Joan Hickson

Joan Hickson OBE
File:Joan Hickson.jpg Hickson as Miss Marple
Born	Joan Bogle Hickson (1906-08-05)5 August 1906 Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire, England
Died	17 October 1998(1998-10-17) (aged 92) Colchester, Essex, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1927–1993
Spouse	Eric Butler ​ ​ (m. 1932; died 1967)​
Children	2
Awards	Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play 1979 Bedroom Farce

Joan Bogle Hickson, OBE (5 August 1906 – 17 October 1998) was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. She also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audiobooks.

Biography

Born in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, Hickson was a daughter of Edith Mary (née Bogle) and Alfred Harold Hickson, a shoe manufacturer. After boarding at Oldfield School in Swanage, Dorset, she went on to train at RADA in London. She made her stage debut in 1927, then worked for several years throughout the United Kingdom, achieving success playing comedic, often eccentric characters in the West End of London. She played 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. The numerous supporting roles she played during her career included several in Carry On films, notably Sister in Carry On Nurse and Mrs May in Carry On Constable.

In the 1940s she appeared on stage in Appointment with Death, a play by Agatha Christie, who wrote in a note to her, "I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple."

In 1961 Hickson played the housekeeper in the film Murder, She Said, based on Agatha Christie's novel 4.50 From Paddington and starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple. From 1963 to 1966 Hickson played Mrs Peace, housekeeper to the Reverend Stephen Young, played by Donald Sinden, in the highly rated TV series Our Man at St Mark's. From 1970 to 1971 she played Mrs Pugsley in Bachelor Father. She also played Mrs Chambers in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?. In 1986 she played the part of Mrs Trellis in the film Clockwise.

Her stage career included roles in Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, the musical The Card (1975), adapted by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent from the novel by Arnold Bennett; 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 as Mrs Rivington in Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, yet another production based on a novel by Agatha Christie.

The BBC began filming the works of Agatha Christie in the mid-1980s, and set out to remain faithful to the plotlines and locales of Christie's stories, and to represent Miss Marple as written. Hickson played the role of Miss Marple in all 12 adaptations, which were produced from 1984 to 1992; she received two BAFTA nominations for Best TV Actress, in 1987 and 1988. When the OBE was bestowed on Hickson in June 1987 Queen Elizabeth II was reported to have said, "You play the part just as one envisages it." When Hickson retired from the role, believing that she should stop while the programme was still at the peak of its popularity, she stated that she had no intention of retiring from acting altogether.

Wivenhoe

Number 2, Rose Lane, Wivenhoe

From 1958, Hickson lived in Rose Lane, Wivenhoe, along the River Colne 43 miles (69 kilometres) from London in Essex, until her death in 1998. A plaque now marks the house where she lived for 40 years.

Marriage

Hickson married Dr Eric Norman Butler (born 2 September 1902 in Westbury, Wiltshire), a physician, at Hampstead Parish Church, Hampstead, Northwest London, on 29 October 1932. They had two children. Her husband died in Colchester, Essex, in June 1967.

Death

Hickson died in Colchester General Hospital from a stroke, aged 92. She is interred under her married name, Joan Bogle Butler, at Sidbury Cemetery in Devon.

The Miss Marple series (BBC)

Series 1

• The Body in the Library (1984)
• The Moving Finger (1985)
• A Murder Is Announced (1985)
• A Pocket Full of Rye (1985)

Series 2

• The Murder at the Vicarage (1986) – BAFTA nomination
• Sleeping Murder (1987)
• At Bertram's Hotel (1987)
• Nemesis (1987) – BAFTA nomination

Stand-alone feature length episodes

• 4.50 from Paddington (1987)
• A Caribbean Mystery (1989)
• They Do It With Mirrors (1991)
• The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1992)

Partial filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1934	Trouble in Store	Mabel	Short
1935	Widow's Might	Burroughs
1936	The Man Who Could Work Miracles	Effie
1937	Love from a Stranger	Emmy
	The Lilac Domino	Katrina, school dustmaid
1938	Second Thoughts	Ellen
1940	Sailors Don't Care	Woman Carried Ashore	Uncredited
1941	Freedom Radio	Katie
1943	The Saint Meets the Tiger	Mary (Aunt Agatha's Maid)	Uncredited
1944	Don't Take It to Heart	Mrs Pike
1945	The Rake's Progress	Miss Parker
1946	The Trojan Brothers	Ada
	I See a Dark Stranger	Manx Hotel Manageress
1947	So Well Remembered	Mother	Uncredited
1948	This Was a Woman	Miss Johnson
	Just William's Luck	Hubert's Mother
	Bond Street	Blanche – Seamstress	Uncredited
	The Guinea Pig	Mrs Read
	It's Hard to Be Good	Mending Woman	Uncredited
1949	Marry Me!	Mrs Pearson
	Don't Ever Leave Me	Mrs Pearson	Uncredited
	Celia	Mrs Haldane
1950	Seven Days to Noon	Mrs Peckett
	The Magnet	Mrs Ward
1951	Hell Is Sold Out	Hortense, the housekeeper
	High Treason	Mrs Ellis
	The Magic Box	Mrs Stukely
1952	Blind Man's Bluff	Mrs Kipps
	The Card	Mrs Codleyn
	The Tall Headlines	Waitress
	Curtain Up	Harry's Landlady
	No Haunt for a Gentleman	Mme Omskaya
	Hindle Wakes	Mrs Hawthorn
1953	Deadly Nightshade	Mrs Fenton
	Shoot First	Woman Station Announcer
	Sailor of the King	Hotel Manager	Uncredited
	Love in Pawn	Woman in Telephone Box	Uncredited
1954	The Million Pound Note	Maggie	Uncredited
	Doctor in the House	Mrs Groaker
	The House Across the Lake	Mrs Hardcastle
	What Every Woman Wants	Polly Ann
	Dance, Little Lady	Mrs Matthews
	The Crowded Day	Mrs Jones
	To Dorothy a Son	Pub Landlady	Uncredited
	Mad About Men	Mrs Forster
1955	As Long as They're Happy	Barmaid
	Doctor at Sea	Mrs Thomas
	Value for Money	Mrs Perkins
	The Woman for Joe	Publican's Wife	Uncredited
	A Time to Kill	Miss Edinger
	Simon and Laura	Barmaid
	An Alligator Named Daisy	Piano Customer	Uncredited
1956	Lost	Pharmacist	Uncredited
	Jumping for Joy	Lady Emily Cranfield
	The Man Who Never Was	Landlady
	Port of Escape	Rosalie Watchett
	The Extra Day	Mrs West
	The Last Man to Hang	Mrs Prynne
	Child in the House	Cook
1957	Carry On Admiral	Mother
	No Time for Tears	Sister Duckworth
	Barnacle Bill	Mrs Kent
1958	Happy Is the Bride	Mrs Bowels
	Law and Disorder	Aunt Florence
	Chain of Events	Barmaid
	Behind the Mask	Lady	Uncredited
	The Horse's Mouth	Woman in queue at Tate Gallery	Uncredited
1959	Carry On Nurse	Sister
	The 39 Steps	Miss Dobson
	Upstairs and Downstairs	Rosemary
	Please Turn Over	Saleswoman
1960	Doctor in Love	Nurse	Uncredited
	The 3 Worlds of Gulliver	Patient at Dr Gulliver's Surgery	Uncredited
	Carry On Constable	Mrs May
	No Kidding	Cook
	Carry On Regardless	Head Matron
1961	His and Hers	Phoebe
	Raising the Wind	Mrs Bostwick
	Murder, She Said	Mrs Kidder
1962	Crooks Anonymous	Lady
	In the Doghouse	Miss Gibbs
	I Thank a Fool	Landlady
1963	Nurse on Wheels	Mrs Wood
	Heavens Above!	Housewife
1965	The Secret of My Success	Mrs Pringle
1968	Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter	Landlady
1970	Carry On Loving	Mrs Grubb
1971	Friends	Lady in Bookstore
1972	A Day in the Death of Joe Egg	Grace
1973	Theatre of Blood	Mrs Sprout
	Carry On Girls	Mrs Dukes
1974	Confessions of a Window Cleaner	Mrs Radlett
1975	One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing	Mrs Gibbons
1979	Yanks	Mrs Moody
1982	Gandhi	Woman in court	Uncredited
1983	The Wicked Lady	Aunt Agatha
1986	Clockwise	Mrs Trellis
1990	King of the Wind	Duchess of Marlborough
1993	Century	Mrs Whitweather	Final film role

Partial television credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1946	The Corn is Green	Mrs Watty	TV Movie
1947	Busman's Honeymoon	Miss Twitterton	TV Movie
1950	Over the Odds	Mabel Phelps	TV Movie
1956	David Copperfield	Miss Lavinia Spenlow	3 episodes
1958	The Invisible Man	Madame Dupont	Episode: "The Mink Coat"
1960	Barnaby Rudge	Mrs Varden	10 episodes
1963	BBC Sunday-Night Play	Edith Swinney	Episode: "How to Get Rid of Your Wife"
1963-66	Our Man at St Mark's	Mrs Peace	46 episodes
1964	Thursday Theatre	Mrs Jenkins	Episode: "The Cure for Love"
1969	Sinister Street	Mrs Cleghorne	3 episodes
	Oh, Brother!	Mother Joan	Episode: "A Mother in Israel"
1970	Bachelor Father	Mrs Pugsley	8 episodes
	From a Bird's Eye View	Hilda Tuttle	Episode: "Family Tree"
1972	ITV Saturday Night Theatre	Mrs Hope-Rising	Episode: "Just in Time for Christmas"
1975	Within These Walls	Edna Dewfall	Episode: "A Free Woman"
1976	Happy Ever After	Mrs Henderson	Episode: "Old Folks' Party"
1981	Great Expectations	Miss Havisham
1983	The Outsider	Lillian Wrathdale	Episode: "The Homecoming"
1984	Poor Little Rich Girls	Lady Harriet	5 episodes
1985	Time for Murder	Miss Wainwright	Episode: "Mister Clay, Mister Clay"
1989	Boon	Della	Episode: "One Reborn Every Minute"

External links

• Joan Hickson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Joan Hickson at IMDb
• Joan Hickson at Find a Grave
• Performances by Joan Hickson in the Archive of the University of Bristol
• Joan Hickson OBE (1906–1998) at The Wivenhoe Encyclopedia