Longtime light-comic actress in US films and TV. Ms. Wickes's credits included 50 movies, 27 Broadway productions, and 10 television series. Sister in Phi Mu Fraternity, Zeta Epsilon Chapter (Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
Perhaps remembered best as Nurse Preen, opposite a delightfully irascible Monty Woolley, in William Keighley's The Man Who Came to Dinner or, on TV, as Miss Cathcart in Dennis the Menace (1959-63). She appeared as her Sister Act character in Lady Soul's "If My Sister's In Trouble" music video. Mary and Lucille Ball were neighbors and the closest of friends for decades. she is a member of Phi Mu Fraternity Longtime companion of playwright Abby Conrad. She served as the live-action reference model for the villainous Cruella De Vil in Disney's animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Mary originated the role of "Mary Poppins" on CBS-TV in 1949. Was given an Honory Doctor of Arts form her alma mater, Washington University, in 1969. She earned her Master's degree at UCLA past age 80. More than 30 years later she once again played the role of Nurse Preen ("Miss Bedpan") in a special TV version of The Man Who Came to Dinner, with Orson Welles in the Monty Woolley role. Was a volunteer at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles for years.