Biography for
Margaret Rutherford More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

11 May 1892, Balham, London, England, UK

Date of Death

22 May 1972, Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, England, UK (pneumonia)

Birth Name

Margaret Rutherford

Mini Biography

One is always at pains to locate a reference to Margaret Rutherford which does not characterize her as either jut-chinned, eccentric or both. But such, taken together, made for the charm of the woman. The combination of those most mundane of attributes has led some to suggest that she was made for the role of Agatha Christie's indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford portrayed in four films between 1961 and 1964 plus in an uncredited film cameo in The Alphabet Murders (1965). Rutherford began her acting career first as a student at London's Old Vic, debuting on stage in 1925. In 1933, she first appeared in the West End at the not-so-tender age of 41. She had her screen debut in 1936 portraying Miss Butterby in the Twickenham-Wardour production of Dusty Ermine (1936).

In summer 1941, Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit opened on the London stage, with Coward himself directing. Appearing as Madame Arcati, the genuine psychic, was Rutherford, in a role in which Coward had earlier envisaged her and which he then especially shaped for her. She would carry her portrayal of Madame Arcati to the screen adaptation, David Lean's Blithe Spirit (1945). Not only would this become one of Rutherford's most memorable screen performances - with her bicycling about the Kentish countryside, cape fluttering behind her - but it would establish the model for portraying that pseudo-soothsayer forever thereafter. Despite Rutherford's appearances in more than 40 films, it is as Madame Arcati and Miss Jane Marple that she will best be remembered.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Bill Takacs

Spouse

Stringer Davis

(1945 - 22 May 1972) (her death)

Trivia

Agatha Christie dedicated her 1963 novel, The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side, to Rutherford in admiration.

Awarded OBE in 1961 and appointed a DBE in 1967.

She started work on The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), but illness caused her to be replaced by Fay Compton.

Her husband, Stringer Davis, portrayed Mr. Stringer in her four Miss Marple films and appeared with her in other films as well.

Her cousin is the well-known British politician Tony Benn.

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.

She developed an interest in the theatre while at school. Her guardian aunt paid for her to have private acting lessons.

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.

The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts named an award after her.

Personal Quotes

"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."

"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."

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