Athene Seyler

With her poached-egg eyes and wizened warmth, Seyler was most active in film during the 1950s, with turns as Miss Witherfield in "The Pickwick Papers" (1952), the villain's mother in "Curse of the Demon" (1957) and the stalwart Miss Pross in the 1958 version of "A Tale of Two Cities." The co-author, with Stephen Haggard, of the enduringly popular "The Craft of Comedy" (1944), the long-lived Seyler (she died at age 101) was created a Commander of the British Empire in her later years.