Mary Wickes

Intro

Mary Wickes made supporting characters impossible to overlook. Nurses, housekeepers and nuns became sources of dry resistance in films and television programs whose stars often supplied the larger emotional or comic display. Her Sister Mary Lazarus in Sister Act and its sequel introduced that presence to another generation, but the performance belonged to a career stretching back to the Broadway stage of the 1930s. Her work rewards attention to the reaction as much as the punch line: a look of disbelief or an unhurried answer could change the temperature of a scene.

Career snapshot

Born in St. Louis on June 13, 1910, Wickes graduated from Washington University in 1930. She maintained a lasting connection with the institution, receiving an alumni citation in 1955 and an honorary doctorate in 1969. Her Broadway record includes an understudy assignment in The Farmer Takes a Wife in 1934, followed by roles in Spring Dance, Stage Door and Father Malachy's Miracle. These were separate productions with different demands, giving her a stage history before film audiences knew her face. IBDB later records her return as Aunt Eller in the 1979 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!.

The entry point

The Man Who Came to Dinner provided a particularly important transition. Wickes originated Miss Preen in the Broadway production that opened in 1939 and then played the nurse in the 1942 film. Opposite Monty Woolley's difficult Sheridan Whiteside, Preen had to withstand a torrent of demands without disappearing into the background. A 1977 Washington University profile describes how George S. Kaufman negotiated her film contract. The same profile connects her many fictional nurses with her actual hospital volunteer work, an offscreen commitment that gave those professional women a significance beyond an easily repeated comic costume.

Screen identity and style

Private Buckaroo, also released in 1942, places her in a different kind of ensemble. She plays Bonnie-Belle Schlopkiss opposite Shemp Howard's Sergeant Muggsy Shavel in Edward F. Cline's wartime musical comedy. The cast includes the Andrews Sisters and Harry James, with songs and military situations sharing the screen with the comedians. The gallery preserves a frame showing Wickes and Howard together, rather than isolating her from the exchange. AFI's filmography also records her as Dora Pickford in Now, Voyager and Juliet Collins in Who Done It? that year, evidence of the range of assignments arriving during her early Hollywood period.

Collaborations and patterns

Television gave Wickes recurring work and opportunities to join established comic ensembles. The Television Academy lists her among the 1962 supporting-actress nominees for The Gertrude Berg Show; the nomination should not be confused with an Emmy win. A 1969 CBS publicity photograph documents her appearance in Here's Lucy, in the episode Lucy Goes on Strike, alongside Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon. In Doc she played Nurse Beatrice Tully, and the 1975 portrait reproduced here comes from a cast publicity photograph. The gallery therefore follows different performances across decades, rather than presenting several crops as separate career moments.

Era reflection

In the 1990s, Sister Act reunited her comic authority with musical material. She played Sister Mary Lazarus opposite Whoopi Goldberg and returned in Bill Duke's 1993 sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Disney's records also identify her as the voice of Laverne, one of the cathedral gargoyles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. That film arrived in 1996, after her death, and Jane Withers completed the role. The distinction preserves the work of both performers. Wickes's voice belonged to an ensemble that included Charles Kimbrough as Victor and Jason Alexander as Hugo.

Legacy and rediscovery

Wickes died in Los Angeles on October 22, 1995, aged 85. Her connection with Washington University continued through her estate: a two-million-dollar bequest created a library fund honoring her parents, Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser, and her papers and professional memorabilia entered the university's collections. The archive preserves the working materials behind a face familiar from decades of entertainment. For a return to her performances, the stage-to-film Miss Preen, the musical comedy of Private Buckaroo and the later Sister Act films provide useful contrasting starting points, each showing how much a supporting player can contribute to an ensemble.

Selected screen roles

• The Man Who Came to Dinner: Miss Preen, stage and film — 1939-1942
• Private Buckaroo: Bonnie-Belle Schlopkiss — 1942
• Doc: Nurse Beatrice Tully — 1975
• Oklahoma!: Aunt Eller, Broadway revival — 1979
• Sister Act: Sister Mary Lazarus — 1992
• Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit: Sister Mary Lazarus — 1993
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Laverne, voice — 1996

A career in pictures

Three distinct source images show Wickes in film comedy and television ensembles.

Doc publicity portrait (1975)

Nurse Beatrice Tully

Wickes in a portrait extracted from the CBS cast photograph.

Private Buckaroo (1942)

Bonnie-Belle Schlopkiss

Mary Wickes at left with Shemp Howard as Sergeant Muggsy Shavel.

Here's Lucy publicity (1969)

Lucy Goes on Strike

Wickes at right in the patterned coat, with Lucille Ball and Gale Gordon.

Rewatch notes

• She played Miss Preen on Broadway and in the 1942 film of The Man Who Came to Dinner.
• Her 1962 Emmy recognition was a nomination for The Gertrude Berg Show.