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Mary Wickes
Actor
Born June 13, 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA
From the grand old school of wisecracking, loud and lanky Mary Wickes had few peers while forging a career as a salty scene-stealer. Her abrupt, tell-it-like-it-is demeanor made her a consistent audience favorite on every medium for over six decades. She was particularly adroit in film parts that chided the super rich or exceptionally pious, and was a major chastiser in generation-gap comedies. TV holds a vault full of not-to-be-missed vignettes where she served as a brusque foil to many a top TV comic star. Case in point: who could possibly forget her merciless ballet taskmaster, Madame Lamond, putting Lucille Ball through her rigorous paces at the ballet bar in a classic I Love Lucy (1951) episode? Unlike the working-class characters she embraced, this veteran character comedienne was actually born Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser on June 13, 1910, in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a well-to-do banker. Of Irish and German heritage, she grew into a society débutante following high school and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in political science. She forsook a law career, however, after being encouraged by a college professor to try theater, and she made her debut doing summer stock in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The rest, as they say, is history. Prodded on by the encouragement of stage legend Ina Claire whom she met doing summer theater, she transported herself to New York where she quickly earned a walk-on part in the Broadway play "The Farmer Takes a Wife" starring Henry Fonda in 1934. In the show she also understudied The Wizard of Oz (1939)'s "Wicked Witch" Margaret Hamilton, and earned excellent reviews when she went on in the part. Plain and hawkish in looks while noticeably tall and gawky in build, Wickes was certainly smart enough to see that comedy would become her career path and she enjoyed showing off in roles playing much older than she was. New York stage work continued to pour in, and she garnered roles in "Spring Dance" (1936), "Stage Door" (1936), "Hitch Your Wagon" (1937), "Father Malachy's Miracle (1937) and, in an unusual bit of casting, Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre production of "Danton's Death". All the while she kept fine-tuning her acting craft in summer stock. A series of critically panned plays followed until a huge door opened for her in the form of Miss Preen, the beleaguered nurse to an acid-tongued, wheelchair-bound radio star (played by the hilarious Monty Woolley) in the George S. Kaufman/Moss Hart comedy "The Man Who Came to Dinner"; for once, it was Wickes doing the cowering. The play was the toast of Broadway for two wacky years and she went on tour with it as well. She also become a Kaufman favorite. Hollywood took notice as well, and when Warner Bros. decided to film the play, it allowed both Wickes and Woolley to recreate their classic roles. The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941), which co-starred Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan, was a grand film hit and Wickes was now officially on board in Hollywood, given plenty of chances to freelance. At Warners she lightened up the proceedings a bit in the Bette Davis tearjerker Now, Voyager (1942) as the nurse to Gladys Cooper. Elsewhere, she traded quips with Lou Costello as a murder suspect in the amusing whodunit Who Done It? (1942); played a WAC in Private Buckaroo (1942) with The Andrews Sisters; and dished out her patented smart-alecky services in both Happy Land (1943) and My Kingdom for a Cook (1943). Wickes returned to Broadway for a few seasons, often for Kaufman, and did some radio work as well, but returned to Hollywood and played yet another nurse in The Decision of Christopher Blake (1948), a part written especially for her. She appeared with Bette Davis for a third time in June Bride (1948), finding some fine moments playing a magazine editor. Wickes went on to perform yeoman work in On Moonlight Bay (1951) and its sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953); I'll See You in My Dreams (1951); White Christmas (1954) and The Music Man (1962), the last as one of the "Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little" gossiping housewives of River City. Television roles also began filtering in for Wickes she continued to put her cryptic comedy spin on her harried housekeepers, teachers, servants and other working commoner types. She played second banana to a queue of comedy's best known legends in the 1950s and 1960s, notably Lucille Ball (who was a long-time neighbor and pal off-screen), Danny Thomas, Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lind Hayes and Gertrude Berg. Her stellar work with Berg on The Gertrude Berg Show (1961) garnered Wickes an Emmy nomination. Among the Baby Boom generation, she may be best remembered as Miss Cathcart in Dennis the Menace (1959). In later years her gangly figure filled out a bit as she continued to appear here and there on the small screen in both guest star and series' regular parts. Later in life she enjoyed a bit of a resurgence. Recalled earlier for her Sister Clarissa in the madcap comedy films The Trouble with Angels (1966) and its sequel, Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968), both with Rosalind Russell, She donned the habit again decades later as crabby musical director Sister Mary Lazarus in the box-office smash Sister Act (1992) and its sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). She appeared in Postcards from the Edge (1990) as Meryl Streep's grandmother, and in Little Women (1994) as the matriarchal Aunt March. True to form, the last role in which she appeared was voicing the gargoyle "Laverne" in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), which was released after her death. The never-married Wickes died in 1995 after entering the hospital with respiratory problems. She suffered a broken hip from an accidental fall and complications quickly set in following surgery. She was 85 years young.
Imdb
Top titles
Arrow
Arrow
Sister Act
White Christmas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Bonus Content)
Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
M*A*S*H Season 1
Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1
I Love Lucy - Season 1
Kolchak: The Night Stalker Season 1
Columbo Season 1
Days Of Wine & Roses - Cliff Robertson & Piper Laurie, "Playhouse 90" Original TV Version
Red Skelton Christmas Classics (in Color)
Sanford & Son
Arrow
Arrow
Filmography
Latest
Caret Down
Arrow
Arrow
1996
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Bonus Content)
1994
Little Women
1993
Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit
1992
Sister Act
1990
Postcards From The Edge
1987
Almost Partners
1985
The Canterville Ghost
1984
Highway to Heaven
Murder, She Wrote Season 1
Punky Brewster Season 1
1977
The Love Boat - Who Killed Maxwell Thorn
Lucy Calls the President
1974
Kolchak: The Night Stalker Season 1
1973
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
1972
Snowball Express
Classic Holiday TV: 70s
M*A*S*H Season 1
Napoleon & Samantha
Sanford & Son
1971
Columbo Season 1
1968
Here's Lucy
The Doris Day Show
1967
Spirit Is Willing
1966
Trouble With Angels
1965
I Spy
How To Murder Your Wife
F-Troop: The Complete First Season
1964
Dear Heart (1964)
1962
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Music Man
The Lucy Show - Vol. 2
1961
101 Dalmatians
The Sins of Rachel Cade
1960
Cimarron (1960)
1959
Dennis The Menace, Season One
Lorne Greene's Holiday Special - A Bonanza Of Christmas Cheer
It Happened To Jane
1958
Shirley Temple's Storybook: The Princess and the Goblins (in Color)
The Donna Reed Show Season 1
Proud Rebel, The
1957
Don't Go Near the Water
1956
Dance With Me Henry
Days Of Wine & Roses - Cliff Robertson & Piper Laurie, "Playhouse 90" Original TV Version
1955
Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 1
1954
Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
White Christmas
Shower of Stars: Cloak and Dagger (1957)
Destry
1953
The Danny Thomas Show
By The Light of the Silvery Moon
Half a Hero
The Actress
1952
Bloodhounds Of Broadway
1951
I'll See You in My Dreams (1951)
Red Skelton Christmas Classics (in Color)
On Moonlight Bay
I Love Lucy - Season 1
1950
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
1948
Two Sharp Knives
1943
Higher and Higher (1943)
1942
Now, Voyager (1942)
Who Done It?
Private Buckaroo - 1942
1938
Too Much Johnson
Arrow
Arrow
Connections
Mary Jane Croft
Desi Arnaz Jr.
Orson Welles
Genres
