Margaret Rutherford

Gifted, endearing character player, in films since the mid-1930s. A master scene-stealer, Rutherford personified the eccentric English spinster in a number of famous comedies, including David Lean's classic "Blithe Spirit" (1945), as the enthusiastic, bicycle-riding psychic, Madame Arcati. In "The Happiest Days of Your Life" (1950), she teamed beautifully with Alistair Sim for a rollicking secondary school farce.

With her plump figure, small and piercing eyes, and bulldog expression, Rutherford could embody a spirit of prim, stiff-upper-lip efficiency or could play a classic, fidgety bungler with equal ease. She made a memorably nervous Miss Prism in a sterling film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's farce, "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1952). Rutherford is perhaps best known as the indomitable title character in four "Miss Marple" mystery films of the 60s. Most of Rutherford's credits are British, but she won an Academy Award for her hilarious rendition of a daffy duchess down on her luck in the old-fashioned, all-star Hollywood anthology drama, "The V.I.P.s" (1963). This much-loved trouper was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the late 60s shortly before her death.