My tribute to beloved television icon Elizabeth Montgomery who was born 91 years ago today
One of my all-time favorite stars was Elizabeth Montgomery who was born 91 years ago today.
Such a beauty and great talent.
Of course I grew up watching Bewitched which ran for eight seasons on ABC and loved her as Samantha (and sometimes as Serena) and her interactions with mother Endora, nosy neighbor Mrs. Kravitz, daffy Aunt Clara, nervous Esmeralda, naughty Uncle Arthur, Doctor Bombay and Darrins one and two.
(I purposely didn’t mention that soulless weasel Larry Tate because I could not stand him!)
After the show ended, Miss Montgomery never attempted another TV series. Instead, she became a TV movie queen of high quality and over two decades starred in 22 of them – a wide range of roles. They included The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Dark Victory, Mrs. Sundance, A Case of Rape, Belle Starr, Amos, Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story and her final two movies in which she played journalist Edna Buchanan in The Corpse Had a Familiar Face and Deadline For Murder.
She earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in the 1978 miniseries The Awakening Land (as well as for Lizzie Borden and Case of Rape) and six more Emmy nods for Bewitched but sadly never won.
What made me love her even more was her very public support of her former co-star Dick Sargent after he came out publicly as a gay man in the early 1990s.
She even rode with him in the West Hollywood Gay Pride Parade and when asked why, she answered: “For the love of Dick.”
Sadly, she was just 62 when she died in 1995 from cancer. She and her partner of 20 years Robert Foxworth finally married two years before her death. She had three children with third husband William Asher who produced Bewitched and she also had a five-year marriage to Oscar winner Gig Young.
She most certainly has never been forgotten and I would love to see her TV movies available for rental or purchase.
Comments
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jay says:
Wow. One of my all time favorites. Bewitched still cracks me up.