Mary Wickes

Mary Wickes
Wickes guest-starring in the television series Zorro (1957-1959)
Born	Mary Isabella Wickenhauser (1910-06-13)June 13, 1910 St. Louis, Missouri
Died	October 22, 1995(1995-10-22) (aged 85) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1934-1995

Mary Wickes (June 13, 1910 – October 22, 1995) was an American film and television actress.

Career

Wickes was born as Mary Isabella Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction.^[1][2] 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 Mercury Theatre of the Air. 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, but she first attracted attention in the film Now, Voyager (1942), as the wisecracking nurse who helped Bette Davis' character during her mother's illness. (She had already appeared earlier that year with Davis in The Man Who Came To Dinner, and appeared with Davis again six years later in June Bride.) Also in 1942 she 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 Stella, the harassed housekeeper, in the Doris Day vehicles By the Light of the Silvery Moon and On Moonlight Bay. She played similar roles in two later movies with Rosalind Russell: The Trouble with Angels and Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows in the mid 1960s.

Moving to the new medium of television 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, as well as appearing as Emma the housekeeper in the holiday classic White Christmas (1954), starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. 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),^[3] 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.^[4] In 1954-1955, she played Alice, the housekeeper to a college president, in the CBS sitcom The Halls of Ivy. In 1956, Wickes appeared with Thelma Ritter in "The Babysitter" episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

In the 1961-1962 season, she appeared as Maxfield with 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".^[5]

A longtime friend of Lucille Ball, Wickes played frequent guest roles in Ball's three CBS series, 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 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!, where she portrayed Aunt Eller.

Later career

She was cast as Shirley MacLaine's character's mother 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

Wickes was hospitalized the following year suffering from numerous ailments, 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 dying while undergoing surgery on October 22, 1995.

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.

Personal

She never married. Wickes left a large estate and made a $2 million bequest, in memory of her parents, for the Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser Memorial Library Fund for Television, Film and Theater Arts. She was the longtime companion of playwright Abby Conrad.

Legacy

Wickes was posthumously inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 2004.

Filmography

Features:

• The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
• Blondie's Blessed Event (1942)
• Private Buckaroo (1942)
• The Mayor of 44th Street (1942)
• Now, Voyager (1942)
• Who Done It? (1942)
• How's About It (1943)
• Rhythm of the Islands (1943)
• My Kingdom for a Cook (1943)
• Happy Land (1943)
• Higher and Higher (1943)
• June Bride (1948)
• The Decision of Christopher Blake (1948)
• Anna Lucasta (1949)
• The Petty Girl (1950)
• On Moonlight Bay (1951)
• I'll See You in My Dreams (1951)
• Young Man with Ideas (1952)
• The Story of Will Rogers (1952)
• Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952)
• By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)
• Half a Hero (1953)
• The Actress (1953)
• Ma and Pa Kettle at Home (1954)
• White Christmas (1954)
• Destry (1954)
• Good Morning Miss Dove (1955)
• Dance with Me Henry (1956)
• Don't Go Near the Water (1957)
• The Proud Rebel (1958)
• It Happened to Jane (1959)
• Cimarron (1960)
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) (voice)
• The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961)
• The Music Man (1962)
• Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
• Dear Heart (1964)
• How to Murder Your Wife (1965)
• The Trouble with Angels (1966)
• The Spirit Is Willing (1967)
• Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968)
• Napoleon and Samantha (1972)
• Snowball Express (1972)
• M*A*S*H
• Touched by Love (1980)
• The Canterville Ghost (1985)
• Postcards from the Edge (1990)
• Sister Act (1992)
• Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993)
• Little Women (1994)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) (voice)
• Life With Louie(1995 in Cartoon) As Grandma (Voice)

Short Subjects:

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

References

External links

Biography portal

• Mary Wickes at the Internet Movie Database
• 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