Saturday, June 2, 2012

Saturday Scream Queen: Elizabeth Montgomery

Born in 1933, Elizabeth Montgomery will probably always remain one of the most beautiful and graceful actresses to grace the small screen. Her career spanned forty years, beginning with her portrayls of a wide range of characters in over 200 live broadcasts of legendary early television anthology series such as "Robert Montgomery Presents," which produced by her father, "Kraft Theater" and "Studio One in Hollywood". She is best known for her role as Samantha Stephens, the witch turned would-be average suburban housewife during the 8-year run of the "Bewitched" television series. She ended her career starring in a string of critically acclaimed television movies during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Although born into show-business, Montgomery spent her childhood and teenage years being formally trained as an actress, earning her breaks by more than just accident of birth. Although best known for her comedic acting, Montgomery appeared in numerous moody and highly effective horror and thriller television programmes, including an episode of the always-excellent Boris Karloff hosted anthology series "Thriller", and the 1972 killer-in-the-house movie "The Victim".

Montgomery's final role was crime reporter Edna Buchanan in a pair of films loosely based on real-world murders, "The Corpse Had a Familiar Face" and "Deadline for Murder". Montgomery was dying from cancer while the last film was being shot, and she passed way in May of 1995, mere weeks after it wrapped.

3 comments:

  1. I still remember when she portrayed Lizzie Borden in a made-for-TV movie.

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  2. Montgomery was apparently a distant relation of Borden. (This wasn't discovered until after the film was made.)

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  3. She was one of my first "wow look at her!" women on TV - thanks to reruns of Bewtiched in the afternoons - the short skirts, the appearances of ol' Pandora Spocks as Serena...

    She really had a third act Renaissance in the TV movies of the late 70's and 80's. Glad she found so much work - wish she could have stuck around longer.

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