One is always at pains to locate a reference to Margaret Rutherford that does not characterize her as either jut-chinned or eccentric or both. But such, taken together, made for the charm of the woman. The combination of those most mundane of attributes has led some to suggest that she was "made for" the role of Agatha Christie's indomitable sleuth, Jane Marple, whom Rutherford portrayed in four films between 1961 and 1964, and in a film cameo in 1965. Margaret Rutherford began her thespian's career first as a student at London's Old Vic, debuting on stage in 1925. In 1933 she first appeared in the West End, at the not-so-tender age of 41, and had her screen debut in 1936, portraying Miss Butterby in the Twickenham-Wardour production Hideout in the Alps.

In summer 1941, Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" opened on the London stage, with Coward himself directing. Appearing as Madame Arcati, the genuine psychic, was Margaret Rutherford, in a role in which Coward had earlier envisaged her and which he then especially shaped for her. Later, Rutherford would carry her portrayal of Madame Arcati to the screen adaptation, David Lean's Blithe Spirit. And not only would this become one of Rutherford's most memorable screen performances - with her bicycling about the Kentish countryside, cape fluttering behind her - but as well, it would establish the model for portraying that pseudo-soothsayer forever thereafter. (As Noel Coward had Margaret Rutherford in mind for his Madame Arcati creation, so, it is said, did Agatha Christie have Margaret Rutherford in mind for hers of Miss Marple.) Despite Dame Margaret Rutherford's appearances in more than 40 films, it is as Madame Arcati and as Miss Jane Marple that she will best be remembered.



Agatha Christie dedicated her 1963 novel, The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side, to Rutherford in admiration. She started work on The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), but illness caused her to be replaced by Fay Compton. Her cousin is the well-known British politician Tony Benn. She developed an interest in the theatre while at school. Her guardian aunt paid for her to have private acting lessons. The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts named an award after her.