey | |
| 1949 | Passport to Pimlico | Professor Hatton-Jones | |
| 1950 | The Happiest Days of Your Life | Muriel Whitchurch | |
| Quel bandito sono io (UK title: Her Favorite Husband) |
Mrs. Dotherington | ||
| 1951 | The Magic Box | Lady Pond | |
| 1952 | Curtain Up | Catherine Beckwith/Jeremy St. Claire | |
| Miss Robin Hood | Miss Honey | ||
| The Importance of Being Earnest | Miss Letitia Prism | ||
| Castle in the Air | Miss Nicholson | ||
| 1953 | Innocents in Paris | Gwladys Inglott | |
| Trouble in Store | Miss Bacon | ||
| 1954 | The Runaway Bus | Miss Cynthia Beeston | |
| Mad About Men | Nurse Carey | ||
| Aunt Clara | Clara Hilton | ||
| 1955 | An Alligator Named Daisy | Prudence Croquet | |
| 1957 | The Smallest Show on Earth | Mrs. Fazackalee | |
| Just My Luck | Mrs. Dooley | ||
| 1959 | I'm All Right Jack | Aunt Dolly | |
| 1961 | On the Double | Lady Vivian | |
| Murder, She Said | Miss Jane Marple | ||
| 1963 | Murder at the Gallop | Miss Jane Marple | |
| The Mouse on the Moon | Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII | ||
| The V.I.P.s | The Duchess of Brighton | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe |
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| 1964 | Murder Most Foul | Miss Jane Marple | |
| Murder Ahoy! | Miss Jane Marple | ||
| 1965 | Chimes at Midnight | Mistress Quickly | |
| The Alphabet Murders | Miss Jane Marple | uncredited cameo | |
| 1967 | A Countess from Hong Kong | Miss Gaulswallow | |
| Arabella | Princess Ilaria | ||
| The Wacky World of Mother Goose | Mother Goose | voice |
[edit] References
- ^ Matthew Sweet (March 7, 2004). "A LIFE IN FILMS: Murder she hid". The Independent on Sunday (via findarticles.com). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20040307/ai_n12751110/pg_3. Retrieved on 2007-11-30.
- ^ Stage and Screen Lives, Oxford University Press, 2001. P 291
- ^ Rutherford, Margaret, as told to Gwen Robyns. Margaret Rutherford: An Autobiography. W. H. Allen, London. 1972.
- ^ Stage and Screen Lives, Oxford University Press, 2001. P 291
[edit] External links
- Margaret Rutherford at the Internet Movie Database
- Margaret Rutherford at the Internet Broadway Database
- Performances in Theatre Archive, University of Bristol
- Margaret Rutherford at Find a Grave
[edit] Further reading
- Rutherford, Margaret, as told to Gwen Robyns. Margaret Rutherford: An Autobiography. W. H. Allen, London. 1972.
- Simmons, Dawn Langley. Margaret Rutherford. A Blithe Spirit. London, 1983.
| Miss Marple Murder films with Margaret Rutherford | |
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Films Murder, She Said | Murder at the Gallop | Murder Most Foul | Murder Ahoy! Based on the Agatha Christie novels 4.50 from Paddington | After the Funeral | Mrs. McGinty's Dead |
Cast Margaret Rutherford | Stringer Davis | Bud Tingwell Crew |
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