Elizabeth Montgomery

Birthday: 15 April 1933, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Birth Name: Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery

Height: 169 cm

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), The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story (1993). 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. Show less «

[on her father's reaction to her wanting to be an actress] He told me 'If that's what you want to do...Show more »

[on her father's reaction to her wanting to be an actress] He told me 'If that's what you want to do, you're gonna really want to have to do it because there's no room out there for some gutless wonder wandering around, you know, there are too many talented people'. And he said it's one of the most horrifyingly, ego-blasting, destructive, awful, businesses that you can possibly get into, and he said 'I really wouldn't really wish it on anyone I care even a little bit about'. So knowing he cared more than a little bit about me, I thought 'Whoops, this is really tough a one'. However after that conversation, he did say to me that when it is rewarding and it is good, it is such a high you can't imagine it, and he's right. Show less «

[commenting on Tabitha (1976), the spin-off of Bewitched (1964)] First of all, I didn't see the show...Show more »

[commenting on Tabitha (1976), the spin-off of Bewitched (1964)] First of all, I didn't see the show, but I heard that she [Lisa Hartman] didn't twitch as well as I did. I kept getting mail from people were who outraged, saying, Where is Erin Murphy? What in the world (is going on)?! This woman is 25...this doesn't make any sense.' I was getting mail from people like it was my fault, although also saying, 'Thank God you didn't have anything to do with this.' They felt betrayed. I thought, 'How can you be betrayed by a TV show?' But they were irate. I got almost as much mail about that as I get about anything else. It was very funny...ranged from kids who hated it to grownups who said, 'This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.' Show less «

[when asked if it's hard to juggle working and raising kids] Yes it is, and as a result, I will neve...Show more »

[when asked if it's hard to juggle working and raising kids] Yes it is, and as a result, I will never win any Mother of the Year awards, I hope I'm getting better. Everybody I think, parents and kids have to grow up together. Nobody can really ready you for motherhood whether you work or whether you don't. Parenting is probably the toughest job anybody's ever had, and I'm haven't been really good at it, but like I say, I think I've gotten better. Show less «

The minute someone says, "Oh God, you could never do that; you can't get that kind of stuff on the a...Show more »

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. Show less «

Like most people, I secretly hope that it's true - that there are witches like Samantha, and that fa...Show more »

Like most people, I secretly hope that it's true - that there are witches like Samantha, and that families like hers really do exist. Show less «

I was never bored on the set, not one minute for 8 years was I bored. Does that sound so disgustingl...Show more »

I was never bored on the set, not one minute for 8 years was I bored. Does that sound so disgustingly Pollyanna you can hardly stand it? Because it's not. It was like going to college for 8 years and taking an in depth course in what you really wanted to do. So it was very, very exciting for me, I mean I learned a lot of stuff, a lot. Show less «

Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Montgomery's FILMOGRAPHY

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