When you hear the name Elizabeth Montgomery, it’s impossible not to hear the slight twinkle that accompanied her character’s nose twitch in the series Bewitched.
This stunning actress became famous in the 1960s, but sadly passed away suddenly in 1995.
At Newsner, we have written about many beautiful and talented women, but Elizabeth Montgomery immediately stole my young heart.
Most film and television actors and actresses need make-up and hairdressers to look good, but Elizabeth did not. She was a natural beauty, and I enjoyed watching her in Bewitched.
So what happened to Elizabeth Montgomery after her role as Samantha Stevens in the popular 1960s sitcom?
In 2024, the talented actress would have turned 91, but let’s look back at her film and television career before her untimely death in 1995.
Elizabeth Montgomery was born in Los Angeles on 15 April 1933 to a Broadway actress and film star, so acting was in her blood from birth.
My dad used to say that I would often climb onto his lap after dinner and say, ‘I’m going to be an actress when I grow up. I don’t know if he was encouraging me or not, but he told me he was joking and asked me to wait and see what would happen when I grew up,” Elizabeth said in a 1954 interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Her father, Robert Montgomery, was a very popular and renowned actor.
‘I’ll be honest and say that my dad helped me get into television, and I am very grateful to him for his help and guidance. He is my harshest critic, but also a true friend and a loving father.’
Elizabeth attended school in California and then moved to New York, where she studied at Spence School. After graduating, she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for three years.
While still a teenager, she made her television debut on her father’s show, Robert Montgomery Presents. She went on to appear on his show numerous times.
By 1953, Elizabeth had made her Broadway debut, playing the lead role in Late Love. Two years later, in 1955, she starred in her first film, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, and returned to Broadway two years later.
As her career progressed, Elizabeth found love, but it never lasted long.
In 1954, she married Frederick Gallatin Kamen, but the couple divorced a year later. In 1956, she married Gig Young, an award-winning actor, and they remained married until their divorce in 1963.
While filming Johnny Cool, Elizabeth met William Asher, a director and television producer. He not only proved helpful to her career, but also attracted her attention romantically.
In 1954, she married Frederick Gallatin Kaman, but the couple divorced a year later. In 1956, she married Gig Young, an award-winning actor, and they remained married until their divorce in 1963.
While filming Johnny Cool, Elizabeth met William Asher, a director and television producer. He not only proved helpful to her career, but also caught her attention romantically.
They married in 1963 and had three children.
The lead role in the series Bewitched
Elizabeth Montgomery starred in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Loretta Young Show, The Untouchables, and The Twilight Zone, but perhaps her most famous role was as the witch Samantha Stevens, who wiggled her nose in Bewitched.
The supernatural comedy, which aired for eight seasons from 1964 to 1972, made Elizabeth the centre of attention.
Suddenly, she was known to everyone, and everyone tried to imitate Samantha’s famous nose twitch.
‘I never thought about series because I liked the idea of choosing a script I liked with a character that I thought I could sustain for an hour. In a series, you live with one character day after day — and just hope he doesn’t drive you crazy,’ Elizabeth told the AP in 1965.
During her time on the series, she received five Emmy nominations and four Golden Globe nominations.
After The Haunting ended and her marriage to Asher, Elizabeth began appearing in numerous television films, many of which were starkly different from her previous role in The Haunting.
She starred in Mrs. Sundance (1973), The Rape Case (1974), The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), Black Widow Murders (1993), The Corpse Has a Familiar Face (1994) and Murder Term: From the Files of Edna Buchanan (1995).
It was during the filming of Mrs. Sundance that she met Robert Foxworth. They remained together until Elizabeth’s death in 1995, although they did not marry until 1993.
‘Before Jane Seymour, before Lindsay Wagner, and before Valerie Bertinelli, Elizabeth was the first queen of television movies; she went from being the queen of witches to the queen of television movies, and it was no longer difficult to break away from Bewitched,’ said Herbie J. Pilato, author of two books about Elizabeth Montgomery.
Sadly, her career came to an end on 18 May 1995 after a long battle with colon cancer.
According to the Los Angeles Times, her family reported that she was 57 at the time of her death, although many sources list her year of birth as 1933, meaning she was 62 at the time of her death.
The actress battled the disease for many years and considered herself cancer-free, but during the filming of Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan, she fell ill.
By the time she was able to undergo testing in March 1995, it was too late. The cancer had spread to her liver.
American actress Elizabeth Montgomery (1933–1995), circa 1965.
Elizabeth died in her sleep at her home in Beverly Hills, surrounded by her husband and three children. A month after her death, a memorial service was held at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. Renowned jazz musician Herbie Hancock performed, and writer Dominique Dunn, Elizabeth’s lifelong friend, spoke about the early years of their friendship when they lived in New York.
The star of the series Bewitched was cremated at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
In a 1992 interview, Elizabeth said that throughout her career she had played a wide variety of characters:
‘They all “feel” different, and that’s probably one of the reasons why I played them. I get letters from people who say that what they like most is what I did after Bewitched — they never know what I’m going to do next.’
Looking at the photos taken during the filming of Bewitched, we are instantly transported to a simpler and more innocent era.
Elizabeth’s playful charm and iconic nose twitch remind us of a time when magic was just a snap away. With every smile, Elizabeth brought warmth and joy to countless families, and her legacy continues to shine brightly today, reminding us of the golden age of television.
‘Elizabeth was the least arrogant star I ever met,’ said Herbie J. Pilato, author of Twitch Upon a Star and executive producer of the documentary Elizabeth Montgomery: A Bewitched Life, in an interview with Closer in April 2023. ‘She embodied that down-to-earthness in Samantha, and we all loved her for it.’
Such a naturally gorgeous woman! It’s a shame she left us too soon.
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