Joan Hickson OBE (5
August 1906 – 17
October 1998) was an English
actress of theatre, film and television, who
achieved fame in her old age playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple.
Biography
Born in
Kingsthorpe
, Northampton
, she made her stage debut in 1927, and for several
years worked throughout the United Kingdom
and achieved success playing comedic, often
eccentric characters in London
's West
End
, including the role of the cockney maid Ida in the
original production of See How They
Run, at the Q
Theatre
in 1944, and then at the Comedy Theatre
in January 1945.
She made her first film appearance in 1934, and the numerous
supporting roles of her career included several
Carry On films including Sister in
Carry On Nurse; in a wonderfully comedic
moment, her character in
Carry On
Girls discovers that someone has played a practical joke on
her, waving her underwear from a flagpole. Joan then approaches
Jack Douglas, and informs him
that she would like him to accompany her across to the promenade.
When he asks why, she exclaims - with impeccable timing - "Well, I
want you to take my knickers down!"
In the 1940s she appeared on-stage in an
Agatha Christie play,
Appointment with
Death, which was seen by Christie who wrote in a note to
her, "I hope one day you will play my dear
Miss Marple".
She also played the housekeeper in the Marple film
Murder, She Said in 1961 (based on
Agatha Christie's original novel
4.50 From Paddington),
which starred
Margaret
Rutherford as Miss Marple. From 1970 to 1971, she played Mrs
Pugsley in
Bachelor
Father. Hickson also played Mrs Chambers in
Whatever Happened to the
Likely Lads?. In 1986, she played the part of a talkative old
lady called Mrs Trellis in
Clockwise.
Her stage career included roles in
Noël
Coward's
Blithe
Spirit, the
Tony Hatch-
Jackie Trent 1975 musical
The Card, and
Alan Ayckbourn's
Bedroom Farce, for which she won a
1979
Tony Award for 'Best Featured
Actress in a Play'.
In 1980 she appeared in yet another Agatha Christie production, as
Mrs. Rivington in
Why
Didn't They Ask Evans?.
The
BBC began filming the works of Agatha
Christie in the early 1980s, and were conscious of the criticism
that had been levelled at the most famous portrayal of Miss Marple
given by
Margaret Rutherford.
Though admired, Rutherford's Marple bore little resemblance to the
character as written, and the plots of the early Christie film
versions varied sharply from the author's carefully constructed
plotlines.
In making a new series, the makers determined to remain faithful to
the plotlines and locales of Christie's stories, and most
importantly to represent Miss Marple as written. Hickson played the
role in all 12 adaptations of the novels produced from 1984 to
1992, and received two
BAFTA nomination and an
OBE.
Queen Elizabeth II
bestowed the award and was delighted to do so, telling Joan that,
as an ardent fan of Agatha Christie and Miss Marple, "You play the
part just as one envisages it."
As well as portraying Miss Marple on television, Hickson also
narrated a number of
Miss Marple stories on audio books.
Hickson was married to Eric Butler (died 1967), by whom she had a
son and daughter. Hickson died in Colchester, Essex of natural
causes at the age of 92. The actor / stand-up comedian Tony Hickson
is a distant relation.
Miss Marple filmography
Partial filmography
References
- Haining, Peter. Agatha Christie - Murder in Four Acts
(Page 140). 1990. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-273-2
- Deaths England and Wales 1984-2006
External links
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