Elizabeth Montgomery was born April 15, 1933 in Los Angeles, the daughter of screen actor Robert Montgomery and former stage actress Elizabeth Allen. She and her younger brother Skip were raised in Hollywood, but mostly kept from the glare of the spotlight.
After her parents divorced in 1950, Elizabeth lived in New York where her father had begun his successful television series "Robert Montgomery Presents", and it was here that she made her TV debut playing opposite her father in an episode entitled 'Top Secret'.
Elizabeth quickly became a prolific and hard-working television actress, making appearances on dozens of shows and participating in the summer stock company of her father's show in the years 1953, 1954 and 1956. She also earned an Emmy nomination in 1960 for her performance as a prostitute in an episode of "The Untouchables".
She made her big screen debut in 1955 in "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell" and although she would make two more feature films, it would be television that would make her a star.
In December 1963, Elizabeth starred in the pilot episode of Bewitched as the beautiful, good-hearted witch 'Samantha'. The first episode aired in 1964 and the show was an immediate success. By the end of the season, Bewitched was ABC's biggest hit ever and made "industry laughing stock ABC" the #1 television network in the top 50 urban markets nationwide. Bewitched was still ABC's top show at the end of the decade. Unfortunately, ABC's success demanded the show create nearly 40 episodes a year, placing a tremendous work load on the cast, writers, and crew. Near the show's end, Bewitched had to rewrite previous episodes just to keep up. By the final season, the show was burned out. ABC moved the show to Saturday night opposite All in the Family as a stop-gag measure to prevent further ratings erosion of that time slot. Bewitched held steady and the network requested 3 more years, but Elizabeth decided it was time to move on to other projects.
Miss Montgomery continued to work in television, becoming the first and foremost "TV Movie Queen" . She created a string of classic TV films, including Mrs. Sundance, A Case of Rape, The Legend of Lizzie Borden., and The Awakening Land. Elizabeth worked steady in television, always garnering high ratings. Her final film Deadline for Murder was one of the highest rated movies of 1995.
She married four times, her first husband was Frederic Gallatin Cammann, a stage manager on her father's show, their marriage lasted a brief year. Next she wed actor Gig Young, they were divorced in 1963. Also the same year she wed I Love Lucy director & TV producer William Asher, who would be one of the driving forces behind "Bewitched". Together they had three children; William, Robert and Rebecca (all 3 born during the original run of Bewitched.) They were divorced in 1973 after "Bewitched" had ended. Her fourth and final husband was actor Robert Foxworth whom she married in 1993. They had been a couple since the early 1970's.
Elizabeth received the "Lucy Award" in 1995 for Innovation in Television.
In 1995, after a short bout with cancer, Elizabeth passed away in the home she shared with her family.
Elizabeth graduated from the Spence School in New York City and attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
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Elizabeth died on the same day as her
Johnny Cool co-star Elisha Cook Jr.
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A 9 foot bronze statue of Elizabeth as Samantha Stephens riding sidesaddle on her broomstick now resides in a downtown park in Salem, Massachusetts.
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Elizabeth was close friends with Dick Sargent who replaced Dick York as Darrin on
Bewitched. When he died 1994 after battling cancer for four and a half years, Elizabeth released a statement saying: "I will miss his love, his sense of humor and his remarkable courage."
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Apparently, Elizabeth always claimed to be five years younger than she was.
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Elizabeth was nominated for an Emmy nine times, but never won.
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On her death bed Elizabeth asked that any donations in her memory should be made to the William Holden Wildlife Association in Kenya, or the LA Zoo.
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Elizabeth's clothes were auctioned at an event held by her family on April 19, 1998 to benefit Aids Healthcare Foundation of Los Angeles.
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Elizabeth's memorial service was held on June 18, 1995, at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. Herbie Hancock provided the music. Her fourth husband, Robert Foxworth, read out sympathy cards from fans. Her daughter Rebecca Asher, stepson Bo Foxworth, her brother, her nurse and Dominick Dunne also spoke at the service.
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Elizabeth ignored the symptoms of colorectal cancer while filming
Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan and by the time she was diagnosed with cancer in spring 1995 it was too late for treatment. Elizabeth chose to return to her home in Beverley Hills instead of remaining in the hospital. She passed away in her home in the company of her children and fourth husband at the age of 62, only eight weeks after she was diagnosed.
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Elizabeth's famous nose twitch was actually a nervous habit. Director William Asher noticed that when Elizabeth was nervous she would twitch her upper lip and decided to use it as a trademark for Samantha's character.
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Elizabeth had strong liberal political views and was an outspoken champion of women's rights and gay rights throughout her entire life.
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Elizabeth narrated a series of political documentaries in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including
Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair (1988) and the Academy Award winning
The Panama Deception (1992).
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Elizabeth and her former
Bewitched co-star Dick Sargent were Grand Marshals at the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade in June 1992.
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Elizabeth's pregnancies with Robert Asher (October 5, 1965) and Rebecca Asher (June 17, 1969) where incorporated into
Bewitched as Samantha's pregnancies with Tabitha and Adam Stephens.
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Elizabeth's third husband was
Bewitched producer William Asher to whom she was married to from 1963 to 1973. Elizabeth and William had three children.
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Elizabeth's marriage (1954) to her first husband, New York socialite Frederick Gallatin Cammann, barely lasted a year.
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Elizabeth's second husband, Gig Young, to whom she was married to from 28 December 1956 - 1963, ended up killing his wife, German actress Kim Schmidt, and committing suicide in 1978 after being married for three weeks. Gig was 64 years old and Kim was 21 years old To this day the reason for the murder-suicide remains unclear.
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Elizabeth's daughter, Supervisor Script Rebecca Asher, was born on the same day (June 17) as fraternal twins Erin Murphy and Diane Murphy, the actresses who portrayed Elizabeth Montgomery's TV daughter Tabitha on
Bewitched.
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Samantha, portrayed by Elizabeth, and Darrin were the first American television couple to sleep in the same bed in
Bewitched. Up to then, all television couples slept in separate beds.
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Elizabeth received a posthumous star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on January 4, 2008.
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A 9 foot bronze statue of Elizabeth as Samantha Stephens riding sidesaddle on her broomstick can be seen in a downtown park in Salem, Massachusetts, home to the infamous witch trials of the 17th century.
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Elizabeth appeared on an episode of
The Flintstones (1960), providing the voice of a cartoon version of Samantha from
Bewitched.
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Elizabeth had an older sister, Martha Bryan Montgomery, (born October 13, 1930) who died of spinal meningitis at the age of 14 months, before Elizabeth was born.
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Once
Bewitched went off the air Elizabeth refused to do her famous nose twitch for fans as she was pursuing dramatic roles and was trying not to be typecast in roles such as Samantha from
Bewitched.
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Elizabeth and her husband, actor Robert Foxworth, lived together for over twenty years until her death.
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Elizabeth's height was 5'8 1/2 (1.74m).
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Elizabeth had three children with her husband William Asher - William Jr, Robert and Rebecca Elizabeth.
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Elizabeth was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.
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She died eight weeks after she learned she had colon cancer.
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Elizabeth Montgomery was the only cast member of Bewitched that was in all 254 episodes.
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Elizabeth was Cremated after her death
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