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Margaret Rutherford

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Dame Margaret Rutherford
DBE
File:Margaret Rutherford.gif
Born
Margaret Taylor Rutherford

(1892-05-11)11 May 1892
Balham, London, England
Died22 May 1972(1972-05-22) (aged 80)
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England
OccupationActress
Years active1925–67
SpouseStringer Davis (1945–1972) (her death)

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.

Early life

Margaret Rutherford's early life was overshadowed by tragedy. Her father was William Rutherford Benn, a journalist and poet. One month after his marriage to Florence, née Nicholson, on 16 December 1882, William Benn suffered a nervous breakdown and was admitted to Bethnal House Lunatic Asylum. Released to travel under family supervision, he murdered his father, the Reverend Julius Benn, a Congregational Church minister, by bludgeoning him to death with a chamber pot, before he slashed his own throat with a pocket knife, at an inn in Matlock, Derbyshire, on 4 March 1883.[1][2] 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, reunited with his wife and legally dropped his surname.

Margaret Taylor Rutherford, the only child of William and Florence Rutherford, was born in 1892 in Balham, South London. Margaret's father's brother Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet was a British politician, and her first cousin once removed was British Labour politician Tony Benn. Hoping to start a new life far from the scene of their recent troubles, the Rutherfords emigrated to Madras, India. But Margaret was returned to Britain when she was three years old to live with her aunt Bessie Nicholson in Wimbledon, London, after her pregnant mother committed suicide by hanging herself from a tree. Young Margaret was told that her father died of a broken heart soon after, so 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 under care until his death in 1921. Her parents' mental afflictions along with a fear that she might succumb to similar maladies haunted Margaret Rutherford for the rest of her life and contributed to intermittent bouts of depression and anxiety.[3] Margaret Rutherford was educated at Wimbledon High School, and, from the age of about 13, at Raven's Croft School, a boarding school at Sutton Avenue, Seaford.[4] While there, she developed an interest in the theatre and performed in amateur dramatics. Upon leaving school, her guardian aunt, Bessie Nicholson, paid for her to have private acting lessons. Also, when Nicholson died, it was money from her 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 who first found work as a piano teacher and a teacher of elocution, went into acting late in life, making her stage debut at the Old Vic in 1925, aged 33. As her celebrated "spaniel jowls" and bulky frame made the part of a romantic heroine out of the question, she soon established her name in comedy, appearing in many of the most successful British plays and films.[6] "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 Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit opened on the London stage at the Piccadilly Theatre, with Coward himself directing. Rutherford received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike for her lusty portrayal of the bumbling medium Madame Arcati, a role which Coward had earlier envisaged for her. The theatre critic, Kenneth Tynan, once famously said of her performances: "The unique thing about Margaret Rutherford is that she can act with her chin alone."[7] Rutherford's quirky and energetic stage presence was such that she could deftly steal a scene even when playing relatively minor roles.

Another theatrical success during the war years included her unexpected part as the sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca at the Queen's Theatre in 1940. Her post-war theatre credits included Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest again at the Haymarket Theatre in 1946 and Lady Bracknell when the same play transferred to New York in 1947. She played an officious headmistress in The Happiest Days of Your Life at the Apollo Theatre in 1948 and such classical roles as Madame Desmortes in Ring Round the Moon (Globe Theatre, 1950), Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World (Lyric Hammersmith, 1953 and Saville Theatre, 1956) and Mrs Candour in The School for Scandal (Haymarket Theatre, 1962). Her final stage performance came in 1966 when she played Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals at the Haymarket Theatre, alongside Sir Ralph Richardson. Unfortunately, her declining health meant she had to give up the role after a few weeks.

Film career

Although she made her film debut in 1936, it was Rutherford's turn as Madame Arcati in David Lean's film of Blithe Spirit (1945) that actually established her screen success. Her jaunty performance, cycling about the Kent countryside, head held high, back straight, and cape fluttering behind her, established the model for portraying that role thereafter. She was Nurse Carey in Miranda (1948) and the sprightly Medieval expert Professor Hatton Jones in Passport to Pimlico (1949), one of the Ealing Comedies. She reprised her stage roles of the headmistress alongside Alastair Sim in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and Miss Prism in Anthony Asquith's film adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).

More comedies followed, including Castle in the Air (1952) with David Tomlinson, Trouble in Store (1953), with Norman Wisdom, The Runaway Bus (1954) with Frankie Howerd and An Alligator Named Daisy (1955) with Donald Sinden and Diana Dors. Rutherford then worked with Norman Wisdom again in Just My Luck (1957) and co-starred in The Smallest Show on Earth with Virginia McKenna, Peter Sellers and Leslie Phillips (both 1957). She also joined a host of distinguished comedy stars, including Ian Carmichael and Peter Sellers, in the Boulting Brothers satire I'm All Right Jack (1959).

In the early 1960s she appeared as Miss Jane Marple in a series of four George Pollock films loosely based on the novels of Agatha Christie. The films depicted Marple as a colourful character, respectable but bossy and eccentric. Authors Marion Shaw and Sabine Vanacker in their book Reflecting on Miss Marple (1991) complained that the emphasis on the "dotty element in the character" missed entirely "the quietness and sharpness" that was admired in the novels.[2] The actress, then aged in her 70s, insisted on wearing her own clothes for the part and having her husband appear alongside her. In 1963 Christie dedicated her novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side "To Margaret Rutherford in admiration", though the novelist too was critical of the films for diverging from her original plots and playing dramatic scenes for laughs.[2][8] Rutherford reprised the role of Miss Marple very briefly for a 30-second uncredited cameo appearance in the 1965 film The Alphabet Murders.

Rutherford played the absent-minded, impoverished, pill-popping Duchess of Brighton, the only light relief, in Terence Rattigan's The V.I.P.s (1963), a film featuring a star-studded cast led by Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. She won an Academy Award and Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress for her performance. 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

In 1945, Rutherford, 53, married character actor Stringer Davis, 46, after a courtship that lasted for 15 years. Davis' mother reportedly considered Rutherford an unsuitable match for her son and nuptials were postponed until Mrs Davis' demise.[9] Subsequently, the couple appeared in many productions together. Davis adored Rutherford, with one friend noting: "For him she was not only a great talent but, above all, a beauty."[10] The ex-serviceman and actor rarely left his wife's side, serving Rutherford as private secretary, gofer and general dogsbody. More importantly, he nursed and comforted her through periodic debilitating depressions. These illnesses, sometimes involving stays in mental hospitals and electric shock treatment, were kept hidden from the press during Rutherford's life. The Marple films capture something of the couple's public personae as projected in the media at the time: their cozy domesticity, erratic housekeeping and almost childlike innocence and affection.

In the 1950s, Rutherford and Davis unofficially 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.

Death

Rutherford suffered from Alzheimer's disease at the end of her life and was unable to work. Davis cared for his wife at their Buckinghamshire home until her death on 22 May 1972, aged 80.[11] Many of Britain's top actors, including Dame Maggie Smith, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ralph Richardson, Flora Robson and Joyce Grenfell, attended a memorial Service of Thanksgiving at the Actors' Church, St Paul's, Covent Garden on 21 July 1972, where 90-year-old Dame Sybil Thorndike praised her friend's enormous talent and recalled that Rutherford had "never said anything horrid about anyone".[10]

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

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1936 Dusty Ermine Evelyn Summers aka Miss Butterby film debut
1936 Talk of the Devil Housekeeper
1936 Troubled Waters Bit role uncredited
1937 Missing, Believed Married Lady Parke
1937 Catch as Catch Can Maggie Carberry
1937 Big Fella Nanny uncredited
1937 Beauty and the Barge Mrs. Baldwin
1941 Spring Meeting Aunt Bijou
1941 Quiet Wedding Magistrate
1943 Yellow Canary Mrs. Towcester
1943 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
1947 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
1950 Her Favourite Husband Mrs. Dotherington
1951 The Magic Box Lady Pond
1952 Curtain Up Catherine Beckwith/Jeremy St. Claire
1952 Miss Robin Hood Miss Honey
1952 The Importance of Being Earnest Miss Letitia Prism
1952 Castle in the Air Miss Nicholson
1953 Innocents in Paris Gwladys Inglott
1953 Trouble in Store Miss Bacon
1954 The Runaway Bus Miss Cynthia Beeston
1954 Mad About Men Nurse Carey
1954 Aunt Clara Clara Hilton
1955 An Alligator Named Daisy Prudence Croquet
1957 The Smallest Show on Earth Mrs. Fazackalee
1957 Just My Luck Mrs. Dooley
1959 I'm All Right Jack Aunt Dolly
1961 On the Double Lady Vivian
1961 Murder, She Said Miss Jane Marple
1963 Murder at the Gallop Miss Jane Marple
1963 The Mouse on the Moon Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII
1963 The V.I.P.s The Duchess of Brighton
1964 Murder Most Foul Miss Jane Marple
1964 Murder Ahoy! Miss Jane Marple
1965 Chimes at Midnight Mistress Quickly
1965 The Alphabet Murders Miss Jane Marple uncredited cameo
1967 A Countess from Hong Kong Miss Gaulswallow
1967 Arabella Princess Ilaria
1967 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 (1953). The works listed were:

78s and singles

References

  1. ^ Sweet, Matthew (7 March 2004). "A life in films: Murder she hid". The Independent on Sunday. London. Retrieved 30 November 2007. [dead link]
  2. ^ a b c Merriman, Andy (2009). Margaret Rutherford: Dreadnought with good manners. London: Aurum.
  3. ^ Billington, Michael (2001). Stage and Screen Lives. Oxford University Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-19-860407-5.; Andy Merriman in Radio Times, 4–10 June 2011
  4. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography profile
  5. ^ a b Rutherford, Margaret; Robyns, Gwen (1972). Margaret Rutherford: An autobiography. London: W. H. Allen. ISBN 978-0-491-00379-7.
  6. ^ Lewis, Roger. "Torment of a battleaxe;books:Dreadnought with good manners by Andy Merriman". High Beam Research. The Mail on Sunday (London,England). Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  7. ^ Tynan, Kenneth. "Acting and the Theatre".
  8. ^ Clymer, Phil. "Filling Miss Marple's shoes". PBS.org. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  9. ^ Norman, Neil. "Miss Marple's torment". Express: Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. Retrieved 25 September 2009.
  10. ^ a b Lewis, Peter. "A Murder Mystery Even Miss Marple Couldn't Exorcise". Mail Online. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  11. ^ "Obituary". Variety. Los Angeles. 24 May 1972. p. 71.

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.
  • Merriman, Andy. Margaret Rutherford: Dreadnought with Good Manners. London, Aurum Press. 2009. ISBN 978-1-84513-445-7
  • Keown, Eric. Margaret Rutherford. New York, 1955.
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