May 11
Margaret Taylor Rutherford's Birthday
 

"There is Nothing Like a Dame" is one of the hit songs from the musical South Pacific. Although the song was written for sailors to sing who hadn't had sex for several months, it could as easily been written for the British character actress Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford. Her life began with a tragedy. Just before her birth, Margaret's father  murdered her grandfather. Her mother died when she was three years old and she was brought up by her aunt. When her aunt died a small inheritance allowed her to join the Old Vic in repertory.

Margaret first received critical acclaim for her role as Madam Arcadi in the he film adaptation of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit (1945),. Noel had envisioned her in the role when he wrote it and tweaked  the film script to even better suit her, She also won rave reviews for Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) and The VIPs (1963) for which she won the best supporting actress Oscar as The Duchess of Brighton.

However, Margaret is probably best-known for her 1960s signature roles as Miss Marple in four films based loosely on Agatha Christie's novels.  Miss Jane Marple is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Agatha Christie was so impressed with Margaret's performance that dedicated the novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side to Margaret. Her first Marple film was Murder, She Said (1961), an adaptation of Christie’s novel “4.50 From Paddington.”  Margaret was 70 years old when  Murder, She Said  was made and insisted that she wear her own clothes during the filming of the movie, as well as having her real-life husband, Stringer Davis, appear along side her as the character 'Mr. Stringer.'

Margaret married Stringer in 1945 and they were happily married until Margaret's death in 1972. Stringer worshipped Margaret, with one friend noting: "For him she was not only a great talent but, above all, a beauty." Davis rarely left her side. He was also her private secretary and nursed Margaret through periods of depression which involved stays in mental hospitals and electric shock treatment. When Margaret died, she was interred at Saint James Churchyard nin Gerrards Cross, Buckinhamshire, England . Her epitaph reads "A Blithe Spirit."

So to celebrate Margaret's birthday, we suggest renting a another Miss Marple film,  Murder Most Foul (1964), and baking a Miss Marple Seed Cake.

Miss Marple Seed Cake