Trivia

Agatha Christie dedicated her 1963 Miss Marple novel, 'The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side', to Rutherford "in admiration.".

Her husband, Stringer Davis, portrayed Mr. Stringer in her four Miss Marple films and appeared with her in other films as well.

She was the daughter of William Benn and Florence Nicholson. In 1883, nine years before her birth, her father murdered her grandfather. Her mother committed suicide when she was three years old and she was brought up by her aunt, Bessie Nicholson, in Wimbledon. After her aunt died, a small inheritance allowed her to join the Old Vic in repertory.

Robert Morley said in a 1967 TV interview, "Although the profession is crowded with very nice people, she's always too nice, too soft, too much the perfect auntie. She's frightfully funny. She's a marvelous woman... a good woman.".

Decided not to have children, despite having strong maternal feelings and a great love for children, out of fear that her children would contract mental illnesses, as she and her parents did. (Margaret battled depression throughout her life; her father murdered her grandfather and her mother committed suicide.).

She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1961 Queen's New Year Honours List and the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1967 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to drama.

She was interred at Saint James Churchyard in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England, with her husband, Stringer Davis. Her epitaph reads "A Blithe Spirit.".

The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts named an award after her.

She collaborated with husband Stringer Davis on a total of 27 television and cinema productions.

While filming "The Virgin and the Gypsy" in 1969 Rutherford, who was playing a deaf old grandmother, suffered frequent memory lapses causing filming delays. This resulted in her being replaced by Fay Compton. Unfortunately Rutherford never made another film.

Was the 58th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The V.I.P.s (1963) at The 36th Annual Academy Awards (1964) on April 13, 1964.

On August 5, 2021, she was honored with a day of her filmography during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.

She appeared in two adaptations of the 1895 play "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde: she played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1946) and Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).

She was offered the role of Miss La Creevy in The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens (1970). Margaret also rehearsed the part in her home in the presence of Ned Sherrin and Anthony Hopkins. Having been unwell for quite a while, she didn't manage to remember her lines and was therefore replaced.

She started out teaching elocution and piano.

Song of Norway (1970) was the last project for which Margaret Rutherford was contracted, but because of her poor memory at the time, she was replaced before shooting began.

Her cousin is the well-known British politician Tony Benn.

In 1925 (age 33), she was accepted as a student at the Old Vic Theatre, where she appeared in several small Shakespearean roles in productions starring Edith Evans, including The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew.

A memorial service was held for her at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden on 21st July 1972.

She developed an interest in the theatre while at school. Her guardian aunt paid for her to have private acting lessons.

Once recollected an unexpected backstage encounter during the early 1960s with John Baldwin Buckstone, the benevolent former manager ghost of London's Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Uncertain of what convention to follow, she simply stroked his leg.

She studied at the Old Vic School and made her debut in their 1925 panto. and later became a star on stage in the late '30's playing Madame Arcati, and Miss Prism.

She started work on The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), but illness caused her to be replaced by Fay Compton.