Mrs. Danvers

"Big Mama", in Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and "Ann Treadwell", in Otto Preminger's Laura, each stands out, but it was as "Mrs. Danvers", one of the screen's most memorable and sexually ambiguous female villains, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, that the Australian stage actress achieved true Hollywood stardom.

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Mrs. Danvers's obsessive love for her dead mistress means that she cannot accept de Winter's new young and distinctly middle-class wife.

Psychos, Obsessives And Other Loons Mary Horlock 2011

''I feel her everywhere,'' Mrs. Danvers insinuatingly tells the second Mrs. de Winter, the unnamed narrator.

Psychos, Obsessives And Other Loons Mary Horlock 2011

If the storyline seems too Cinderella-like, then Mrs. Danvers is the perfect witch of fairy tales—she gloats, she connives, she is a dark controlling presence that must ultimately vanish into smoke.

Psychos, Obsessives And Other Loons Mary Horlock 2011

It also featured the towering, terrifying specter of Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper for Maxim and Rebecca de Winter until Rebecca's death.

Psychos, Obsessives And Other Loons Mary Horlock 2011

Much more in a psychological vein than his earlier pictures, this tale of a timid second wife haunted by the ghost of the first is a superb showcase for the dashing Laurence Olivier but also for character actress Judith Anderson, who positively exudes evil as the cold, beady-eyed housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.

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But Anderson has the choicest turn as the sadistic Mrs. Danvers, who has it in for the timid Fontaine.

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But Maxim's glacial housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) instantly regards her new mistress with undisguised hostility, referring reverentially to the deceased Rebecca de Winter, whose death is veiled in secrecy.

John Farr: A Tale of Two Sisters: Hollywood's Longest Running Feud 2010

Mrs. Danvers runs the house, and coldly she meets the shy, insecure second Mrs. de Winter and introduces the villain of the piece: the dead first wife, Rebecca…who was the most beautiful, the most sought-after, and who, asks the eyes of Mrs. Danvers, are you to think you can take her place?

Buzzine » Hitchock’s “Rebecca” 2008

And the iconic role, the frightening Mrs. Danvers, is played by the renowned stage actress Judith Anderson.

Buzzine » Hitchock’s “Rebecca” 2008