Margaret Rutherford

Margaret Rutherford was an English actress renowned for her eccentric comedic style and unforgettable character roles, becoming one of the most beloved figures of mid‑twentieth‑century British cinema. Born Margaret Taylor Rutherford on 11 May 1892 in Balham, London, she endured a childhood marked by tragedy, including her father's mental illness and her mother's early suicide, experiences that later informed the depth and pathos of her performances. After a late start in the theatre—making her stage debut at the Old Vic in 1925 at the age of 33—Rutherford quickly established herself in the West End, garnering critical acclaim for her turn as Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1939. Her distinctive “spaniel jowls” and robust presence made her unsuitable for conventional romantic leads, prompting her to carve a niche in comedy where her natural timing and subtle irony shone. Notable stage successes included Madame Arcati in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit (1941) and Mrs Danvers in Rebecca (1940), roles that cemented her reputation as a versatile talent capable of both humor and menace. In film, she achieved international fame with the role of the flamboyant medium in David Lean’s Blithe Spirit (1945) and later as the sharp‑tongued Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s (1963), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress—making history as the oldest woman to win an Oscar at that time. In the early 1960s, she embraced the iconic role of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in a series of four films, injecting the character with her signature whimsy while insisting on wearing her own clothes and appearing alongside her husband, Stringer Davis, who had become both a life partner and a private secretary. Honoured as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1967, Rutherford’s legacy endures through her unforgettable performances, her pioneering presence as a leading female comic actress, and the affectionate tributes of fellow thespians who remembered her as a “dreadnought with good manners.”