 Wickes's first Broadway appearance was in Marc Connelly's "The Farmer Takes a Wife" in 1934 with Henry Fonda.She began acting in films in the late 1930s and was a member of the Orson Welles troupe on his radio drama "The Mercury Theatre on the Air"; she also appeared in Welles's film "Too Much Johnson" (1938).One of her earlier significant film appearances was in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (1942), reprising her stage role of Nurse Preen.