Mary Hignett

Mary Hignett (31 March 1916 – 6 July 1980) was a British actress.

In the television series All Creatures Great and Small, she played the role of the cook and housekeeper Edna Hall in the first three series, which ran from 1978 to 1980. Other credits include the Hammer film Prehistoric Women (1967), the horror movie The Corpse (1971), and the 1972 Hammer Horror film Demons of the Mind (in which fellow All Creatures actor Robert Hardy played the role of Zorn).

Hignett was born in Madras, India, to Horace Arthur Du Cane Hignett (c. 1874–1923) and Ellen Kate Allen, who died during Mary's birth. Her father was an Oxford University law graduate who was born in Ringway, Cheshire. He became a Captain in the British Army in 1917. He died in September 1923, a month into the second Rampa Rebellion, when his daughter was seven years old.

Hignett was married to the actor Michael Brennan (1912–1982). They had one child, daughter Patricia Mary O'Leary (1943–2013).

Hignett died in 1980, aged 64, shortly after the third series of All Creatures was filmed. Scheduled to have a hip replacement, she was convinced by her doctors to have a riskier double hip replacement rather than the single. This is believed to have led to her death. She is buried in Chichester Crematorium and Garden of Remembrance, Chichester, England. Her All Creatures co-stars Robert Hardy, Christopher Timothy and Carol Drinkwater attended the funeral. Her death was written into the script of the 1983 Christmas Special, and her honour was toasted by the four remaining central characters. Her husband was buried alongside her after his death two years later at the age of 69.

• Prehistoric Women (1967) - Mrs. Hammond
• The Corpse (1971) - Servant
• Demons of the Mind (1972) - Matronly Woman