This British stage and occasional film actress made her stage debut in 1927, but it was not until the late 1980s that American audiences became most aware of Joan Hickson when she began playing Agatha Christie's sleuth Miss Marple. She began in the role in 1984 for the BBC and retired for not only the role but from her acting career in 1992.

With her big blue eyes and pronounced cheek bones which can be adapted for sympathy or stern menace, Hickson made her London stage debut in "The Tragic Muse" (1928). It was nearly a decade before she first stepped before the cameras in "Love From a