Margaret Rutherford | |
|---|---|
 Rutherfordc. 1960 | |
| Born | Margaret Taylor Rutherford (1892-05-11)11 May 1892 |
| Died | 22 May 1972(1972-05-22) (aged 80) Chalfont St. Peter,Buckinghamshire, England |
| Resting place | St. James's Church,Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1925–1967 |
| Spouse | |
| Parent(s) | William Rutherford Benn Florence Nicholson |
| Relatives | Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet (uncle) |
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, film and television.
Rutherford came to national attention followingWorld War II in the film adaptations ofNoël Coward'sBlithe Spirit, andOscar Wilde'sThe Importance of Being Earnest. In 1948, she was awarded with aSpecial Tony Award for Outstanding Foreign Company as a cast member ofThe Importance of Being Earnest and she later won anAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress and aGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her role as the Duchess of Brighton inThe V.I.P.s (1963). In the early 1960s, she starred asAgatha Christie's characterMiss Marple in a series of fourGeorge Pollock films. She was appointed an Officer of theOrder of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961 and a Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967.
Rutherford's early life was overshadowed by tragedies involving both of her parents. Her father, journalist and poetWilliam Rutherford Benn, married Florence Nicholson on 16 December 1882 inWandsworth, south London. One month after the marriage, he suffered anervous breakdown and was admitted toBethnal House Lunatic Asylum. Released to travel under his family's supervision, hemurdered his father, the Reverend Julius Benn, aCongregational Church minister, by bludgeoning him to death with achamber pot, before slashing his own throat with a pocket knife at an inn inMatlock, Derbyshire on 4 March 1883.[1][2]
Following theinquest, William Benn was certified insane and removed toBroadmoor 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 inBalham, south London. Margaret's uncle,Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet, was a politician, and her first cousin once removed was the Labour politicianTony Benn. Hoping to start a new life far from the scene of their recent troubles, the Rutherfords emigrated toMadras,India, but Margaret was sent back to Britain when she was three years old to live with her aunt Bessie Nicholson inWimbledon, south London, after herpregnant mother hanged herself from a tree.
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]
Rutherford was educated atWimbledon 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 theOld Vic School. In her autobiography, Rutherford called her Aunt Bessie her "adoptive mother and one of the saints of the world".[5]
Rutherford, a talented pianist, first found work as a piano teacher and a teacher ofelocution. 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'sWest End in 1933, but her talent was not recognised by the critics until her performance as Miss Prism inJohn Gielgud's production ofThe Importance of Being Earnest at theGlobe Theatre in 1939.
In 1941Noël Coward'sBlithe Spirit opened on the London stage at thePiccadilly Theatre, with Coward directing. Rutherford received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike for her lusty portrayal of the bumbling mediumMadame Arcati, a role for which Coward had envisioned her. Theatre criticKenneth Tynan once said of her performances: "The unique thing about Margaret Rutherford is that she can act with her chin alone."[6]
Another theatrical success during the war years included her part as the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers inDaphne du Maurier'sRebecca at theQueen's Theatre in 1940. Her post-war theatre credits included Miss Prism inThe Importance of Being Earnest again at theHaymarket Theatre in 1946 and Lady Bracknell when the same play transferred to New York City in 1947. She played an officious headmistress inThe Happiest Days of Your Life at theApollo Theatre in 1948 and classical roles such as Madame Desmortes inRing Round the Moon at the Globe Theatre, 1950, Lady Wishfort inThe Way of the World atLyric Hammersmith, 1953 andSaville Theatres, in 1956, and Mrs. Candour inThe School for Scandal at the Haymarket Theatre in 1962. Her final stage performance came in 1966 when she played Mrs. Malaprop inThe Rivals at the Haymarket Theatre, alongside SirRalph Richardson. Her declining health meant she had to give up the role.[7]
Although she made her film debut in 1936, it was Rutherford's turn as Madame Arcati inDavid Lean's film ofBlithe Spirit (1945) that established her in films. Her jaunty performance, cycling about theKent countryside, head held high, back straight, and cape fluttering behind her, established the model for portraying that role thereafter. She was Nurse Carey inMiranda (1948) and the sprightly Medieval expert Professor Hatton-Jones inPassport to Pimlico (1949), one of theEaling Comedies. She reprised her stage roles of the headmistress alongsideAlastair Sim inThe Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and Miss Prism inAnthony Asquith's film adaptation ofThe Importance of Being Earnest (1952).
More comedies followed, includingCastle in the Air (1952) withDavid Tomlinson,Trouble in Store (1953), withNorman Wisdom,The Runaway Bus (1954) withFrankie Howerd andAn Alligator Named Daisy (1955) withDonald Sinden andDiana Dors. Rutherford worked with Norman Wisdom again inJust My Luck (1957) and co-starred inThe Smallest Show on Earth withVirginia McKenna,Peter Sellers andLeslie Phillips (both 1957). She starred alongsideIan Carmichael and Peter Sellers, in theBoulting Brothers satireI'm All Right Jack (1959).
In the early 1960s, she appeared asMiss Jane Marple in a series of fourGeorge Pollock films loosely based on novels byAgatha Christie. The films depicted Marple as a colourful character, respectable but bossy and eccentric. Authors Marion Shaw and Sabine Vanacker in their bookReflecting on Miss Marple (1991) complained that the emphasis on the "dotty element in the character" missed entirely "the quietness and sharpness" so admired in the novels.[2] The actress, then aged in her 70s, insisted on wearing her own clothes for the parts and having her husband appear alongside her. In 1963 Christie dedicated her novelThe Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side "To Margaret Rutherford in admiration", though the novelist 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 in a very brief, uncredited cameo in the 1965 filmThe Alphabet Murders.
Rutherford played the absent-minded, impoverished, pill-popping Duchess of Brighton – the only comedy relief – inThe V.I.P.s (1963) from a screenplay byTerence Rattigan. The film features a star-studded cast led byMaggie Smith,Elizabeth Taylor andRichard Burton. For her performance, she won anAcademy Award andGolden 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 inOrson Welles' filmChimes at Midnight (1965) and was directed byCharlie Chaplin inA Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starringMarlon Brando andSophia Loren, which was one of her final films. She started work onThe Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), but illness caused her to be replaced byFay Compton.
In 1945, Rutherford, 53, married character actorStringer Davis, 46, after a courtship that lasted 15 years. Davis' mother reportedly considered Rutherford an unsuitable match for her son, and their wedding was postponed until after Mrs. Davis had died.[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 actor and former serviceman rarely left his wife's side, serving Rutherford as private secretary. He also nursed and comforted her through periodic debilitating depression. These illnesses, sometimes involving stays inmental hospitals andelectric shock treatment, were kept hidden from the press during Rutherford's lifetime.[11]
In the 1950s, Rutherford and Davis unofficially adopted writer Gordon Langley Hall (laterDawn Langley Simmons), then in her twenties, who later wrote a biography of Rutherford in 1983.[12]
Rutherford suffered fromAlzheimer's disease at the end of her life and was unable to work. Davis cared for his wife at theirBuckinghamshire home until her death on 22 May 1972, aged 80.[13] Many of Britain's top actors, includingJohn Gielgud,Ralph Richardson,Flora Robson, andJoyce Grenfell, attended a memorial Service of Thanksgiving at the Actors' Church,St. Paul's, Covent Garden, on 21 July 1972, where 90-year-oldSybil Thorndike praised her friend's enormous talent and recalled that Rutherford had "never said anything horrid about anyone".[14]
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.
The EnglishPEN International Centre included several readings of poems by Rutherford on a list entitledLibrary of Recordings.pdfArchived 8 August 2014 at theWayback Machine (1953). The works listed were:
Notes
Further reading
