Background

Agnes Moorehead was born on December 6, 1900, in Clinton, Massachusetts, to John Henderson Moorehead, a Presbyterian minister, and Mary Mildred McCauley. Moorehead grew up in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, where her father had a pastorate. She said she learned to act by mimicking members of her father's congregation.

Years later, she would spend hours at the docks in New York City, listening to immigrants and studying their voices and mannerisms. She made her first public performance - at the age of three - singing "The Lord Is My Shepherd" at a church program arranged by her father.

At age ten she was in summer stock. At twelve she was in a ballet chorus at the St. Louis Municipal Opera, and at sixteen, she sang on a new St. Louis radio station.

Education

Moorehead attended Ohio's Muskingum College, which was founded by her uncle, then completed a master's degree in English and public speaking at the University of Wisconsin.

Moorehead received an honorary doctoral degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

Career

Her first job was as a high school English teacher in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, where she also coached the town drama club.

Eventually she saved enough money to move to New York City, enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She became an honor student there while also teaching dramatics at the prestigious Dalton School.

She began to land roles in Broadway plays, but the Great Depression hit the theater business hard and Moorehead drifted into radio. She performed on radio with most of the big names of the 1930's, including Phil Baker, Fred Allen, Orson Welles, and Bob Hope, and on most of the major programs, including "The March of Time" and "Cavalcade of America. " Her radio roles ran the gamut, from that of a bedridden woman about to be murdered in the suspense drama "Sorry, Wrong Number, " to the heroine of a daytime serial, "Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne. "

In 1941, she made her movie debut with a small role in Welles's film classic, Citizen Kane. The following year she portrayed a neurotic spinster aunt in Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons. Further she appeared in Mrs. Parkington (1944), Johnny Belinda (1948), All that Heaven Allows (1955), and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964).

In 1951, Moorehead returned to the stage in a critically acclaimed reading of "Don Juan in Hell, " the famed but rarely produced third act of Bernard Shaw's play Man and Superman. After its first presentation in Stockton, California - with Moorehead as Donna Ana, Charles Laughton as the Devil, Charles Boyer as the Don, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the Commander - the production toured the United States and England, playing to capacity audiences. "The actress has the crisp, clean elegance of a lily, " a New York reviewer wrote of Moorehead, who played the role in a mauve satin gown with her red hair piled high on her head. "She falls into exquisite poses and moves like a self-appointed queen. " In all, Moorehead made about 100 films, developing a reputation as a fine character actress. She was perhaps best known by the American public for her histrionic supporting role as Endora the witch in the television series "Bewitched, " which ran from 1964 to 1972.

In 1974, Moorehead participated in another reading of "Don Juan in Hell, " with three other actors. That production fared less well than the original. She died on April 30, 1974 in Rochester, Minnesota, of uterine cancer.

Achievements

• Agnes Moorehead was an outstanding versatile actress, who is best remembered for her portrayals of strong, eccentric characters and whose career extended to radio, the stage, film, and television. Agnes Moorehead rarely played lead roles, but her skill at character development and range earned her the National Board of Review Award for Best Acting (1942, United States), the New York Film Critics Circle Award (1942, United States), the Golden Globe Award (1945, 1965, United States), the Primetime Emmy Award (1967, United States) and theTV Land Award (2003, 2005, United States). In 1994, Agnes Moorehead was posthumously inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. In 2012, Moorehead was inducted into the OFTA TV Hall of Fame: Actors and Actresses. In 2016, she was inducted into the OFTA Film Hall of Fame: Acting. In addition, Agnes Moorehead was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1719 Vine St. on February 8, 1960.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Bewitched - Season 1 & 2

    ( Double, Double Twice the Bewitching Trouble! Elizabeth ...)

  • Suspense: Beyond Good and Evil

    ( Agonizing predicaments, stellar sound effects, and high...)

  • The Blazing Forest
  • Don Juan in Hell By George Bernard Shaw
  • Caged
  • The Bat
  • The Best Of The Radio Years

Politics

Agnes Moorehead rarely spoke publicly about her political beliefs, but she supported both Franklin Roosevelt (she portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt multiple times over the course of her career) as well as close friend Ronald Reagan for his 1966 run for governor of California.

Views

Quotations: "It's an unavoidable truth. Fear of life closes off more opportunities for us than fear of death ever does. "

Membership

With Welles and Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead was a founder and charter member of the famed Mercury Theater Players.

Connections

In 1930, Agnes Moorehead married fellow actor Jack Griffith Lee; they divorced in 1952. Moorehead and Lee adopted an orphan named Sean in 1949, but it remains unclear whether the adoption was legal. Moorehead raised Sean until he ran away from home.

In 1952 she married actor Robert Gist. Like her first marriage, that union was also to end in divorce, in 1958.

Father:

John Henderson Moorehead

Mother:

Mary Mildred Moorehead (McCauley)

Sister:

Margaret Ann "Peggy" Moorehead

adopted son:

Sean Lee

husband:

Robert Marion Gist

Robert Marion Gist was an American actor and film director.

husband:

Jack Griffith Lee

Friend:

Ronald Wilson Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.

References

• Agnes Moorehead: A Bio-Bibliography (Bio-Bibliographies in the Performing Arts)
• The Bewitched History Book - 50th Anniversary Edition
• (My Travels with) Agnes Moorehead - The Lavender Lady: (more BEWITCHING than ENDORA)
• The Agnes Moorhead Radio Collection-6 Audio CD's Suspense-Drama
• Agnes Moorehead: A very private person
• Agnes Moorehead on Radio, Stage and Television
• I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead
• The Films of Agnes Moorehead