Mary Wickes | |
---|---|
Born | Mary Isabella Wickenhauser June 13, 1910 |
Died | October 22, 1995 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 85)
Cause of death | Surgical complications |
Resting place | Shiloh Valley Cemetery in Shiloh, Illinois |
Alma mater | Washington University in St. Louis |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1934–1995 |
Mary Wickes (June 13, 1910–October 22, 1995) was an American film and television character actress.
Mary Isabella Wickenhauser (she later shortened her surname for acting) was born to Frank Wickenhauser (1880-1943) and his wife, Mary Isabella (née Shannon; died 1965), in St. Louis, Missouri of German, Scottish and Irish extraction, and raised Protestant.[1][2] She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she joined the Phi Mu women's fraternity and was initiated into Mortar Board in 1929.
Wickes' first Broadway appearance was in Marc Connelly's The Farmer Takes a Wife in 1934 with Henry Fonda. She began acting in films in the late 1930s, and was also a member of the Orson Welles troupe on his radio drama The Mercury Theatre on the Air; she also appeared in Welles' 1938 film Too Much Johnson. One of her earliest significant film appearances was in The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), reprising her stage role of "Nurse Preen".
A tall (5'10"), gangling woman with a distinctive voice, Wickes would ultimately prove herself adept as a comedienne. She attracted attention in the 1942 film Now, Voyager as the wisecracking nurse who helped Bette Davis's character during her mother's illness. (She had already appeared earlier that year with Davis in The Man Who Came To Dinner, and joined her again six years later in June Bride.) In 1942, she also had a large part in the Abbott and Costello comedy Who Done It?. She continued playing supporting roles in films during the next decade, usually playing wisecracking characters. A prime example was her deadpan characterization of the harassed housekeeper in the Doris Day vehicles On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon, a character type she would repeat in the holiday classic White Christmas (1954), starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. She played similar roles in two later movies with Rosalind Russell in the 1960s: The Trouble with Angels and Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows.
Wickes moved to the new medium of television in 1949, starring in the title role of a Westinghouse Studio One version of Mary Poppins. In the 1950s, Wickes played the warm yet jocular maid Katie in the Mickey Mouse Club serial Walt Disney Presents: Annette and regular roles in the sitcoms Make Room for Daddy and Dennis the Menace. She also played the part of a ballet teacher, Madame Lamond, in the I Love Lucy episode "The Ballet" in 1952. Wickes also served as the live-action reference model for Cruella De Vil in Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961),[3] and played Mrs. Squires in the film adaptation of Meredith Willson's The Music Man (1962).
In 1953, Wickes played the housekeeper, Martha, to Ezio Pinza's character in NBC's short-lived Bonino sitcom. Pinza portrayed an Italian-American opera singer trying to rear six children. Among the child actors on the program were Van Dyke Parks and Chet Allen.[4] In 1954-55, she played Alice on The Halls of Ivy.
In 1956, Wickes appeared with Thelma Ritter in "The Babysitter" episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Wickes also appeared in two episodes of Zorro. In the 1961-62 season, she appeared as Maxfield opposite Gertrude Berg in CBS's Mrs. G. Goes to College. For her work in the sitcom, Wickes was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actress".[5] In 1964, she appeared on ABC's The Donna Reed Show in the episode "First Addition."[6]
In 1964, she appeared as Ida Goff in five episodes of the NBC/Warner Brothers western series, Temple Houston, with Jeffrey Hunter as an historical figure, the frontier lawyer Temple Lea Houston, youngest son of Sam Houston.[7]
A longtime friend of Lucille Ball, Wickes played frequent guest roles on I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy. In 1970-1971, she guest starred on CBS's The Doris Day Show. (Day was another of her friends.) She was also a regular on the Sid and Marty Krofft children's television show, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and the sitcom Doc. She made numerous appearances as a celebrity panelist on the CBS game show Match Game. By the 1980s, her appearances in television series such as Our Man Higgins, M*A*S*H, The Love Boat, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Murder, She Wrote had made her a widely recognizable character actress.[6] She also appeared in a variety of Broadway shows, including a 1979 revival of Oklahoma! as "Aunt Eller".
She was cast as the mother of Shirley MacLaine's character in the 1990 film Postcards from the Edge and from 1989 to 1991 portrayed Marie Murkin in the television movie and series adaptations of Father Dowling Mysteries. She played Sister Mary Lazarus in Sister Act (1992) and in the sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). She appeared in the 1994 film version of Little Women before she became ill.
Wickes suffered from numerous ailments in the last years of her life including kidney failure, massive gastrointestinal bleeding, severe low blood pressure, ischemic cardiomyopathy, anemia and breast cancer (stage of cancer unknown), which cumulatively resulted in her death from surgical complications on October 22, 1995, at age 85.
Her final film role, voicing the gargoyle Laverne in Disney's animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released posthumously in 1996. She was interred beside her parents at the Shiloh Valley Cemetery in Shiloh, Illinois.
Wickes was posthumously inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 2004.[8]
Unmarried, Wickes left a large estate and made a $2 million bequest, in memory of her parents, establishing the Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser Memorial Library Fund for Television, Film and Theater Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.[9]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1942 | The Man Who Came to Dinner | Nurse Preen | |
Blondie's Blessed Event | Sarah Miller | ||
Private Buckaroo | Bonnie-Belle Schlopkiss | ||
The Mayor of 44th Street | Mamie | ||
Now, Voyager | Nurse Dora Pickford |
| |
Who Done It? | Juliet Collins | ||
1943 | How's About It | 'Mike' Tracy | |
Rhythm of the Islands | Susie Dugan | ||
My Kingdom for a Cook | Agnes Willoughby | Uncredited role | |
Happy Land | Emmy | ||
Higher and Higher | Sandy | ||
1948 | June Bride | Rosemary McNally | |
The Decision of Christopher Blake | Clara | ||
1949 | Anna Lucasta | Stella | |
1950 | The Petty Girl | Professor Whitman | |
1951 | On Moonlight Bay | Stella | Based loosely on the Penrod stories by Booth Tarkington. |
I'll See You in My Dreams | Anna | ||
1952 | Young Man with Ideas | Mrs. Jarvis Gilpin | |
The Story of Will Rogers | Mrs. Foster | Biography of humorist and movie star Will Rogers | |
Bloodhounds of Broadway | Lady at Laundry | Uncredited role | |
1953 | By the Light of the Silvery Moon | Stella | Sequel to On Moonlight Bay |
Half a Hero | Mrs. Watts | ||
The Actress | Emma Glavey | ||
1954 | Ma and Pa Kettle at Home | Ms. Wetter | |
White Christmas | Emma Allen |
| |
Destry | Bessie Mae Curtis | ||
1955 | Good Morning Miss Dove | Miss Ellwood | |
1956 | Dance with Me Henry | Miss Mayberry | Final film of Abbott and Costello together |
1957 | Don't Go Near the Water | Janie | |
1958 | The Proud Rebel | Mrs. Ainsley | Uncredited role |
1959 | It Happened to Jane | Matilda Runyon | Re-released in 1961 as Twinkle and Shine[16] |
1960 | Cimarron | Mrs. Neal Hefner | |
1961 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | Cruella De Vil | Aanimation model |
The Sins of Rachel Cade | Marie Grieux | ||
1962 | The Music Man | Mrs. Squires (Pick-a-little Ladies) | In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[14] |
1964 | Fate Is the Hunter | Mrs. Llewlyn |
|
Dear Heart | Miss Fox | ||
1965 | How to Murder Your Wife | Harold's secretary | |
1966 | The Trouble with Angels | Sister Clarissa | |
1967 | The Spirit Is Willing | Gloria Tritt | |
1968 | Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows | Sister Clarissa | Sequel to The Trouble with Angels |
1972 | Napoleon and Samantha | Clara | |
Snowball Express | Miss Wigginton | ||
1980 | Touched by Love | Margaret | Also called To Elvis, with Love |
1985 | The Canterville Ghost | Mrs. Umney | |
1986 | The Christmas Gift | Henrietta Sawyer | |
1987 | Almost Partners | Aggie Greyson | Made for TV |
1990 | Postcards from the Edge | Grandma | Screenplay by Carrie Fisher is based on her 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title |
1992 | Sister Act | Sister Mary Lazarus | |
1993 | Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit | Sister Mary Lazarus | Sequel to Sister Act |
1994 | Little Women | Aunt March | |
1995 | Life With Louie | Voice | |
1996 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Laverne |
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