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 (1942) or, on TV, as Miss Cathcart in "Dennis the Menace" (1959) (1959-63). Mary and Lucille Ball were neighbors and the closest of friends for decades. Longtime companion of playwright Abby Conrad. Mary originated the role of "Mary Poppins" on CBS-TV in 1949. More than 30 years after a role that brought her fame on Broadway, she once again played the role of Nurse Preen ("Miss Bedpan") in a special TV version of The Man Who Came to Dinner (1972) (TV), with Orson Welles replacing the late Monty Woolley in the role of Sheridan Whiteside. Played a bus driving nun in two movie franchises: as Sister Clarissa in The Trouble with Angels (1966) and its sequel Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968), and as Sister Mary Lazarus in Sister Act (1992) and its sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993).