Mary Wickes

Wickes was the only child of Missouri-born Frank Wickenhauser (1880-1943), a 32nd degree Mason active in St. Louis's Shriners' Moolah Temple and St. Clair County, Illinois-native Mary Isabelle "Isabella" Shannon (1887-1965), a matron of the Tuscan chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and active in the Temple Club which raised money for Shriners Hospitals. Wickes's mother held leadership positions in the Missouri Federation of Women's Clubs. Two of Isabella Shannon's ancestors were William Kinney (1781-1843) who served as lieutenant governor of Illinois from 1826-1830; and, John McLean (1785-1861), who served as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice where he wrote one of two dissenting opinions on the court's infamous Dred Scott Case.

From the grand old school of wisecracking, loud and lanky Mary Wickes had few peers while forging a career as a salty scene-stealer. Her abrupt, tell-it-like-it-is demeanor made her a consistent audience favorite on every medium for over six decades. She was particularly adroit in film parts that chided the super rich or exceptionally pious, and was a major chastiser in generation-gap comedies. TV holds a vault full of not-to-be-missed vignettes where she served as a brusque foil to many a top TV comic star. Case in point: who could possibly forget her merciless ballet taskmaster, Madame Lamond, putting Lucille Ball through her rigorous paces at the ballet bar in a classic I Love Lucy (1951) episode?Unlike the working-class characters she embraced, this veteran character comedienne was actually born Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser on June 13, 1910, in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a well-to-do banker. Of Irish and German heritage, she grew into a society débutante following high school and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in political science. She forsook a law career, however, after being encouraged by a college professor to try theater, and she made her debut doing summer stock in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The rest, as they say, is history.

Began public school at Cupples School on Cote Brilliante Avenue in St. Louis. Attended Harrison Elementary School in St. Louis from 1918-22. Attended Yeatman High School in St. Louis. Graduated in 1926 from Beaumont High School which had opened to alleviate crowding at Yeatman. Entered Washington University in September 1926 at the age of 16 where she majored in English literature and political science. She had been pushed ahead two years in grade school. She was a sister in Phi Mu Fraternity, Zeta Epsilon Chapter. College classmates included Howard Morgens (future President of Proctor & Gamble); Clark Clifford (prominent Democratic lawyer and Beltway insider); Edmund Hartmann (writer/producer); and Kay Thompson (actress, singer, and performer/writer of the "Eloise at The Plaza" stories). After graduating in 1930, Wickes attended Hadley Vocational School in St Louis from 1930-31, to learn stenography. Many years later, she received an honorary Doctor of Arts from Washington University in 1969 and earned her Master's degree at UCLA when she was in her 80s.

As a student (1926-1930) she was a member of Washington University's dramatic society, Thyrsus. She performed in musicals through its Quadrangle Club. After graduating, she secured a job on campus as the university's assistant publicity director. While attending Washington University she was President of the Freshman Commission, President of her Phi Mu sorority, President of Mortar Board and Treasurer of the Panhellenic Association. She was on the women's intercollegiate debating team, the women's building executive committee and junior prom committee. She graduated in June 1930. She then secured a job on campus as the university's assistant publicity director.

After high school, Wickes performed in St Louis community theater in all-women casts in such productions as "Flood Sufferers" (1927), "Belle of Barcelona" (1927), "Sweethearts" (1928), and "Spring Maid" (1929).

From 1929 to 1934 she performed in productions at the St. Louis Little Theatre. The roles included, among others, Alison's House (Louise), Cock Robin (Maria Scott), The Constant Nymph (Kate Sanger), Escape (Dolly), The Good Fairy (Karoline), The Makropoulos Secret (Marie) and The Follies Of 1934 (Jo in a parody called Little Women--Just Little Women).

Her first professional theatre appearances were in 1933 as Sophia is Reunion In Vienna and Helen Hallam in Another Language with the Arthur Casey Stock Company.

Prodded on by the encouragement of stage legend Ina Claire whom she met doing summer theater, she transported herself to New York where she quickly earned a walk-on part in the Broadway play "The Farmer Takes a Wife" starring Henry Fonda in 1934.

New York stage work continued to pour in, and she garnered roles in "Spring Dance" (1936), "Stage Door" (1936), "Hitch Your Wagon" (1937), "Father Malachy's Miracle (1937) and, in an unusual bit of casting, Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre production of "Danton's Death". All the while she kept fine-tuning her acting craft in summer stock. A series of critically panned plays followed until a huge door opened for her in the form of Miss Preen, the beleaguered nurse to an acid-tongued, wheelchair-bound radio star (played by the hilarious Monty Woolley) in the George S. Kaufman/Moss Hart comedy "The Man Who Came to Dinner"; for once, it was Wickes doing the cowering. The play was the toast of Broadway for two wacky years and she went on tour with it as well. She also become a Kaufman favorite. Hollywood took notice as well, and when Warner Bros. decided to film the play, it allowed both Wickes and Woolley to recreate their classic roles.

In the show she also understudied The Wizard of Oz (1939)'s "Wicked Witch" Margaret Hamilton, and earned excellent reviews when she went on in the part. Plain and hawkish in looks while noticeably tall and gawky in build, Wickes was certainly smart enough to see that comedy would become her career path and she enjoyed showing off in roles playing much older than she was.

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), which co-starred Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan, was a grand film hit and Wickes was now officially on board in Hollywood, given plenty of chances to freelance.

At Warners she lightened up the proceedings a bit in the Bette Davis tearjerker Now, Voyager (1942) as the nurse to Gladys Cooper.

Elsewhere, she traded quips with Lou Costello as a murder suspect in the amusing whodunit Who Done It? (1942); played a WAC in Private Buckaroo (1942) with The Andrews Sisters; and dished out her patented smart-alecky services in both Happy Land (1943) and My Kingdom for a Cook (1943).

Wickes returned to Broadway for a few seasons, often for Kaufman, and did some radio work as well, but returned to Hollywood and played yet another nurse in The Decision of Christopher Blake (1948), a part written especially for her.

She appeared with Bette Davis for a third time in June Bride (1948), finding some fine moments playing a magazine editor.

Mary originated the role of "Mary Poppins" on CBS-TV in 1949.

She played second banana to a queue of comedy's best known legends in the 1950s and 1960s, notably Lucille Ball (who was a long-time neighbor and pal off-screen), Danny Thomas, Red Skelton, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lind Hayes and Gertrude Berg.

Wickes went on to perform yeoman work in On Moonlight Bay (1951) and its sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953); I'll See You in My Dreams (1951); White Christmas (1954) and The Music Man (1962), the last as one of the "Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little" gossiping housewives of River City. Television roles also began filtering in for Wickes she continued to put her cryptic comedy spin on her harried housekeepers, teachers, servants and other working commoner types.

Among the Baby Boom generation, she may be best remembered as Miss Cathcart in Dennis the Menace (1959). In later years her gangly figure filled out a bit as she continued to appear here and there on the small screen in both guest star and series' regular parts. Later in life she enjoyed a bit of a resurgence.

Her stellar work with Berg on The Gertrude Berg Show (1961) garnered Wickes an Emmy nomination.

Appeared on a episode of the Charlotte Peters Show in 1965 which was broadcast locally in St Louis, MO.

Recalled earlier for her Sister Clarissa in the madcap comedy films The Trouble with Angels (1966) and its sequel, Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968), both with Rosalind Russell, She donned the habit again decades later as crabby musical director Sister Mary Lazarus in the box-office smash Sister Act (1992) and its sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993).

Was the Washington University (St. Louis, MO) first artist in residence in 1968 working for a month with the performing arts students.

Appeared on The Merv Griffin Show (1962) on March 17, 1969.

More than 30 years after a role that brought her fame on Broadway, she once again played the role of Nurse Preen ("Miss Bedpan") in a special TV version of The Man Who Came to Dinner (1972), with Orson Welles replacing the late Monty Woolley in the role of Sheridan Whiteside.

Lectured on "The Thought & Feel Of Comedy" at the College of San Mateo in 1973.

Appeared in the 1974 production of "Juno & The Paycock" in Los Angeles, appearing alongside Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Maureen Stapleton. She was also Stapleton's understudy.

Was a recurring panelist on Match Game from 1976-1978.

In 1977 she presented a four-week course of acting in comedy at her alumni Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

In 1981 she taught seminar at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

Wickes and Lucille Ball were neighbors, good friends, and occasional costars for decades until Ball's death in 1989.

She appeared in Postcards from the Edge (1990) as Meryl Streep's grandmother, and in Little Women (1994) as the matriarchal Aunt March.

She, Kathy Najimy, and Wendy Makkena appeared, as their Sister Act (1992) characters, in Lady Soul's "If My Sister's In Trouble" music video.

True to form, the last role in which she appeared was voicing the gargoyle "Laverne" in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), which was released after her death.