Elizabeth Montgomery

Biography for Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Montgomery was born into show business. Her parents were screen actor Robert Montgomery and Broadway actress Elizabeth Allen. Elizabeth graduated from the Spence School in New York City and attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. After three years intensive training, she made her TV debut in her father's 1950s playhouse series "Robert Montgomery Presents" (1950) and appeared in more than 200 live programs over the next decade. She once remarked "I guess you could say I'm a TV baby". Notable early film roles included The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) and Johnny Cool (1963). She is best remembered, however, for her leading role as the witch Samantha in the top-rated ABC sitcom "Bewitched" (1964). Her family - mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead), look-alike cousin (Montgomery) and advertising executive husband Darrin (first Dick York then Dick Sargent) - tried to suppress her supernatural skills but often turned to her tricks to solve problems. The signal of impending witchcraft was a twitch of Samantha's nose. After her first and only TV series ended she turned to made-for-TV movies, many of which won critical praise: A Case of Rape (1974) (TV), The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) (TV), Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story (1993) (TV). She narrated the movie The Panama Deception (1992) which won an Academy Award in 1993. Reference works showed her as 62 when she died though the family said she was 57. The family did not disclose the type of cancer which caused her death.

Elizabeth Montgomery stirred her nose as a person by interpreting the role of Samantha Stephens during the eight seasons of the series. Born April 15, 1933, she was married to the producer-director of the series, William Asher, who gave him three children. Our beloved witch died on May 18, 1995.

Elizabeth Montgomery was an American actress known for her role in the television series "Bewitched" in the 1960s. She was born on April 15, 1933 in Los Angeles, California, and is the daughter of actor Robert Montgomery and the Actress Elizabeth Bryan Allen. Montgomery grew up in New York and studied at Bennett College before starting her acting career in Broadway in 1954.

She began to appear in television productions in the 1950s, notably in series like "Robert Montgomery Presents" and "The Philco Television Playhouse". In 1964, she obtained the main role in "Bewitched", in which she played the character of Samantha Stephens, a witch married to a human. The series was very successful and was broadcast for eight seasons until 1972.

Montgomery won two Golden Globe Awards for her role in "Bewitched", and was appointed for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1968. She also played in other television and cinematographic productions, including "A Case of Rape" in 1974 , for which she won an Emmy. She also played in "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" in 1975 and "The Awakening Land" in 1978.

Apart from her acting career, Montgomery was also an activist for animal rights and for the fight against cancer. She died on May 18, 1995 in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 62.

Photos

Filmography

Trivia

• She and Robert Foxworth, the actor, lived together for over twenty years until her death.
• She died 8 weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer and was cremated.
• Member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.
• Ms. Montgomery refused to do her famous nose twitch for enduring fans after her "Bewitched" show went off the air. She spent the remainder of her career pursuing dramatic roles that took her as far away from the Samantha typecast as possible.
• Montgomery never actually twitched her nose as her "Bewitched" (1964) character Samantha. Instead, she twitched her upper lip, which caused her nose to follow and thus gave the impression she was twitching her nose.
• She lost out on the part of Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront (1954) to Eva Marie Saint. Director Elia Kazan, in his autobiography "A Life," says that the choice of an actress to play the part was narrowed down to Montgomery and Saint. Although Montgomery was fine in her screen test, there was an air of finishing school about her. Kazan thought this genteel quality would not be becoming for Edie, who was raised on the waterfront in Hoboken, NJ. He gave the part to Saint who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, in the part.
• Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 422-423. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Died on the same day as her Johnny Cool (1963) co-star Elisha Cook Jr..
• Ranked #52 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women"(1995).
• Appeared on an episode of "The Flintstones" (1960), providing the voice of a cartoon version of her famous "Bewitched" (1964) character, Samantha Stevens.

Quotes

"The minute someone says 'Oh God, you could never do that; you can't get that kind of stuff on the air'...that's the kind of stuff I want to do."

Family

• Spouse : Robert Foxworth (28 January 1993 - 18 May 1995) (her death), William Asher (26 October 1963 - 1973) (divorced) 3 children, Gig Young (28 December 1956 - 1963) (divorced), Fred Gallatin Cammann (27 March 1954 - 1955) (divorced)
• Children, with Asher, William Jr (b. 1964), Robert, Rebecca Elizabeth (b. 17 June 1969)
• Daughter of 'Elizabeth Allen' and Robert Montgomery.
• She had an older sister, Martha Bryan Montgomery.
• Mother of Rebecca Asher.

Author of the card

• Creation date: 01/07/2003 by fredgim