Margaret Rutherford

Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, films and television. Rutherford came to national attention following the Second World War in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1948 she was awarded a Special Tony Award for Outstanding Foreign Company as a cast member of The Importance of Being Earnest, and she later won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her role as the Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s (1963). In the early 1960s she starred as Agatha Christie's character Miss Marple in a series of four George Pollock films. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1961 and a Dame Commander (DBE) in 1967.