Margaret Rutherford

An English character actor best known for her portrayals of eccentric and elderly grand dames. She must once have been young but it is impossible to imagine it. Among her roles are:

• Miss Marple in film versions of five of Agatha Christie stories, beginning with Murder, She Said in 1961 and ending with The Alphabet Murders in 1966;
• Madami Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit (1945);
• the historian Professor Hatton-Jones in the Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico (1949), who discovers that Pimlico is legally part of Burgundy, not England;
• Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952);
• Grand Duchess Gloriana in The Mouse on the Moon (1963).

Born in Balham ("gateway to the south") in south London on 11 May 1892, her first film role was in Dusty Ermine in 1936. She won an Oscar for The VIPs in 1963, was created a Dame, and died on 22 May 1972.