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Mini Biography

Elizabeth Montgomery was born into show business. Her parents were screen actor Robert Montgomery and Broadway actress Elizabeth Bryan 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.

Spouse

Trade Mark

Nose twitch

Trivia

She and Robert Foxworth, the actor, lived together for over twenty years until her death.

Children, with Asher, William Jr (b. 1964), Robert, Rebecca Elizabeth (b. 17 June 1969)

She died 8 weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer and was cremated.

Daughter of Elizabeth Allen and Robert Montgomery.

Ms. Montgomery refused to do her famous nose twitch for enduring fans after her "Bewitched" (1964) 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.

She had an older sister, Martha Bryan Montgomery.

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.

Mother of Rebecca Asher.

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.

Her famous nose twitch was actually a nervous habit. When they were trying to figure out a trademark for the character Samantha the director William Asher noticed that when she got nervous she would twitch her upper lip, so they used that.

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.

A 9 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.

Mother's married name was Elizabeth Montgomery.

Best remembered by the public for her starring role as Samantha in Bewitched (1964).

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

Personal 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."

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