Mary Law dead at 91: The actress, who starred in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, has passed away

Actress Mary Law, who starred in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, has died at 91. Mary Law, was the only child of Oliver Law, an architect and Majorie, who was known as an amateur theatricals enthusiast, and was born on September 23, 1932, in Croydon, South London. 

After being captivated by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mary Law wanted to be a dancer whilst growing up and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. When it came to TV roles, she starred as a nurse in 1953’s A Place of Execution and acted alongside Sean Connery as the Duchess of York in the 1960 Shakespeare adaptation of An Age of Kings.

Mary Law’s first film role was starring alongside  Dirk Bogard in the 1954 comedy romance, For Better, for Worse. In 1955, she was one of the three witches in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Macbeth and acted alongside Laurence Olivier. She also starred in Love Affair at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.

Before joining Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap in 1956, Mary Law played Kay Strange in Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery Towards Zero. In The Mousetrap, Mary was Mollie Ralston and returned to the cast in the same role from 1975 to 1976.

Although Mary Law left The Mousetrap in 1958 (after joining in 1956), she made a guest appearance in the play again when it was staged in Wormwood Scrubs. It was quite the dramatic performance as whilst the play was going on, two prisoners managed to escape. 

Mary Law also had a film role as a shop assistant in the 1960 comedy Carry on Constable starring Kenneth Williams and Charlie Hawtrey, who were both rookie policemen disguised as female shoppers. Mary Law once recalled that “I always remember Charlie Hawtrey coming to ask me how to wear a pair of very high heels and walk properly,” she told the nostalgia website Retroboy, adding that most scenes were captured in a single take. “I had to spend a very tiring morning running after [Hawtrey] and Kenneth Williams somewhere in London.”

Mary Law married orchestral and theatre conductor Kenneth Alwyn in 1960 and presented the 1979 Radio series called That’s Entertainment with him. Mary Law’s husband passed away in 2020 and she is survived by daughter Timandra, her daughter Lucy died from a brain tumour last year. 

In the 1980s she volunteered at an animal sanctuary founded by her neighbours Patrick Garland and his actress wife Alexandra Bastedo and in recent years, she campaigned against proposals for fracking close to her home in West Sussex and was known for being a passionate environmentalist.