Margaret Rutherford

Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford was born on 11 May 1892 in Balham, South London, and died on 22 May 1972. An English actress who worked across stage, film, and television, she became one of the most recognizable comic performers of the twentieth century. Originally from London, England, she maintained a connection to Broadway that spanned from 1947 to 1960.

Rutherford's early life was shaped by severe family tragedy. Her father, journalist and poet William Rutherford Benn, murdered his own father and was subsequently confined to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Her mother, Florence, hanged herself from a tree while the family was living in Madras, India, leaving three-year-old Margaret to be sent back to Britain to live with her aunt, Bessie Nicholson, in Wimbledon. Rutherford was not told the truth about her father until she was twelve, when she learned he had been readmitted to Broadmoor in 1903, where he remained until his death on 4 August 1921. The mental histories of both parents gave rise to a persistent fear in Rutherford that she might suffer similar afflictions, and she experienced recurring bouts of depression and anxiety throughout her life. In her autobiography she described her Aunt Bessie as her adoptive mother and one of the saints of the world.

She was educated at Wimbledon High School, where a theatre space now bears her name, and later at Raven's Croft School, a boarding school in Seaford, where she developed an interest in amateur dramatics. After leaving school she received private acting lessons funded by her aunt, and when her aunt died, the legacy she left allowed Rutherford to gain entry to the Old Vic School. Before establishing herself as an actress, she worked as a piano teacher and elocution instructor. Her stage debut came in 1925 at the Old Vic, when she was thirty-three years old. Her first West End appearance followed in 1933, though critical recognition did not arrive until 1939, when she played Miss Prism in John Gielgud's production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Globe Theatre.

During the war years, Rutherford built a reputation in comedy and character roles. In 1940 she played the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca at the Queen's Theatre. In 1941 she originated the role of the medium Madame Arcati in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit at the Piccadilly Theatre, a part Coward had specifically envisioned for her. Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan remarked that she could act with her chin alone. She reprised the role of Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Haymarket Theatre in 1946, and when the production transferred to New York City in 1947, she took on the role of Lady Bracknell. That Broadway engagement earned her a Special Tony Award for Outstanding Foreign Company in 1948, one of her Broadway credits alongside Farewell, Farewell Eugene and The Importance of Being Oscar.

Her post-war stage career continued with a range of classical and contemporary roles. She played an officious headmistress in The Happiest Days of Your Life at the Apollo Theatre in 1948, Madame Desmortes in Ring Round the Moon at the Globe Theatre in 1950, Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World at Lyric Hammersmith in 1953 and at the Saville Theatre in 1956, and Mrs. Candour in The School for Scandal at the Haymarket Theatre in 1962. Her final stage appearance came in 1966, when she played Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals at the Haymarket Theatre alongside Sir Ralph Richardson, a role she was forced to relinquish due to declining health.

Rutherford's film career began in 1936, but it was David Lean's 1945 adaptation of Blithe Spirit that established her on screen. She went on to appear in a series of Ealing Comedies and British comedies, including Passport to Pimlico (1949), The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), and Anthony Asquith's film adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), in which she reprised her stage role of Miss Prism. Further film work included Trouble in Store (1953) with Norman Wisdom, The Runaway Bus (1954) with Frankie Howerd, and I'm All Right Jack (1959), the Boulting Brothers satire in which she appeared alongside Ian Carmichael and Peter Sellers.

In the early 1960s she starred as Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple in four films directed by George Pollock. Christie herself dedicated her 1963 novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side to Rutherford in admiration, though she was critical of the films for departing from her original plots. Rutherford made a brief uncredited cameo as Miss Marple in The Alphabet Murders in 1965. That same year she won both an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of the Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s (1963), a role written by Terence Rattigan.

Rutherford received formal recognition from the British government on two occasions: she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1961 and elevated to Dame Commander in 1967.