Montgomery, Elizabeth

▪ 1996

      U.S. actress (b. April 15, 1933, Los Angeles, Calif.—d. May 18, 1995, Beverly Hills, Calif.), as the comely, green-eyed star of television's "Bewitched" (1964-72), portrayed Samantha, a resourceful suburban witch who promised her "mortal" husband, an advertising executive, that she would not resort to witchcraft yet nevertheless found herself engaging in sorcery, usually to extricate him from precarious situations. Her modus operandi was a twitch of her nose, an action that unleashed her supernatural powers. On that sitcom she also appeared as Serena, Samantha's identical-looking cousin. Montgomery, who attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, made her television debut on her father's playhouse series, "Robert Montgomery Presents." During the 1950s and '60s she appeared on such television shows as "Wagon Train" (1959), "The Untouchables" (1960), and "Rawhide" (1963) and in films, including The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) and Johnny Cool (1963). Montgomery later appeared as a dramatic actress and starred in such made-for-television films as A Case of Rape (1974), The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), and Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story (1993). She was also the narrator of the Academy Award-winning The Panama Deception (1993) and on TV portrayed crime reporter Edna Buchanan in The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (1994) and Deadline for Murder (1995).

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