Mary Wickes

Mary Wickes
Born	Mary Isabella Wickenhauser (1910-06-13)June 13, 1910 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died	October 22, 1995(1995-10-22) (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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.

Career

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. 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), 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. 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". In 1964, she appeared on ABC's The Donna Reed Show in the episode "First Addition."

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.

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. She also appeared in a variety of Broadway shows, including a 1979 revival of Oklahoma! as "Aunt Eller".

Later career

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.

Death and legacy

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.

Personal

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.

Filmography

n.b. for credit listings reference

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1942	The Man Who Came to Dinner	Nurse Preen	Both Monty Woolley and Wickes reprised their roles from the origninal Broadway production. Screen debut
	Blondie's Blessed Event	Sarah Miller
	Private Buckaroo	Bonnie-Belle Schlopkiss
	The Mayor of 44th Street	Mamie
	Now, Voyager	Nurse Dora Pickford	Based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty. Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
	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	Loosely based on the 1942 film Holiday Inn First to be released in VistaVision
	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
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".
1964	Fate Is the Hunter	Mrs. Llewlyn	Features an early film score by prolific composer Jerry Goldsmith. Nominated for a 1964 Academy Award in Best Cinematography (Black-and-white).
	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	Voice Released posthumously

Short subjects:

• Watch the Birdie (1935)
• Too Much Johnson (1938)
• Seeing Red (1939)
• Keeping Fit (1942)
• Open Window (1972)

External links

• Mary Wickes at IMDb
• Mary Wickes at the Internet Broadway Database
• Washington University Library Site - Papers of Mary Wickes
• Wickes' Entry on the St. Louis Walk of Fame
• Mary Wickes at Find a Grave