Rutherford, Margaret (1892-1972)

English film and theatre actor. She specialized in formidable yet jovially eccentric roles. She played Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in four films 1961-64 and won an Academy Award for her role in The VIPs (1963).

One of the great character actors, Rutherford became moderately successful in the mid-1930s but went on to her greatest success when in the Miss Marple role. Other films include Blithe Spirit (1945) (based on Noël Coward's play), Passport to Pimlico (1949), Mouse on the Moon (1943), and Orson Welles's Shakespearean Chimes at Midnight (1966). She was made a DBE in 1967.