Margaret Rutherford
Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, England | |
---|---|
Resting place | St. James's Church, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1925–1967 |
Spouse | |
Parent(s) | William Rutherford Benn Florence Nicholson |
Relatives | Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet (uncle) |
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford,
She came to national attention following
Early life
Rutherford's early life was overshadowed by tragedies involving both of her parents. Her father, journalist and poet
Following the inquest, William Benn was certified insane and removed to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Seven years later, on 26 July 1890, he was discharged from Broadmoor and reunited with his wife. He legally dropped his surname.
Margaret Taylor Rutherford, the only child of William and Florence, was born in 1892 in
Young Margaret had been told that her father died of a broken heart soon afterward. When she was 12 years old, she was shocked to learn that her father had actually been readmitted to Broadmoor Hospital in 1903, where he remained until his death on 4 August 1921. Her parents' mental afflictions gave rise to a fear that she might succumb to similar maladies, a fear that haunted her for the rest of her life. She suffered intermittent bouts of depression and anxiety.[3]
Margaret Rutherford was educated at Wimbledon High School (now a theatre space, the Rutherford Centre, named after her) and from the age of 13, at Raven's Croft School, a boarding school in Sutton Avenue, Seaford.[4] While she was there, she developed an interest in the theatre and performed in amateur dramatics. After she left school, her aunt paid for her to have private acting lessons. When her aunt died, she left a legacy that allowed Rutherford to secure entry to the Old Vic School. In her autobiography, Rutherford called her Aunt Bessie her "adoptive mother and one of the saints of the world".[5]
Stage career
Rutherford, a talented pianist, first found work as a piano teacher and a teacher of elocution. She developed an acting career relatively late, making her stage debut only in 1925, aged 33, at the Old Vic. As her "spaniel jowls" and bulky frame made being cast in romantic heroine roles impossible, she established her name in comedy, appearing in many of the most successful British plays and films. "I never intended to play for laughs. I am always surprised that the audience thinks me funny at all", Rutherford wrote in her autobiography.[5] Rutherford made her first appearance in London's West End in 1933, but her talent was not recognised by the critics until her performance as Miss Prism in John Gielgud's production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Globe Theatre in 1939.
In 1941
Another theatrical success during the war years included her part as the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers in
Film career
Although she made her film debut in 1936, it was Rutherford's turn as Madame Arcati in
More comedies followed, including
In the early 1960s, she appeared as
Rutherford played the absent-minded, impoverished, pill-popping Duchess of Brighton – the only comedy relief – in The V.I.P.s (1963) from a screenplay by Terence Rattigan. The film features a star-studded cast led by Maggie Smith, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. For her performance, she won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress. At the time she set a record for the oldest woman and last born in the nineteenth century to win an Oscar.
She appeared as Mistress Quickly in Orson Welles' film Chimes at Midnight (1965) and was directed by Charlie Chaplin in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren, which was one of her final films. She started work on The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), but illness caused her to be replaced by Fay Compton.
Personal life, illness and death
In 1945, Rutherford, 53, married character actor
In the 1950s, Rutherford and Davis unofficially adopted writer Gordon Langley Hall (later Dawn Langley Simmons), then in her twenties, who later wrote a biography of Rutherford in 1983. [12]
Rutherford suffered from
Rutherford and Davis (who died in 1973) are interred at the graveyard of St. James's Church, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. "A Blithe Spirit" is inscribed on the base of Margaret Rutherford's memorial stone, a reference to the Noël Coward play that helped to make her name.
Theatre performances
- A student at the Old VicTheatre School, playing walk-ons and small parts in various shows, 1925–26
- Understudy for Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1928
- A season with the English Repertory Players at the Grand Theatre, Fulham, 1929
- Little Theatre, Epsom, 1930
- A season in rep at the Oxford Playhouse, 1930–31
- A season in rep in Croydon, 1931
- A season with the Greater London Players, 1932
- Mrs. Read in Wild Justice at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1933
- Birthday (understudy to Jean Cadell and Muriel Aked), at the Cambridge Theatre, 1934
- Aline Solness in The Master Builder at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, 1934
- Lady Nancy in Hervey House at His Majesty's Theatre, 1935
- Miss Flower in Short Story at the Queen's Theatre, 1935
- Mrs. Palmai in Farewell Performance at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1936
- Aunt Bella in Tavern in the Town at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, 1937
- Emily Deveral in Up the Garden Path at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, 1937
- The Mother in The Melody That Got Lost at the Phoenix Theatre, 1938
- Bijou Furze in Spring Meeting at the Ambassadors Theatre, 1938
- Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Globe Theatre, 1939
- Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca at the Queen's Theatre, 1940
- Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit at the Piccadilly Theatre, 1941
- ENSAtour of France and Belgium, 1944
- Queen of Hearts and White Queen in Alice in Wonderland at the Palace Theatre, 1944
- Lady Charlotte Fayre in Perchance to Dream at the London Hippodrome, 1945
- Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1946
- Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royale Theatre, New York, 1947
- Evelyn Whitchurch in The Happiest Days of Your Life at the Apollo Theatre, 1948
- Madame Desmortes in Ring Round the Moon at the Globe Theatre, 1950
- The title role in Miss Hargreaves at the Royal Court Theatre and New Theatre, 1952
- Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1953
- White Queen in Alice Through the Looking-Glass at the Prince's Theatre, 1954
- Duchess of Pont-au-Bronc in Time Remembered at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith and New Theatre, 1954
- Mirabelle Petersham in A Likely Tale at the Globe Theatre, 1956
- Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World at the Saville Theatre, 1956
- Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest on Ireland and UK tour (Dublin, Limerick, Belfast, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Eastbourne and Bournemouth), 1957
- The Happiest Days of Your Life and Time Remembered on tour of Australia, 1957
- Minerva Goody (Povis) in Farewell, Farewell Eugene at the Garrick Theatre, 1959
- Minerva Goody (Povis) in Farewell, Farewell Eugene at the Helen Hayes Theatre, New York, 1960
- Bijou Furze in Dazzling Prospect at the Globe Theatre, 1961
- The Marquise in Our Little Life at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta, Malta and the Pembroke Theatre, Croydon, 1961
- Mrs. Candour in The School for Scandal at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1962
- Mrs. Laura Partridge in The Solid Gold Cadillac at the Saville Theatre, 1965
- Mrs. Heidelberg in The Clandestine Marriage at the Chichester Festival Theatre, 1966
- Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1966
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1936 | Troubled Waters | Bit role | film debut, uncredited |
Dusty Ermine | Evelyn Summers aka Miss Butterby | ||
Talk of the Devil | Housekeeper | ||
1937 | Beauty and the Barge | Mrs. Baldwin | |
Big Fella | Nanny | uncredited | |
Catch as Catch Can | Maggie Carberry | ||
Missing, Believed Married | Lady Parke | ||
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 | |
Her Favourite Husband | Mrs. Dotherington | ||
1951 | The Magic Box | Lady Pond | |
1952 | Curtain Up | Catherine Beckwith / Jeremy St. Claire | |
The Importance of Being Earnest | Miss Letitia Prism | ||
Castle in the Air | Miss Nicholson | ||
Miss Robin Hood | Miss Honey | ||
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
|
||
1962 | Zero One (TV) | Mrs Pendenny | episode "The Liar"[15] |
1963 | The Mouse on the Moon | Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII | |
Murder at the Gallop | Miss Jane Marple | ||
The V.I.P.s | The Duchess of Brighton |
| |
1964 | Murder Most Foul | Miss Jane Marple | |
Murder Ahoy! | |||
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 |
Legacy
For One Night Only: Margaret Rutherford. Margaret Rutherford (Timothy Spall in drag) tells her life story in cabaret form before an audience. Without Walls TV Series (UK) 5 October 1993.
Recordings
The English PEN International Centre included several readings of poems by Rutherford on a list entitled Library of Recordings.pdf Archived 8 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine (1953). The works listed were:
- "A Charm Against the Toothache" by John Heath-Stubbs
- "O Country People" by John Hewett
- "Sedge-Warblers", "Women He Liked", "Haymaking", "Adlestrop", "Will You Come?" and "Lights Out" by Edward Thomas
78s and singles
- All's Going Well / Nymphs and Shepherds (1953) (with Frankie Howerd): Philips Records PB214
References
- ^ Sweet, Matthew (7 March 2004). "A life in films: Murder she hid". The Independent on Sunday. London. Retrieved 30 November 2007. [dead link]
- ^ a b c Merriman, Andy (2009). Margaret Rutherford: Dreadnought with Good Manners. London: Aurum.
- ISBN 978-0-19-860407-5.; Andy Merriman in Radio Times, 4–10 June 2011
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31642. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ ISBN 978-0-491-00379-7.
- ^ Tynan, Kenneth. "Acting and the Theatre". Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
- ^ Merriman, Andy Margaret Rutherford- Dreadnought with Good Manners, London: Aurum, 2011
- ^ Clymer, Phil. "Filling Miss Marple's shoes". PBS.org. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
- ^ Norman, Neil (24 September 2009). "Miss. Marple's torment". Express: Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. Retrieved 25 September 2009.
- ISBN 978-1-84513-758-8.
- ^ Merriman, Andy Margaret Rutherford- Dreadnought with Good Manners, London: Aurum, 2011
- ^ Merriman, Andy Margaret Rutherford- Dreadnought with Good Manners, London: Aurum, 2011
- ^ "Obituary". Variety. Los Angeles. 24 May 1972. p. 71.
- ^ Merriman, Andy Margaret Rutherford- Dreadnought with Good Manners, London: Aurum, 2011
- ISBN 9781845137588.
Further reading
- Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Margaret Rutherford". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 229–233. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.
- Merriman, Andy (2009). Margaret Rutherford: Dreadnought with Good Manners (hardcover) (First ed.). London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-445-7.
- Simmons, Dawn Langley (1983). Margaret Rutherford: A Blithe Spirit (hardcover) (First ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-057479-3.
- Rutherford, Margaret (1972). Margaret Rutherford: An Autobiography (hardcover). As told to Gwen Robyns (First ed.). London: W. H. Allen.
- Keown, Eric (1956). Margaret Rutherford (hardcover). Theatre World Monograph No. 7 (First ed.). London: Rockliff.
External links
- Margaret Rutherford at IMDb
- Margaret Rutherford at the British Film Institute
- Margaret Rutherford at the BFI's Screenonline
- Margaret Rutherford at the Internet Broadway Database
- Performances in Theatre Archive, University of Bristol
- "Famous Rutherfords"
- Portraits of Margaret Rutherford at the National Portrait Gallery, London