Elizabeth Montgomery
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| Elizabeth Montgomery | |
 Elizabeth Montgomery with Dick York in Bewitched |
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| Birth name | Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery |
| Born | April 15, 1933 Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Died | May 18, 1995, age 62 Beverly Hills, California, USA |
| Notable roles | Samantha Stephens in Bewitched |
Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (April 15, 1933 – May 18, 1995) was an American film and television actress.
Montgomery had a career that spanned several decades in film and television, and is best remembered for her iconic role as witch Samantha Stephens in the long-running sitcom Bewitched.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Los Angeles, California, Elizabeth Montgomery was born to actor Robert Montgomery and his wife, Broadway actress Elizabeth Bryan Allen. She had an older sister, Martha Bryan Montgomery, who died before she was born, and a brother, Robert Montgomery Jr., who was born in 1936. She attended The Spence School.
[edit] Career
[edit] Early career
Montgomery made her television debut in her father's series Robert Montgomery Presents, and her film debut in 1955 in The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell.
Her early career consisted of starring vehicles and appearances in live television dramas and series, such as Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, The Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1954 she lost out on co-starring with Marlon Brando in the seminal film On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan . Kazan in his autobiography says that although Montgomery tested well in the role, she had an air of "finishing school" that troubled him.
She was also featured in a role as a masochistic socialite with Henry Silva and Sammy Davis, Jr in the offbeat 1963 gangster film Johnny Cool and, the same year, with Dean Martin and Carol Burnett in the motion picture comedy Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?, directed by Daniel Mann. The latter film's poor reviews and scant box-office slowed down her film offers. Nevertheless, Alfred Hitchcock had her in mind to play the sister-in-law of Sean Connery, who sees herself as a rival to the troubled heroine in the movie Marnie, but Montgomery was unavailable due to her commitment to a new television show: Bewitched
[edit] "Bewitched"
Montgomery played the central role of Samantha Stephens, in the ABC situation comedy Bewitched. The show became a rating success (it was, at the time, the highest rated series ever for the network). It enjoyed an eight-year run from 1964 to 1972 and remains popular through syndication and DVD releases.
Montgomery received five Emmy Award and four Golden Globe nominations for her role. At its creative peak, Bewitched was considered one of the most sophisticated sitcoms on the air and cleverly explored contemporary themes and social issues within a fantasy context.
The series was paid homage in a 2005 movie that starred Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman.(For more details on the film, see Bewitched (film).
[edit] Later career
Although Montgomery enjoyed enormous success with the show, she felt typecast and pigeonholed when she sought other roles after the show's run ended. Montgomery refused to do Samantha's famous nose twitch for fans after Bewitched went off the air, and was reluctant to discuss the show.
She spent much of her career pursuing dramatic roles that took her as far away from the good-natured Samantha as possible. Among her later roles:
- She received Emmy Award nominations for playing a rape victim in A Case of Rape (1974), for her portrayal of the notorious Lizzie Borden in William Bast's The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), and for her role as a strong woman facing hardship in 1820s Ohio in the mini-series The Awakening Land (1978).
- In 1977, Montgomery turned heads when she played a police detective having an interracial affair with her partner in "A Killing Affair".
- She also made a chilling villain in the 1985 picture Amos, playing a nurse in a state home who terrorized residents Kirk Douglas and Dorothy McGuire.
- One of her final roles was in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series entitled "Showdown," in which she played a barmaid.
- She also had a long run as a guest performer on the game show Password, and host Allen Ludden referred to her as the best Password player ever on the show.
- Her final television movies were the highly-rated Edna Buchanan detective series.
Montgomery was one of the first actresses to broaden her career from series work with television movies, and set the precedent for other TV series actresses, such as Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, Melissa Gilbert, Carol Burnett, and Barbara Eden, to follow.
She had been discussed to star in the 1975 thriller based on the novel by Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives and, in 1994, Premiere magazine listed her as one of the stars considered to play glamorous, overbearing "Pearl Slaghoople" (Wilma's Mother) in the live-action film of The Flintstones.
[edit] Personal life
Montgomery was first married to New York socialite Frederic Cammann in 1954; the marriage lasted barely a year. She was married to actor Gig Young from 1956 to 1963, and then to Bewitched producer William Asher from 1963 to 1973, with whom she had three children.
She was married to actor Robert Foxworth (with whom she had been living for over 20 years) from 1993 until her death.
In the late 1980s, Montgomery gave the first interviews regarding her prior work on Bewitched to author Herbie J. Pilato for his book The Bewitched Book (1992) later revised as Bewitched Forever (1995).
In June 1992, Montgomery and her former Bewitched co-star Dick Sargent, who had remained a good friend, were Grand Marshals at the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade. Montgomery was an outspoken champion of women's rights and gay rights throughout her life. She narrated a series of political documentaries in the late 1980's and early 1990's, including Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair (1988) [1] and the Academy Award winning The Panama Deception (1992).
[edit] Illness and death
Montgomery was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the spring of 1995. She had ignored the symptoms of her illness until it was too late during the filming of "Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan." Unwilling to die in a hospital, and with no hope of recovery, she elected to return to her Beverly Hills home that she shared with Foxworth. She died there, in the company of her children and Foxworth.
Elizabeth Montgomery died on May 18, 1995, at age 62. She died just eight weeks after her cancer diagnosis. Her last words were "I cry out! A silver sparrow has flown in the dark night!".
A memorial service was held on June 18, 1995 at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. Herbie Hancock provided the music, and Dominick Dunne spoke about their early days as friends in New York. Other speakers included Robert Foxworth, who read out sympathy cards from fans, her nurse, her brother, daughter and stepson.
[edit] Posthumous
- On April 19, 1998, an event auction/sale of her clothing was held by her family to benefit AIDS Healthcare Foundation of Los Angeles.
- In June 2005, a statue of Montgomery as Samantha Stephens was erected in Salem, Massachusetts. [2]
- Montgomery is expected to finally receive her star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a ceremony to be held before 2009.
[edit] Selected filmography
- Robert Montgomery Presents in 22 episodes from 1951-1956.
- The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955)
- Studio One appearances from 1955 - 1958
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Karen from "A Man with a Problem" (1958)
- The Untouchables as Rusty Heller (for which she received an Emmy Award nomination) (1960)
- "Two" (an episode of The Twilight Zone) (1961), alongside Charles Bronson.
- Johnny Cool (1963)
- Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963)
- How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)
- The Flintstones as animated Samantha Stephens (1966)
- The Victim (1972) (TV)
- Mrs. Sundance (1973) (TV) as Etta Place
- A Case of Rape (1974) (TV) (Emmy Award nomination)
- The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) (TV)(Emmy Award nomination) as Lizzie Borden
- Dark Victory (1976) (TV) as Katherine Merrill
- A Killing Affair (1977) (TV) as Vikki Eaton
- The Awakening Land (1978) (TV)(Emmy Award nomination)
- Act of Violence (1979) (TV) as Catherine McSweeney
- Jennifer: A Woman's Story (1979) as Jennifer Prince
- Belle Starr (1980) (TV) as Belle Starr
- When the Circus Came to Town (1981) (TV) as Mary Flynn
- The Rules of Marriage (1982) as Joan Hagen
- Missing Pieces (1983) as Sara Scott
- Second Sight: A Love Story (1984) as Alaxandra McKay
- Amos (1985) as Daisy Daws
- Between the Darkness and the Dawn (1986) (TV) as Abigail Foster
- Face to Face (1990) as Dr. Diana Firestone
- Sins of the Mother (1991) as Ruth Coe
- With Murder in Mind (1992) as Gayle Wolfer
- The Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story (1993) (TV) as Blanche Taylor Moore
- The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (1994) (TV) as Edna Buchanan
- Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan (1995) (TV) as Edna Buchanan
[edit] Narration
- The Panama Deception (1992)
- Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair (1988) (voice)
- Beauty's Punishment (1994) (narrator)
- Beauty's Release (1994) (narrator)
Two audio books in which Montgomery narrates the work of Anne Rice (writing as A.N. Roquelaure) are available as of 2005.
