Elizabeth Montgomery was born into show business. Her parents were screen actor Robert Montgomery and Broadway actress Elizabeth Bryan Allen. Elizabeth graduated from the Spence School in New York City and attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. After three years intensive training, she made her TV debut in her father's 1950s playhouse series Robert Montgomery Presents and appeared in more than 200 live programs over the next decade. She once remarked "I guess you could say I'm a TV baby". Notable early film roles included The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell and Johnny Cool. She is best remembered, however, for her leading role as the witch Samantha in the top-rated ABC sitcom Bewitched. Her family - mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead), look-alike cousin (Montgomery) and advertising executive husband Darrin (first Dick York then Dick Sargent) - tried to suppress her supernatural skills but often turned to her tricks to solve problems. The signal of impending witchcraft was a twitch of Samantha's nose. After her first and only TV series ended she turned to made-for-TV movies, many of which won critical praise: A Case of Rape, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story. She narrated the movie The Panama Deception which won an Academy Award in 1993. Reference works showed her as 62 when she died though the family said she was 57. The family did not disclose the type of cancer which caused her death.



She and Robert Foxworth, the actor, lived together for over twenty years until her death. She died 8 weeks after being diagnosed with colon cancer and was cremated. Ms. Montgomery refused to do her famous nose twitch for enduring fans after her "Bewitched" (1964) show went off the air. She spent the remainder of her career pursuing dramatic roles that took her as far away from the Samantha typecast as possible. She lost out on the part of Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront (1954) to Eva Marie Saint. Director Elia Kazan, in his autobiography "A Life," says that the choice of an actress to play the part was narrowed down to Montgomery and Saint. Although Montgomery was fine in her screen test, there was an air of finishing school about her. Kazan thought this genteel quality would not be becoming for Edie, who was raised on the waterfront in Hoboken, NJ. He gave the part to Saint who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, in the part. Died on the same day as her Johnny Cool (1963) co-star Elisha Cook Jr.. Appeared on an episode of "The Flintstones" (1960), providing the voice of a cartoon version of her famous "Bewitched" (1964) character, Samantha Stevens. A 9 foot bronze statue of Elizabeth as Samantha Stephens riding sidesaddle on her broomstick now resides in a downtown park in Salem, Massachusetts, home to the infamous witch trials of the 17th century. Received a posthumous star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on January 4, 2008. She fell in love with director Richard Michaels during filming of the eighth season of "Bewitched" (1964), and moved in with him when the season was complete. This broke up both their marriages and ended the possibility of a ninth season. The relationship lasted two and a half years.