1951–1963: Early work

Montgomery made her television debut in her father's series Robert Montgomery Presents and on later occasions, she appeared as a member of his "summer stock" company of performers. In October 1953, Montgomery made her Broadway debut, starring in Late Love,^[6] for which she won a Theater World Award for her performance.^[5] She then made her film debut in Otto Preminger's The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955). Montgomery returned to Broadway in 1956, appearing in The Loud Red Patrick.^[6]

Montgomery's early career consisted of starring roles and appearances in live television dramas and series, such as Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, Johnny Staccato, Burke's Law, The Twilight Zone, The Eleventh Hour, Wagon Train, Boris Karloff's Thriller, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.^[5] Montgomery was nominated at the 13th Primetime Emmy Awards for her portrayal of southern nightclub performer Rusty Heller in a 1960 episode of The Untouchables, playing opposite David White, who later portrayed Larry Tate on Bewitched.^[7] She played the part of Rose Cornelius in the Rawhide episode "Incident at El Crucero" (1963).^[8]

Montgomery was featured in a role as a socialite who falls for a gangster (Henry Silva) in Johnny Cool (1963), directed by William Asher, and the film comedy Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (also 1963), with Dean Martin and Carol Burnett, this time directed by Daniel Mann. After her appearance on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Alfred Hitchcock had her in mind to play the sister-in-law of Sean Connery, who sees herself as a rival to the troubled heroine in the film Marnie (1964), but Montgomery was unavailable.^[9]

1964–1972: Bewitched

Bewitched co-stars Dick York, Agnes Moorehead, and Montgomery

In the ABC situation comedy Bewitched, Montgomery played the central role of lovable witch Samantha Stephens, with Dick York (and later with Dick Sargent) as her husband. Starting in the second season of the series, she also played the role of Samantha's mischievous cousin, Serena, under the pseudonym Pandora Spocks (a pun on Pandora's Box).

Bewitched became a ratings success (it was, at the time, the highest-rated series ever for the network).^[10] The series aired for eight seasons, from 1964 to 1972, and Montgomery received five Emmy^[11] and four Golden Globe nominations for her role on Bewitched. Despite low ratings late in the series run, it was renewed for a ninth season to run from fall of 1972. However, Montgomery's marriage to Bewitched director William Asher was failing and the couple had separated by the end of the eighth season.

This situation caused severe friction in their professional relationship and it also ended any possibility of another season. As a consolation to ABC, Montgomery and Asher (under their company name Ashmont, which produced Bewitched) offered a half-hour sitcom, The Paul Lynde Show, to the network for the 1972–1973 season. Lynde's series only lasted one year.

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). The film was directed by Asher, her husband at the time. That same year she also provided the voice of Samantha for an episode of the animated series The Flintstones.

1973–1995: Later career

Montgomery returned to Samantha-like twitching of her nose and on-screen magic in a series of Japanese television commercials (1980–1983) for "Mother" chocolate biscuits and cookies which were produced by the confectionery conglomerate Lotte Corp. These Japanese commercials provided a substantial salary for Montgomery while she remained out of sight of non-Japanese fans and the Hollywood industry.

Montgomery (right) and Katherine Helmond as Lizzie and Emma Borden, February 1975

In the United States, Montgomery spent much of her later career pursuing dramatic roles that took her as far away from the good-natured Samantha as possible. Among her later roles were performances that brought her Emmy Award nominations: a rape victim in A Case of Rape (1974), and the accused (but acquitted) murderer Lizzie Borden in William Bast's The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975). After the actress died, Rhonda McClure, a genealogist, discovered that Montgomery and Borden were distant cousins.^[3]

Montgomery made many appearances on the game show Password. Allen Ludden, the show's longtime host, called her the "Queen of Password".^[12] Montgomery later played a pioneer woman facing hardship in 1820s Ohio in the miniseries The Awakening Land (1978), for which she earned her ninth Emmy nomination.

In A Killing Affair (1977), Montgomery played the role of a police detective who has an affair with her married partner, played by O. J. Simpson. In the television film Amos (1985), she played a rare villainous role, as a vicious nurse who abuses her wards in a home for senior citizens. The wards are played by Kirk Douglas and Dorothy McGuire, among others. In 1989, Montgomery returned to Broadway one last time in a production of Love Letters, opposite Robert Foxworth.^[6] She played one of her last roles in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series entitled "Showdown", in which she played a barmaid; this was also her final work to be screened, since the episode aired posthumously. Her last television series was the highly rated Edna Buchanan detective series – the second and final film of the series received its first airing on May 9, 1995,^[13] only nine days before Montgomery died.

Political activism

Montgomery was personally devoted to liberal political causes, and she lent her name, along with a large amount of her time, money, and energy, to a wide variety of charitable and political causes.^[20] She was a champion of women's rights, AIDS activism, and gay rights.^[21] She was also an ardent critic of the Vietnam War, and in later years, she was an active advocate for AIDS research and outreach to the disabled community.^[20] Professionally, she lent her voice as the narrator of two political documentaries which were critical of U.S. foreign policy, Cover Up: Behind the Iran Contra Affair (1988) and its Academy Award-winning sequel The Panama Deception (1992).^[22] In June 1992, Montgomery and Dick Sargent, her former Bewitched co-star as well as her good friend, were grand marshals at the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.^[11]

Charitable work

During the last year of her life, Montgomery volunteered at the Los Angeles Unit of Learning Ally, a nonprofit organization which records educational audio books for disabled people.^[23] In 1994, Montgomery produced radio and television public-service announcements for Learning Ally's Los Angeles unit. The following January, Montgomery recorded the 1952 edition of When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne.

On June 3, 1995, sixteen days after her death, Learning Ally's Los Angeles unit dedicated its 1995 Record-A-Thon to Montgomery. Twenty-one other celebrities lent their talents to a recorded version of Chicken Soup for the Soul, which was dedicated to her memory.^[24]

Film

Television

Stage credits

Narration work

• The Panama Deception (1992)
• Craven Street: Ben Franklin in London, a five-part radio drama (1993)
• Beauty's Punishment (1994)
• Beauty's Release (1994)

Bibliography

• Cotter, Bill (1997). The Wonderful Words of Disney Television: A Complete History. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-6359-5.
• Moral, Tony Lee (2013). Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-81085-684-4.
• Mansour, David (2005). From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7407-5118-2.
• Pilato, Herbie J. (2012). Twitch Upon a Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-589-79749-9.
• Pilato, Herbie J. (2013). The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery: A Guide to Her Magical Performances. Taylor Trade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58979-825-0.
• Withycombe, E. G. (1977). The Concise Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford University Press.