Summary
- Miss Marple has been portrayed by a variety of actresses from all over the world, ranging from the most obscure to the most acclaimed, each bringing their own unique style to the character.
- Julia McKenzie, a British actress, played Miss Marple in the series
Marple
, bringing a softer and self-deprecating side to the character. She is known for her fantastic performances in chapters like They Do it With Mirrors and Murder is Easy. - Margaret Rutherford, who first played Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d Side to Side, set the standard for future actresses with her comedic and quirky portrayal of the character. Her performance was imitated for years and she became the most definitive and iconic Miss Marple actress.
Author Agatha Christie‘s Miss Marple is one of the most iconic and celebrated literary sleuths of all time, and there have been several Miss Marple actresses who have brought the character to life. The amateur investigator was first introduced in the 1930 novel Murder at the Vicarage, appearing in 11 subsequent novels up until 1976. The character has been portrayed on the stage, on radio, on the big screen, and in cozy mystery shows like Agatha Christie’s Marple several times since the character’s screen debut in 1961.
While most recent movies have focused on Agatha Christie’s other detective, Hercule Poirot, there are still plenty of Miss Marple adaptations out there for fans of his earlier detective. Over the past 60 years, Miss Marple has been portrayed by some impressive actresses from all over the world. Due to the character’s age, she is commonly played by veteran actresses with decades of experience behind them, allowing for some truly fantastic performances. When it comes to every Miss Marple actress, they range from the most obscure to the most influential and acclaimed, but all are great for different reasons.
11 Inge Langen Was The First Non-English Language Miss Marple
Murder At The Vicarage (1970)
Having starred as Miss Marple in a single German production of Murder at the Vicarage in 1970, Inge Langen is the most obscure actress to play the legendary role. Langen, a journeywoman actress who appeared in German movies and TV such as Der Zinker, was only 46 when she played the typically elderly role.
Langen may not be the best-remembered Miss Marple, but she was the first to portray the character in non-English-language media
Directed by Hans Quest, the film finds Marple investigating the mysterious murder of a local official who has drawn out two false confessions from innocent suspects. Once Marple clears the married couple who confessed, she works her way through a throng of motivated suspects to solve the murder. Langen may not be the best-remembered Miss Marple because so many of the English-language versions of the character are better known, but she was the first to portray the character in non-English-language media.
10 Julia McKenzie Starred In The Series Marple
Marple (2008-2013) & Masterpiece Mystery (2014)
In 2004, ITV created its own Agatha Christie adaptation with a series titled Agatha Christie’s Marple, which ran for six seasons and a total of 23 episodes. In 11 of those episodes, Miss Marple was played by British actress Julia McKenzie with a much softer and self-deprecating side. McKenzie is an acclaimed theatrical actress, having won a Tony Award and two Olivier Awards for her work in musicals.
Unfortunately for McKenzie, Geraldine McEwan, who played Marple in the first three seasons and 12 episodes, was a fan favorite in the role. Ratings declined for McKenzie’s three seasons of the show, though she brings her trademark star power to the role in such exciting chapters as They Do it With Mirrors and Murder is Easy.
Of course, the larger problem that Christie fans have with this series isn’t the portrayal of the titular character, but that the feature-length episodes stray so far from the source material. Miss Marple is often placed into the stories from books she didn’t feature instead of using the same stories Agatha Christie wrote using the character.
9 Yunjin Kim Was In The Series Ms. Ma, Nemesis
Ms. Ma, Nemesis (2018)
Korean actress Yunjin Kim brings a refreshing wrinkle to the character of Miss Marple in the Agatha Christie mash-up series, Ms. Ma, Nemesis. The series ran for 32 episodes and covered several Christie mysteries, reimagining the lead as a young South Korean mystery writer.
Kim is otherwise best known for playing Sun in the American hit Lost. In addition to Christie’s novel Nemesis, the show pulls various storylines from such other works as The Body in the Library, A Murder is Announced, The Moving Finger and The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side. Kim plays Ms. Ma, a younger version of the character.
While fans of Christie’s works usually balk at straying too far from the source material, this version worked well because it immersed the character into Korean culture instead of simply placing the British Miss Marple in South Korea. The series provided a fresh take with a capable dramatic actor in the lead.
8 Ita Ever Played Miss Marple In Movies And On The Stage
Secret Of The Blackbirds (1983) & Miss Marple Stories (1990)
Estonian screen and stage actress Ita Ever became the third person to portray Miss Marple in a feature film. She first starred in the role in the Russian adaptation of A Pocket Full of Rye in 1983, which went by a different name. A legend of Estonian theater, Ever has also starred in adaptations of works by Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Ibsen, and more.
Ever acquitted herself well enough to be asked to reprise the role in a 1990 TV adaptation called Miss Marple Stories. In 2005, Ever played Marple for the final time on stage in the translation of The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side. Despite playing the character so many times, she’s often overlooked by many modern Christie fans simply because other adaptations of Miss Marple’s stories overshadow hers, especially when other actors played the role for longer stretches.
7 Kaoru Yachigusa Was An Animated Miss Marple
Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot And Marple (2004-2005)
In 39 episodes produced between 2004 and 2005, Japanese actress Kaoru Yachigusa voiced the role of Miss Marple in the animated TV series Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Marple and Poirot, and was one of the most unique out of every Miss Marple actress. Yachigusa excels with her experience and ability to breathe new life into the role. The series brings Christie’s two greatest detectives together by introducing the character of Miss Marple’s great-niece Maybelle West, who becomes Poirot’s assistant.
Among the various novels and short stories adapted in the series include Strange Jest, Sleeping Murder, The Blue Geranium, Ingots of Gold, The Tape Measure Murder, and several others. Yachigusa was a veteran and award-winning Japanese actress, having started in the cross-dressing Takarazuka Revue in the 1950s, and this was her only anime role.
6 Helen Hayes Was Miss Marple In The 1980s
A Caribbean Mystery (1983) & Agatha Christie’s Murder with Mirrors (1985)
American actress Helen Hayes plays Marple twice in a pair of made-for-television Christie adaptations. The first came in the 1983 telling of A Caribbean Mystery and the second came in a 1985 redo of Murder with Mirrors. Hayes was nicknamed “the First Lady of American Theatre” and was the first woman to win the fabled “EGOT,” meaning her Miss Marple role came at the end of a legendary career.
Hayes’s performance as Marple was noted for being cheery and anodyne, rather than the snarky and sarcastic crank some of the others before her played the character with. In 1982, Hayes also appeared in Murder is Easy, a non-Marple mystery in which she plays Lavinia Fullerton. The two series were broadcast on CBS and were Hayes’ final TV roles.
While she might not be considered the definitive Miss Marple, she has a legion of fans who lover her adaptations.
5 June Whitfield Starred In The BBC Series Miss Marple
Miss Marple (1993-2001)
One of the more overlooked adaptations of the Miss Marple stories was the BBC radio series produced from 1993 to 2001. The radio series covered all eight novels and a handful of short stories as part of the series The Saturday Play.
The radio series starred June Whitfield, a famed British actress who is best known for her comedic supporting role in the Absolutely Fabulous series. With only her voice, Whitfield brought Christie’s famous character to life for almost a decade. Whitfield returned for three more short stories in a 2015 series billed as Miss Marple’s Final Cases, making her arguably the most prolific of all Miss Marple actresses.
Interestingly, Whitfield also played Margaret Rutherford in another radio play, A Monstrous Vitality. Rutherford is one of the best known actresses to take on the role of Miss Marple. The connection between the two has made many compare their performances as two sides of the same coin, just in different mediums.
4 Geraldine McEwan Was Miss Marple In The 2000s
Marple (2004-2007)
Geraldine McEwan brought a caustic bite to her depiction of Marple in three seasons and 12 episodes of ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Marple from 2005 to 2009. McEwan was a veteran British actress known for her comedic ability who also shone in dramatic roles, winning two Olivier Awards and a BAFTA Award for her roles over the years.
In addition to being given a rich backstory, McEwan’s Marple is notable for how stern, sterile, and unfunny she is. In making a concerted effort to move away from the most memorable of screen performances of the character, the lack of camp and kitsch makes McEwan one of the better Miss Marple actresses. For many modern fans of the character, McEwan is the best version of Miss Marple, but there are still a few that are even more beloved.
3 Joan Hickson Played Miss Marple 12 Times
Hickson Portrayed The Detective For The BBC Between 1984 And 1992
The BBC’s rich drama history includes adaptations of all 12 Christie novels about the character in a series simply titled Miss Marple. Joan Hickson, who first played the role on stage in 1940, played Marple in all of them. Her performance was even reportedly praised by Queen Elizabeth II when Hickson received an OBE in 1987. Hickson played Miss Marple a total of 12 times:
- Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple: The Body In The Library (1984)
- The Moving Finger (1985)
- A Murder Is Announced (1985)
- A Pocket Full Of Rye (1985)
- Masterpiece Mystery (1986)
- The Murder At The Vicarage (1986)
- Sleeping Murder (1987)
- At Bertram’s Hotel (1987)
- Nemesis (1987)
- 4.50 From Paddington (1987)
- A Caribbean Mystery (1989)
- They Do It With Mirrors (1991)
- The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side (1992)
Given the sheer breadth of her performance over eight years and 12 feature-length episodes, Hickson branded the character as her very own. As a result, Hickson scored back-to-back BAFTA nods in 1987 and 1988 for Best Actress as Miss Marple. Hickson also won a 1987 UK Royal Television Award for Best Performance in the Marple series. She is easily one of the most iconic of all Miss Marple actresses to date.
Funnily enough, Hickson didn’t initially see herself in the role. Christie is rumored to have sent Hickson a note after seeing her in the stage play, revealing she hoped to see her play the role on screen. Hickson became the oldest actor to play the role when she was cast as Miss Marple at 78 years old. Christie had already passed away eight years earlier.
2 Angela Lansbury Also Starred In Murder, She Wrote
The Mirror Crack’d (1980)
Although Angela Lansbury only played Jane Marple once via the star-studded 1980 Christie movie adaptation of The Mirror Crack’d, her acting choices set her far apart from the pack. Lansbury was already a legend for her stage performances and appearances in classic films ranging from Gaslight to The Manchurian Candidate, but she brought her all to the role of Christie’s detective.
Rather than a doddering elderly woman, Lansbury plays Marple with sharp-minded intelligence who doesn’t suffer fools easily. She has a different take on the character that makes her version of Marple one of the most memorable, and makes the audience wish she’d appeared in more Christie adaptations.
Of course, her 264 episodes of Murder, She Wrote as the iconic Marple-like Jessica Fletcher only bolsters her silver medal status.
1 Margaret Rutherford Was An Oscar-Winning Actress
Murder She Said (1961), Murder At The Gallop (1963), Murder Most Foul (1964), Murder Ahoy (1964) & The Alphabet Murders (1965)
The first, most definitive, and best Miss Marple actress was Margaret Rutherford, the London-born actress who first played the part in the 1962 adaptation of The Mirror Crack’d Side to Side. With no one else to compare to her performance, Rutherford owned the role in a way that was imitated for years. Rutherford received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1963 but continued to return to the role of Miss Marple.
She set the standard that every future Miss Marple actress would be measured against, allowing for more serious versions like Lansbury’s to shine
Rutherford reprised the frumpy, dizzy, and quirky turn as Marple in several films, including Murder, She Said, Murder At the Gallup, Murder Most Foul, Murder Ahoy!, and The Alphabet Murders. Rutherford emphasized the comedic and “dotty” elements of Miss Marple, and even incorporated clothes from her own home into her on-screen wardrobe. While some Agatha Christie devotees criticized Rutherford’s take on the character, she set the standard that every future Miss Marple actress would be measured against, allowing for more serious versions like Lansbury’s to shine.
