The character actor provided the understructure of a film. Take any movie, good or mediocre, from 1930 to 1970 and you will find one or more memorable “characters”. A leading role in films usually required a “name”, a celebrated star who had mass appeal and who could bring audiences into the theater. The character or featured roles depended on someone who specialized in a particular “type” of personality and who could wrap a persona around the role to give it dimension, depth and mood soon identified with that actor alone. It was these players who kept the audiences in their seats.

Mary Wickes June 13th, 1910.….October 22nd, 1995

Mary Wickes appeared in over 54 films, some blockbusters and a few bombs. But while she never, well, hardly ever, got credit for the blockbusters, she was never blamed for the ones that got away. That always fell to the star or the director or even sometimes the studio. That was the luck of the character actor. Surprisingly, Wickes never signed an exclusive contract with any studio but if the script called for a no-nonsense nun, a crusty housekeeper or a plain-talking nurse, the call went out for Mary.

She was borm Mary Isabella Wickenhauser on June 13th, 1910 (not 1916
as often reported) in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents, Frank and Isabella, were prominent in social and civic affairs and rabid theater buffs who took Mary with them to all the latest productions.

Mary Isabella had a sharp intellect and a curious nature. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor’s degree in political science three days before her 20th birthday. But it was an English course that included writing and reviewing plays, and a chance part in one of them that gave Mary the acting bug! After several Broadway plays were under her belt, Mary’s big break came in 1939 when she played Nurse Preen in the original production of “The Man Who Came To Dinner” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman (Kaufman called Mary his favorite comedienne and over time she played roles in 5 of his plays). Then it was off to Hollywood in 1941 for the same role in the film version. By 1942, she had become a staple in films and her resume that year now included “Private Buckaroo”, “Blondie’s Blessed Event”, and “Now, Voyager”.

In 1944 Mary went back to Broadway to broaden her options and leave the people-keeper roles behind her. But the “Mary Wickes type” had already evolved and would be waiting for her when she returned in 1948. “June Bride” (she was Bette Davis’ right hand) was her welcome back role, her third with Bette.

Mary commuted between LA and new York for the next five years busy with film, television and radio roles too numerous to mention. She became a regular on the “Peter Lind Hayes Show” (the housekeeper) and worked with Doris Day in “On Moonlight Bay” (a housekeeper again!) beginning a friendship with Doris that would last a lifetime. In 1954 she did “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, a film that would become a classic.

Wickes always exerted some control over the films she appeared in, never doing roles or films that she found to be morally objectionable. In addition to the 54 films, she appeared in 9 television series, over 350 Broadway plays, close to 300 roles in summer stock and coutless guest spots on both radio and television. She was 80 years old when she played Shirley MacLaine’s mother in “Postcards From the Edge” and 82 when she did the first “Sister Act” as Sister Mary Lawrence. At 84 she took on the role of Aunt March in the 1994 remake of “Little Women” and, in 1995 at 85 years and several months before her death, she lent her voice to “Laverne” in Disney’s animated version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.

Mary Wickes never married. But when she died on October 22nd, 1995 from cancer and the complications of hip surgery, her family of friends came in droves.

Just a few of her films….

Higher and Higher (1943)
The Petty Girl (1950)
I’ll See You In My Dreams (1951)
The Story Of Will Rogers (1952)
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)
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)
The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961)
The Trouble with Angels (1966)