Joan Hickson: The Best Miss Marple

Admirers of good English cinema immediately understand who they are talking about, as soon as they hear the name Joan Hickson. Despite the fact that there are about a hundred paintings in her acting baggage, she became famous precisely because of the role of Miss Marple in the eponymous television series based on the works of Agatha Christie. And in our country Hickson learned and fell in love in the second half of the eighties, when on weekends, sitting in front of the TV, watched as a nice old woman in a hat famously unravels complex crimes, wiping the nose of the police.

Children's Years and Plans for the Future

Joan Hickson was born in the last summer month of 1906 in Great Britain, the city of Kingsthorpe (the English county of Noramptonshire) in the family of Edith Mary Bogle and Alfred Harold Hickson, who was engaged in the production of shoes. When she was five years old, she visited a children's play dedicated to Christmas. There, little Joan first saw the pantomime and firmly decided that she wanted to become an actress and work only in the theater.

After graduation, the girl enters the Royal Academy of Drama Art. And already in 1927 she first enters the stage in the play staged according to the play "Tragic Muse".

The whole world is a theater ...

For several years the young actress has toured the country. Joan Hickson went to the stages of several theaters, until fate brought her to the West End. There she was offered the role of comedic and somewhat eccentric heroines.

After the first appearance on the scene, it took seven long years before the actress received an offer to act in films. As a rule, the roles that she was offered to play were only secondary, but each played heroine Hixson endowed herself with a part of herself. Yes, and her comedic talent was magnificent. Therefore, all the characters that she played, for a long time remained in the memory of the audience.

In the lens of the movie camera

Film debuts Joan Hickson, whose films are still viewed with great interest, was held in 1934. It was a British comedy called The Problem in the Store. The first picture was, it's called, "with a bang," and then Hickson quite successfully continued her growing movie career, starring, however, mostly in comic images.

Among the list of her early works can be called "The Man Who Performs Miracles" (by Herbert Wells) and "The Love of a Stranger" (by Agatha Christie).

The famous writer of the most interesting detectives of the twentieth century to some extent influenced the future career of Joan Hickson. One day Christie saw Hickson's play on the stage in the staging of her play "Rendezvous with Death." She was pleasantly surprised and amazed. She even sent a letter to the actress, in which she expressed her hope that her favorite literary heroine, Miss Marple, would be embodied on the screen by Joan Hickson and no one else. Joan was grateful to Agatha Christie for such a high appreciation of her professionalism. But here about the nice observant old woman, who knows everything to notice and calculate the murderer, she was not sure.

Nevertheless, Christie's wish came true after thirty-eight years after the statement.

Roles in the cinema and on the stage

For her long and interesting life Joan Hickson, whose filmography numbers more than a hundred works, played a lot of characteristic, though small roles. Among them, one can distinguish a funny drunk girl called Rosemary in the film "Up and Down" (this was a rather memorable part in Hixson's career), caring and trying to all serve a nurse in the sweet comedy "Keep It, Sister!", The power Mrs. Kidder in the novel Agatha Christie "She said: murder." Yes, the work of the great detective writer was with her side-by-side for several decades. During this period, Hickson often offered the roles of mothers and grandmothers, homeowners and housewives, in general, very respectable ladies.

But theatrical scene gave her the role of Delia in the play "Farce in the bedroom". Initially, the play was staged in London on the National Theater stage, later on Broadway. It was this role that earned her the prestigious theatrical award "Tony" in 1979. There were also performances "Autobahn", "Careless spirit" and others.

Hello, Miss Marple!

Stunningly beautiful was Joanne Hickson in her youth. Photos only confirm this truth. And yet this did not prevent her from playing the old lady "dandelion of God", possessing tenacious intelligence, attention, the ability to collect facts and analyze them, finding the truth.

So, the year 1984. Channel "BBC" begins to show television movies, the main character in which is the dear old lady - Miss Marple. It was for this role, the role of an amateur detective who easily reveals the most difficult and intricate crimes, and Joan Hickson was invited. She tried to unite in her heroine insight and integrity. Thanks to her, Miss Marple turned out to be very real, alive, loved by millions of spectators. She became the best performer of this role, as well as David Suchet - Erculem Poirot, and Vasily Livanov - Sherlock Holmes. Filming of twelve television films lasted several years, until 1992. This is "Pocket full of rye", "At 4.50 from Paddington" and others. It would be a great hour for an actress. Twice she was an applicant for a prize from the British Academy of Film and Television, although it was not possible to receive the award.

Queen Elizabeth I was always a big fan of Agatha Christie's work. After viewing these paintings, she awarded Joan Hickson the Order of the British Empire for the role of Miss Marple.

Being at a very respectable age, she continued to come to the set until 1992, after which she told everyone that she was retiring. The last film, in which she was shot - "Century" - was released in the next year. And on October 17, 1998, Joan Hickson quietly passed away in Colchester. She was 92 years old.