Born Mary Isabella Wickenhauser, June 13, 1916, in St. Louis, MO; died of complications following surgery, October 22, 1995, in Los Angeles, CA. Actress.Mary Wickes appeared in approximately 50 films, numerous Broadway productions, and 10 television series in a career that stretched over 60 years. Wickes studied at Washington University in St. Louis, receiving her degree in 1934. She made her broadway debut the following year in a production of George S. Kaufman's Stage Door. She scored her greatest Broadway success as Miss Preen, Monte Wooley's harassed nurse, in the comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939), and as recently as 1980 she appeared as Aunt Eller in the revival of Oklahoma! On television, Wickes was a regular on The Peter and Mary Show (1950), Annette (1958), Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-1975), and The Father Dowling Mysteries (1989-1991). She also made guest appearances on I Love Lucy, Murder, She Wrote, Wonderworks, and many others. Wickes appeared with Bette Davisin the film Now, Voyager (1942), with Bing Crosby in White Christmas (1954)and with Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act (1992) and Sister Act II (1993), in which she played the crusty Sister Mary Lazarus. She also appeared as Aunt March in Little Women (1994). At the time of her death, she had just completed recording the voice of the gargoyle, Laverne, in Walt Disney's animated featureThe Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).
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