Mary Wickes

Mary Wickes was an American television and film actress. Mary Isabella Wickenhauser, her original name, she was born on 13th June 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri, US. Her father’s name was Frank Wickenhauser and mother’s was Mary Isabella. She was a clever student in school; she skipped two years in grade school and completed her graduation at the age of sixteen. She studied at the Beaumont High School. She received the admission in the Washington University in St. Louis and joined the debate team there. In 1930, Mary graduated with double major in Political Science and English Literature. Initially, she desired to become a lawyer before her professor suggested Mary to try a shot in acting. In 1934, Mary made her first Broadway appearance in ‘The Farmer Takes a Wife’ opposite Henry Fonda Henry Fonda is an Academy Award winning American a >> Read More... . In the late 1930s, she started to appear in the movies.

In 1942, her noticeable appearance came in her early career with the film ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner’. The same year she appeared in the films like ‘Now, Voyager’, ‘Who Done It?’; she was praised for her roles in these films. In 1949, she played the lead role in the TV show ‘Westinghouse Studio One’. Wickes played the gentle yet funny maid Katie in the TV show 'Annette'. Further, she appeared in the shows like 'Make Room for Daddy', 'Dennis the Menace', in an episode of the TV show 'I Love Lucy', 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians' and many more. In 1953, she appeared as a housekeeper in the sitcom 'Bonino'. In 1962, she played the role of Mrs. Squires in the movie 'The Music Man'.

Some of the other TV shows she has appeared in are 'Zorro', 'Mrs. G. Goes to College' for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Wickes has frequently appeared in guest roles on the shows ‘I Love Lucy’, ‘Here’s Lucy’ and ‘The Lucy Show’. She has also appeared on the CBS’s shows like ‘Match Game’ and ‘Oklahoma!’ (1979). She got famous by appearing on the shows like ‘Our Man Higgins’, ‘The Love Boat’, ‘Kolchak: The Night Stalker’, ‘Murder’ and ‘She Wrote’. Later in her career she did roles like mother of Shirley MacLaine in the movie ‘Postcards from the Edge’ (1990), Marie Murkin in ‘Father Dowling Mysteries’ (1989-91), Sister Mary Lazarus in ‘Sister Act’ (1992) and ‘Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit’ (1993). Wickes died on 22nd October 1995, due to many problems as kidney failure, low blood pressure, anemia, breast cancer, gastrointestinal bleeding and ischemic cardiomyopathy which caused surgical complications. In 2004, she was named in the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She was unmarried and had no children; in the memory of her parents, she established the Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser Memorial Library Fund for Television, Film and Theater Arts at Washington University in St. Louis for which left her estate and made a $2 million bequest.