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.
| # | Quote |
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| 1 | How I would love to have been a great traditional actress like Bernhardt, Duse, or Ellen Terry. There have been so many parts I yearned to play. |
| 2 | [on her initial aversion to doing a Miss Marple movie] Murder, you see, is not the sort of thing I can get close to. I don't like these things that are just for thrills. I would far rather go without work. I do not like murder. It has an atmosphere I have always found uncongenial. |
| 3 | [on co-starring with Alastair Sim in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950)] I found doing the film a bit tiresome. Film actors are, by nature, more complicated than stage actors. Mr Sim is a brilliant actor but most competitive. |
| 4 | 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. |
| 5 | 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. |
| # | Fact |
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| 1 | She appeared in two adaptations of the 1895 play "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde: she played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1946) and Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). |
| 2 | She collaborated with husband Stringer Davis on a total of 27 television and cinema productions. |
| 3 | She was offered the role of Miss La Creevy in The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970). Margaret also rehearsed the part in her home in the presence of Ned Sherrin and Anthony Hopkins. Having been unwell for quite a while, she didn't manage to remember her lines though and was therefore replaced. |
| 4 | Song of Norway (1970) was the last project for which Margaret Rutherford was contracted, but because of her poor memory at the time, she was replaced before shooting began. |
| 5 | Robert Morley said in a 1967 TV interview, "Although the profession is crowded with very nice people, she's always too nice, too soft, too much the perfect auntie. She's frightfully funny. She's a marvelous woman... a good woman.". |
| 6 | A memorial service was held for her at St Paul's, Covent Garden (commonly known as the Actors' Church) on 21 July 1972. Among those in attendance were John Gielgud, Flora Robson, Ralph Richardson, Joyce Grenfell and Sybil Thorndike. |
| 7 | While filming "The Virgin and the Gypsy" in 1969 Rutherford, who was playing a deaf old grandmother, suffered frequent memory lapses causing filming delays. This resulted in her being replaced by Fay Compton. Unfortunately Rutherford never made another film. |
| 8 | Was the 58th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The V.I.P.s (1963) at The 36th Annual Academy Awards (1964) on April 13, 1964. |
| 9 | She was interred at Saint James Churchyard in Gerrards Cross, Buckinhamshire, England with her husband, Stringer Davis. Her epitaph reads "A Blithe Spirit.". |
| 10 | The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts named an award after her. |
| 11 | 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. |
| 12 | She developed an interest in the theatre while at school. Her guardian aunt paid for her to have private acting lessons. |
| 13 | 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. |
| 14 | Her cousin is the well-known British politician Tony Benn. |
| 15 | Her husband, Stringer Davis, portrayed Mr. Stringer in her four Miss Marple films and appeared with her in other films as well. |
| 16 | She started work on The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), but illness caused her to be replaced by Fay Compton. |
| 17 | She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1961 Queen's New Year Honours List and the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1967 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to drama. |
| 18 | Agatha Christie dedicated her 1963 novel, The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side, to Rutherford in admiration. |
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|
| The Wacky World of Mother Goose | 1967 | Mother Goose (voice) |
| Arabella | 1967 | Princess Ilaria |
| A Countess from Hong Kong | 1967 | Miss Gaulswallow |
| Jackanory | 1966 | TV Series | Storyteller |
| The Alphabet Murders | 1965 | Miss Jane Marple (uncredited) |
| Chimes at Midnight | 1965 | Mistress Quickly |
| Murder Ahoy | 1964 | Miss Jane Marple |
| Murder Most Foul | 1964 | Miss Jane Marple |
| Murder at the Gallop | 1963 | Miss Jane Marple |
| The Mouse on the Moon | 1963 | Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII |
| The V.I.P.s | 1963 | The Duchess of Brighton |
| ITV Play of the Week | 1963 | TV Series | Mary Smith |
| Zero One | 1962 | TV Series | Mrs. Pendenny |
| Murder She Said | 1961 | Miss Marple |
| On the Double | 1961 | Lady Vivian |
| ITV Television Playhouse | 1960 | TV Series | Emily Blagdon |
| The Day After Tomorrow | 1960 | TV Movie | Amy Carr |
| I'm All Right Jack | 1959 | Aunt Dolly |
| Farewell, Farewell, Eugene | 1959 | TV Movie | Miverva Goody |
| BBC Sunday-Night Theatre | 1950-1958 | TV Series | Lady Proudfoot / Miss Constance Hargreaves |
| Just My Luck | 1957 | Mrs. Dooley |
| Dick and the Duchess | 1957 | TV Series | Cynthia Gordon |
| Big Time Operators | 1957 | Mrs. Fazackalee |
| A Likely Tale | 1956 | TV Movie | Mirabelle Petersham |
| An Alligator Named Daisy | 1955 | Prudence Croquet |
| Aunt Clara | 1954 | Clara Hilton |
| Mad About Men | 1954 | Nurse Carey |
| The Runaway Bus | 1954 | Miss Cynthia Beeston |
| Trouble in Store | 1953 | Miss Bacon |
| Innocents in Paris | 1953 | Gwladys Inglott |
| Miss Robin Hood | 1952 | Miss Honey |
| The Importance of Being Earnest | 1952 | Miss Prism |
| Castle in the Air | 1952 | Miss Nicholson |
| Curtain Up | 1952 | Catherine Beckwith / Jeremy St. Claire |
| The Magic Box | 1951 | Lady Pond |
| The Taming of Dorothy | 1950 | Mrs. Dotherington |
| The Happiest Days of Your Life | 1950 | Muriel Whitchurch |
| Passport to Pimlico | 1949 | Professor Hatton-Jones |
| Miranda | 1948 | Nurse Carey |
| Meet Me at Dawn | 1947 | Madame Vernorel |
| While the Sun Shines | 1947 | Dr. Winifred Frye |
| The Importance of Being Earnest | 1946 | TV Movie | Lady Bracknell |
| Blithe Spirit | 1945 | Madame Arcati |
| Her Man Gilbey | 1944 | Lady Christabel Beauclerk |
| Adventure for Two | 1943 | Rowena Ventnor |
| Yellow Canary | 1943 | Mrs. Towcester |
| Quiet Wedding | 1941 | Magistrate |
| Three Wise Brides | 1941 | Aunt Bijou |
| Spring Meeting | 1938 | TV Movie | Bijou Furze |
| Have You Brought Your Music? | 1938 | TV Movie |
| Missing, Believed Married | 1937 | Lady Parke |
| Catch As Catch Can | 1937 | Maggie Carberry |
| Big Fella | 1937 | Nanny (uncredited) |
| Beauty and the Barge | 1937 | Mrs. Baldwin |
| Talk of the Devil | 1936 | Housekeeper |
| Hideout in the Alps | 1936 | Evelyn Summers aka Miss Butterby |
| Troubled Waters | 1936 | Bit Role (uncredited) |
