TV 'Bewitched' Icon Elizabeth Montgomery Would Have Turned 91 Years Old

She was born in the sparkle of a star and could wriggle her nose like no other actress in the universe. Her name was Elizabeth Montgomery, best known as TV's witch-with-a-twitch Samantha Stephens on Bewitched (ABC, 1964-1972). Had she not died so young at 62 in 1995, Montgomery would have been 91 years old today.

A Closer Look

Elizabeth Montgomery was the daughter of actor Robert Montgomery and stage actress Elizabeth Allen. She made her television debut on her father's heralded anthology series in 1951. She made hundreds of other TV guest appearances on shows like The Twilight Zone, Kraft Theatre, and Alcoa Presents. She received her first of several Emmy nominations (including several for Montgomery) for portraying a prostitute in The Untouchables.

The daughter Montgomery also appeared on Broadway in productions like The Loud Red Patrick and Late Love." She received the Theatre World Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" in the 1953-54 season.

On the big screen before Bewitched, the actress appeared in movies like The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Guess Who's Sleeping in My Bed?, and Johnny Cool. While filming the latter, she met and later married director William Asher.

Asher would produce and direct Bewitched, and become the father of her three children.

Montgomery had married twice before, to New York high-roller Fred Camman and troubled actor Gig Young. After Bewitched, Montgomery divorced Asher and began a decades-long relationship with actor Robert Foxworth.

Mongomery and Foxworth met on the set of the 1974 TV-movie, ground-breaking TV movie, one of her several acclaimed small-screen films.

That same year, Montgomery would star in the ground-breaking TV movie, A Case of Rape. In 1975, she would take the lead in The Legend of Lizzie Borden. Emmy-nominated for both films, Montgomery would soon become the first "Queen of the TV-movies."

Montgomery's other small-screen gems include the ironically-titled interracial melodrama A Killing Affair, in which she starred opposite O.J. Simpson. She also starred in NBC's mini-series The Awakening Land, the CBS film, Amos, with Kirk Douglas, and other films with Foxworth, including Face to Face (also CBS).

In 1995, the year Montgomery passed away, she starred in Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan, yet another CBS production, this time about the real-life adventures of the colorful Miami police news journalist. This was the second of two films about Buchanan and had Montgomery lived, she was planning more.

In direct opposition to her father's conservative Republican stance, Montgomery worked for several liberal causes. In 1993, she narrated The Panama Deception, a documentary that criticized the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama. In the year of its release, the movie won the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary.

Montgomery was one of the first celebrities to advocate for those suffering from AIDS, protested the Vietnam War (for which she received death threats), and supported the Peace Movement and Amnesty International.

Her Bewitched co-star, Dick Sargent (the second Darrin, following Dick York), publicly addressed his homosexuality in 1991 and to show her support Montgomery joined him as a grand marshal of the 1992 Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade in West Hollywood.

In the book, Twitch Upon a Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery, the beloved actress summarized her career and the diverse amount of characters she played, in this way.

“They all have different kinds of ‘feels’ to them and that’s probably one of the reasons why I’ve done them. I get letters from people saying one of the things they like best about what I’ve done since Bewitched is that they never know what I’m going to do next.”

[Note: This article is based on information from the book, Twitch Upon a Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery, which is available in hardcover, paperback, and now, too, as an audiobook.]