Your Favourite Maid Marian : Joan Rice


Joan Rice



I am pleased to announce that the winner of our poll for your Favourite Maid Marian of all time is Joan Rice! She gained 53 votes. Close behind came Judi Trott from TV's excellent Robin of Sherwood (1984-86) with 51.


Judi Trott


Olivia de Havilland


Joint third is the lovely Olivia de Havilland from the classic Hollywood movie The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Lucy Griffiths from the recent BBC series (2006-7).



Bernadette O'Farrell

Next came Richard Green's love interest, Lady Marian Fitzwalter in the iconic TV series of the 1950's played by Bernadette O'Farrell with 13 votes. And right up to date comes Hollywood's modern interpretation played by Cate Blanchett with 12.

Patricia Driscoll received 9 votes. She had  continued the roll of Lady Marian in series 3 and 4 of  TV's Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-59) after the departure of Bernadette O'Farrell.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio gained 7 votes as Maid Marian in Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves (1991) alongside Kevin Costner. She was later nominated for two awards as Best Supporting Actress and Best Female Performance.

Legendary Audrey Hepburn returned to the screen after an eight year absence to appear in Richard Lester's Robin and Marian (1976) alongside Sean Connery.But she collected only 3 votes.


Uma Thurman

Both surprisingly on 2 votes are Uma Thurman from the gritty and very underrated Robin Hood (1991) and Sarah Branch from Hammer's Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) which also starred Richard Greene as the outlaw hero.


Gay Hamilton

Gay Hamilton played Lady Marian Fitzwarren in Hammer Film's third version of the Robin Hood legend in 1967, but she only got 1 vote along with Anna Galvin from The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997).

Sadly the other maidens were not voted for. 

Thank you to all the readers who voted. We have now chosen Michael Praed as the all-time Favourite Robin Hood and we can place Joan Rice alongside him as Maid Marian. Who shall we pick as Friar Tuck?  Look out for the poll starting soon!




7 comments:

Clement Glen said...

I am pleased to see 'our' Joan as number one and special thanks to Mike for supplying the lovely picture of her.

Thanks for all your votes, there were 216 of them!

Looking forward to see your favourite Friar Tuck !!

Mike Giddens said...

A truly lovely girl our Joan, all us boys , who were at school at the time The Story of Robin Hood was made, we loved Joan, Seeing her up on the big screen we drooled over her,Later when the beautiful Judy Trott came along, well, i would have married her without a second thought.

Neil said...

5 nsglogI agree with Mike's comments about Joan Rice - she was perfect in the role. However to me , second choice would definitely be Gay Hamilton who I thought was lovely.
Wonder where she is now.

Neil said...

What about the very beautiful Bernadette O'Farrell who as we all remember was in the TV Robin Hood with Richard Greene. She would be high on my list. Looking her up on the Film Data Base it seems she was married from 1950 to Frank Launder the Film Producer / Director and they had 2 daughters and later lived in Monaco. She really belongs in Sherwood Forest though or maybe a studio set of Sherwood Forest.

WoodsyLadyM said...

"The hilarious spoof Robin Hood Men In Tights (1993) starred Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as the chastity belt wearing Maid Marian - she gained 7 votes."

I hate to nitpick, but Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was not in RH Men in Tights, she was in RH Prince of Thieves. Amy Yasbeck played Marian in Men in Tights.

Clement Glen said...

Thanks WoodsyLadyM.....that was a big blooper! Its now sorted.

Anonymous said...

Bernadette O'Farrell was superb as the Lady Marian Fitzwalter in the Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene. Bernadette was great favourite of many in the 50s, 60s and early 70s. Had the series been filmed in colour or if it was more recent, I think Bernadette O'Farrell and Patricia Driscoll would probably have finished higher in the list.