Margaret Rutherford Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Dame Margaret Taylor 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 Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1963 she won the best supporting actress Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role as The Duchess of Brighton in The VIPs. Rutherford was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961 and a Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967.
How I would love to have been a great traditional actress like Bernhardt, Duse, or Ellen Terry. There have been so many parts I yearned to play.
2
[on her initial aversion to doing a Miss Marple movie] Murder, you see, is not the sort of thing I can get close to. I don't like these things that are just for thrills. I would far rather go without work. I do not like murder. It has an atmosphere I have always found uncongenial.
3
[on co-starring with Alastair Sim in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950)] I found doing the film a bit tiresome. Film actors are, by nature, more complicated than stage actors. Mr Sim is a brilliant actor but most competitive.
4
You never have a comedian who hasn't got a very deep strain of sadness within him or her. One thing is incidental on the other. Every great clown has been very near to tragedy.
5
I hope I'm an individual. I suppose an eccentric is a super individual. Perhaps an eccentric is just off centre - ex-centric. But that contradicts a belief of mine that we've got to be centrifugal.
She collaborated with husband Stringer Davis on a total of 27 television and cinema productions.
3
She was offered the role of Miss La Creevy in The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970). Margaret also rehearsed the part in her home in the presence of Ned Sherrin and Anthony Hopkins. Having been unwell for quite a while, she didn't manage to remember her lines though and was therefore replaced.
4
Song of Norway (1970) was the last project for which Margaret Rutherford was contracted, but because of her poor memory at the time, she was replaced before shooting began.
5
Robert Morley said in a 1967 TV interview, "Although the profession is crowded with very nice people, she's always too nice, too soft, too much the perfect auntie. She's frightfully funny. She's a marvelous woman... a good woman.".
While filming "The Virgin and the Gypsy" in 1969 Rutherford, who was playing a deaf old grandmother, suffered frequent memory lapses causing filming delays. This resulted in her being replaced by Fay Compton. Unfortunately Rutherford never made another film.
8
Was the 58th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The V.I.P.s (1963) at The 36th Annual Academy Awards (1964) on April 13, 1964.
9
She was interred at Saint James Churchyard in Gerrards Cross, Buckinhamshire, England with her husband, Stringer Davis. Her epitaph reads "A Blithe Spirit.".
10
The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts named an award after her.
11
In 1925 (age 33), she was accepted as a student at the Old Vic Theatre, where she appeared in several small Shakespearean roles in productions starring Edith Evans, including The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew.
12
She developed an interest in the theatre while at school. Her guardian aunt paid for her to have private acting lessons.
13
She was the daughter of William Benn and Florence Nicholson. Just before her birth, her father murdered her grandfather. Her mother died when she was three years old and she was brought up by her aunt, Bessie Nicholson, in Wimbledon. When her aunt died a small inheritance allowed her to join the Old Vic in repertory.
14
Her cousin is the well-known British politician Tony Benn.
15
Her husband, Stringer Davis, portrayed Mr. Stringer in her four Miss Marple films and appeared with her in other films as well.
She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1961 Queen's New Year Honours List and the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1967 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to drama.
18
Agatha Christie dedicated her 1963 novel, The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side, to Rutherford in admiration.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Wacky World of Mother Goose
1967
Mother Goose (voice)
Arabella
1967
Princess Ilaria
A Countess from Hong Kong
1967
Miss Gaulswallow
Jackanory
1966
TV Series
Storyteller
The Alphabet Murders
1965
Miss Jane Marple (uncredited)
Chimes at Midnight
1965
Mistress Quickly
Murder Ahoy
1964
Miss Jane Marple
Murder Most Foul
1964
Miss Jane Marple
Murder at the Gallop
1963
Miss Jane Marple
The Mouse on the Moon
1963
Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII
The V.I.P.s
1963
The Duchess of Brighton
ITV Play of the Week
1963
TV Series
Mary Smith
Zero One
1962
TV Series
Mrs. Pendenny
Murder She Said
1961
Miss Marple
On the Double
1961
Lady Vivian
ITV Television Playhouse
1960
TV Series
Emily Blagdon
The Day After Tomorrow
1960
TV Movie
Amy Carr
I'm All Right Jack
1959
Aunt Dolly
Farewell, Farewell, Eugene
1959
TV Movie
Miverva Goody
BBC Sunday-Night Theatre
1950-1958
TV Series
Lady Proudfoot / Miss Constance Hargreaves
Just My Luck
1957
Mrs. Dooley
Dick and the Duchess
1957
TV Series
Cynthia Gordon
Big Time Operators
1957
Mrs. Fazackalee
A Likely Tale
1956
TV Movie
Mirabelle Petersham
An Alligator Named Daisy
1955
Prudence Croquet
Aunt Clara
1954
Clara Hilton
Mad About Men
1954
Nurse Carey
The Runaway Bus
1954
Miss Cynthia Beeston
Trouble in Store
1953
Miss Bacon
Innocents in Paris
1953
Gwladys Inglott
Miss Robin Hood
1952
Miss Honey
The Importance of Being Earnest
1952
Miss Prism
Castle in the Air
1952
Miss Nicholson
Curtain Up
1952
Catherine Beckwith / Jeremy St. Claire
The Magic Box
1951
Lady Pond
The Taming of Dorothy
1950
Mrs. Dotherington
The Happiest Days of Your Life
1950
Muriel Whitchurch
Passport to Pimlico
1949
Professor Hatton-Jones
Miranda
1948
Nurse Carey
Meet Me at Dawn
1947
Madame Vernorel
While the Sun Shines
1947
Dr. Winifred Frye
The Importance of Being Earnest
1946
TV Movie
Lady Bracknell
Blithe Spirit
1945
Madame Arcati
Her Man Gilbey
1944
Lady Christabel Beauclerk
Adventure for Two
1943
Rowena Ventnor
Yellow Canary
1943
Mrs. Towcester
Quiet Wedding
1941
Magistrate
Three Wise Brides
1941
Aunt Bijou
Spring Meeting
1938
TV Movie
Bijou Furze
Have You Brought Your Music?
1938
TV Movie
Missing, Believed Married
1937
Lady Parke
Catch As Catch Can
1937
Maggie Carberry
Big Fella
1937
Nanny (uncredited)
Beauty and the Barge
1937
Mrs. Baldwin
Talk of the Devil
1936
Housekeeper
Hideout in the Alps
1936
Evelyn Summers aka Miss Butterby
Troubled Waters
1936
Bit Role (uncredited)
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
18.15 Uhr ab Ostkreuz
2006
dedicatee
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
London aktuell
1970
TV Series documentary
Herself
Late Night Line-Up
1966
TV Series
Herself
The Stately Ghosts of England
1965
TV Movie
Herself
The 36th Annual Academy Awards
1964
TV Special
Herself - Winner: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (pre-recorded)
Variety Club Awards
1964
TV Movie documentary
Herself
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1963
TV Series
Herself - Guest
The Merv Griffin Show
1962
TV Series
Herself - Guest
The 1959 Show
1959
TV Movie
Herself
The Frankie Howerd Show
1958
TV Movie
Herself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Die wahre Miss Marple - Der kuriose Fall Margaret Rutherford
$1.4 Million
