Elizabeth Montgomery

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Overview (5)

Born	April 15, 1933 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
Died	May 18, 1995 in Los Angeles, California, USA (colorectal cancer)
Birth Name	Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery
Nicknames	Liz Lizzie
Height	5' 7¾" (1.72 m)

Mini Bio (1)

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). However, she is best remembered 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.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan < stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Family (3)

Spouse	Robert Foxworth (28 January 1993 - 18 May 1995) (her death) William Asher (26 October 1963 - 10 October 1974) (divorced) (3 children) Gig Young (28 December 1956 - January 1963) (divorced) Frederic Gallatin Cammann (27 March 1954 - 9 August 1955) (divorced)
Children	William Asher Jr. Robert Asher Rebecca Asher
Parents	Elizabeth Allen Robert Montgomery

Trade Mark (2)

Nose twitch

Distinctive soft, mellow voice

Trivia (33)

She and Robert Foxworth moved in together in 1973, but waited almost twenty years before finally getting married.

Children with William Asher: William Asher Jr. (b. July 24, 1964), Robert Asher (b. October 5, 1965) and Rebecca Asher (Rebecca Elizabeth Asher) (b. 17 June 1969).

Montgomery died on May 18, 1995, eight weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer, the same date her Johnny Cool (1963) co-star Elisha Cook Jr.. She was cremated.

Daughter of Elizabeth Allen and Robert Montgomery. Younger sister of Martha Bryan Montgomery (born October 13, 1930 and died of spinal meningitis at the age of 14 months) and elder sister of Robert Montgomery Jr. (1936-2000).

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. Despite qualms about 30-year-old Saint playing a teen, she was cast in the part and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 422-423. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Ranked #52 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women"(1995).

Montgomery spent weekends and summers at the family farm in upstate Patterson, New York. Often referenced in episodes of Bewitched (1964) as "Patterson Garage" or "Cushman Cosmetics", Cushman Road is the rural, dirt road on which the several-hundred-acre Montgomery estate is located.

Appeared on The Flintstones (1960) episode, The Flintstones: Samantha (1965), providing the voice of a cartoon version of her famous Bewitched (1964) character, Samantha Stevens.

A nine-foot bronze statue of Elizabeth as Samantha Stephens riding sidesaddle on her broomstick now resides in a downtown park in Salem, Massachusetts, home to the infamous witch trials of the 17th century.

Best remembered by the public for her starring role as Samantha in Bewitched (1964). When they were trying to figure out a trademark for the character Samantha, the director William Asher noticed that when she got nervous, she twitched her upper lip, which caused her nose to follow and thus gave the impression she was twitching her nose. Thus, they used that.

Received a posthumous star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on January 4, 2008.

She fell in love with director Richard Michaels during filming of the eighth season of Bewitched (1964), and moved in with him when the season was complete. This broke up both their marriages and ended the possibility of a ninth season. The relationship lasted two-and-a-half years.

Was a grand marshal with former TV husband Dick Sargent at the 1992 Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade. Elizabeth was a supporter of gay rights and also women's rights throughout her life.

Turned down the role of "Krystle Carrington" on Dynasty (1981).

Elizabeth Montgomery and Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th-century Massachusetts resident John Luther. Rhonda McClure, the genealogist who documented the Montgomery-Borden connection, said, "I wonder how Elizabeth would have felt if she knew she was playing her own cousin.".

Stepmother of Bo Foxworth.

In a parody of her "Samantha Stephens" role, she made a cameo appearance as a witch at the end of the beach party film, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), directed by her then-husband, William Asher.

Gave birth to her first child at age 31, a son, William Asher Jr., on July 24, 1964 and to her second child at age 32, a son, Robert Asher, on October 5, 1965. Then, on June 17, 1969 at age 36 gave birth to her third child, a daughter, Rebecca Asher. The children's father is her third husband, William Asher Sr.

She was two months pregnant with her first child, son William Asher Jr., when she filmed the pilot episode of Bewitched: I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha (1964). She returned to work two months after giving birth to resume filming the 1st season. The same situation was when she was eight months pregnant with her second child, son Robert Asher - she took maternity leave from filming the 2nd season and returned to work two months after giving birth. Then, when she was 7 months pregnant with her third child, daughter Rebecca Asher, she took maternity leave from filming the 6th season of Bewitched (1964). Returned to work one month after giving birth. On June 17, 1969, at age 36, she gave birth to her youngest child, a daughter, Rebecca Elizabeth Asher.

She was a staunch liberal Democrat and feminist who was an activist for LGBT rights, yet her father was a staunch Republican.

Was the only cast member to appear in all 254 episodes of Bewitched (1964).

Several obituaries listed her as single and age 57 when she was actually married to Robert Foxworth and age 62. Her death certificate listed her name as Elizabeth A. Montgomery though her middle name was Victoria.

Friends with primarily everybody on the Screen Gems lot: Shirley Jones, Dave Madden, Dick York, Dick Sargent, Sally Field, Don Porter, Agnes Moorehead, Maurice Evans, David White, William Asher, Kasey Rogers, Shirley Booth, Alice Pearce, Jonathan Harris, Marion Lorne, Harry Ackerman, Bernard Fox, Mabel Albertson, Alice Ghostley, Paul Lynde, Richard Michaels, Bernie Kopell and Sandra Gould.

When her Bewitched (1964) co-star, Dick York, had serious health problems, between the third and fifth seasons, she and co-star Erin Murphy became more concerned about York, who left the show, after the fifth season.

Acting mentor of co-star Erin Murphy, who is one month older than the eldest of Montgomery's real-life children, William Asher Jr.

[About 1960] Appeared on the cover of the LP "Invitation to Modern Jazz, Volume 1" from Prestige Records (Japan), catalog number SMJ-7235.

Both she and her boyfriend (later husband) Robert Foxworth co-starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in a TV movie.

Not related to Belinda Montgomery.

Alumna of the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Class of 1953.

Did not get along (during production) with Dick York on the set of Bewitched (1964). After York's termination, following his seizure on the set, she didn't keep him in touch, at all. York died in 1992.

Died five days after ex-lover Alexander Godunov.

Has always said she preferred Dick Sargent to Dick York. After York left the series due to back problems and ill health, Elizabeth never once contacted him to see how he was doing. Whereas she kept in touch with Sargent throughout her life, even hosted parades on the same float as him.

Personal Quotes (6)

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.

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

[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.'

[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.

[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.

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.