Agnes Moorehead
Best known for her role as Endora on the TV series "Bewitched" (ABC, 1964-1972), Agnes Moorehead had a career that spanned the mediums of stage, screen and radio. Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, her family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri when Moorehead was a child. During childhood Moorehead began to show a talent for mimicry and expressed a desire to become an actress. Moorehead graduated from Muskingum College in 1923, with a major in biology. During her time at college she appeared in several plays, after which she taught public school for 5 years and earned a master's in public speaking and English at University of Wisconsin-Madison. When her career began after a course of study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, things were shaky for a while. She struggled with unemployment until she got a start in radio, a medium where she excelled. She struggled to breakthrough in film, however, and spent years working in Orson Welles Mercury Players, and her film debut came in "Citizen Kane" (1941) when she played the mother of Welles's character. She appeared the following year in "The Magnificent Ambersons", and the following year in "Journey Into Fear" (1943). Moorehead went on to play significantly more noticeable roles in films like "The Big Street" (1942), "Mrs. Parkington" (1944) and "The Youngest Profession" (1944). Moorehead was soon under contract to MGM with an atypical clause stipulating that she appear in any radio projects that the studio was working on. Moorehead appeared in a number of television series throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, but nothing resonated with audiences more than her portrayal of Endora, the witch mother of Elizabeth Montgomery's character Samantha. She was recognized for her work on the show a number of times but always claimed that she felt trapped by the role. Agnes Moorehead died in 1974 from uterine cancer in Rochester, Minnesota.
Photos
Agnes Moorehead
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
|
Frankenstein: The True Story | Mrs. Blair (Character) | - | 1973 |
76% |
|
Charlotte's Web | The Goose (Voice) | - | 1973 |
No Score Yet |
|
Rolling Man | Grandmother (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet |
|
Dear, Dead Delilah | Delilah Charles (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Night of Terror | Bronsky (Character) | - | 1972 |
55% |
|
What's the Matter With Helen? | Sister Alma (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Marriage: Year One | Grandma Duden (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove | Mrs. Pringle (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Suddenly Single | Marlene (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Ballad of Andy Crocker | Lisa's mother (Character) | - | 1969 |
No Score Yet |
|
Alice Through the Looking Glass | The Red Queen (Character) | - | 1966 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Singing Nun | Sister Cluny (Character) | - | 1966 |
82% |
|
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte | Velma (Character) | - | 1965 |
57% |
|
Who's Minding the Store? | Mrs. Phoebe Tuttle (Character) | - | 1963 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Jessica | Maria Lombardo (Character) | - | 1962 |
88% |
|
How the West Was Won | Rebecca Prescott (Character) | - | 1962 |
No Score Yet |
|
Bachelor in Paradise | Judge Peterson (Character) | - | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Twenty Plus Two | Mrs. Eleanor Delaney (Character) | - | 1961 |
86% |
|
Pollyanna | Mrs. Snow (Character) | - | 1960 |
17% |
|
The Bat | Cornelia van Gorder (Character) | - | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Night of the Quarter Moon | Cornelia Nelson (Character) | - | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Tempest | Vassilissa Mironova (Character) | - | 1958 |
No Score Yet |
|
Jeanne Eagels | Nellie Neilson (Character) | - | 1957 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Story of Mankind | Queen Elizabeth I (Character) | - | 1957 |
10% |
|
Raintree County | Ellen Shawnessy (Character) | - | 1957 |
88% |
|
The True Story of Jesse James | Mrs. Samuel (Character) | - | 1957 |
No Score Yet |
|
Pardners | Mrs. Matilda Kingsley (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Swan | Queen Maria Dominika (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet |
|
Meet Me in Las Vegas | Miss Hattie (Character) | - | 1956 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Conqueror | Hunkin (Character) | - | 1956 |
40% |
|
The Opposite Sex | Countess (Character) | - | 1956 |
40% |
|
The Revolt of Mamie Stover | Bertha Parchman (Character) | - | 1956 |
91% |
|
All That Heaven Allows | Sara Warren (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet |
|
Untamed | Aggie (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Left Hand of God | Beryl Sigman (Character) | - | 1955 |
88% |
|
Magnificent Obsession | Nancy Ashford (Character) | - | 1954 |
No Score Yet |
|
Those Redheads From Seattle | Mrs. Edmonds (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Scandal at Scourie | Sister Josephine (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Story of Three Loves | Aunt Lydia (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Main Street to Broadway | Mildred Waterbury (Character) | - | 1953 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Blazing Forest | Jessie Crain (Character) | - | 1952 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Adventures of Captain Fabian | Aunt Jezebel (Character) | - | 1951 |
63% |
|
Fourteen Hours | Christine Hill Cosick (Character) | - | 1951 |
83% |
|
Show Boat | Parthy Hawks (Character) | - | 1951 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Blue Veil | Mrs. Palfrey (Character) | - | 1951 |
50% |
|
Caged | Ruth Benton (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Captain Blackjack | Mrs.Emily Birk (Character) | - | 1950 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Without Honor | Katherine Williams (Character) | - | 1949 |
89% |
|
The Stratton Story | Ma Stratton (Character) | - | 1949 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Great Sinner | Emma Getzel (Character) | - | 1949 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Woman in White | Countess Fosco (Character) | - | 1948 |
No Score Yet |
|
Station West | Mrs. Mary Caslon (Character) | - | 1948 |
100% |
|
Johnny Belinda | Aggie MacDonald (Character) | - | 1948 |
71% |
|
Summer Holiday | Cousin Lily (Character) | - | 1948 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Lost Moment | Juliana Borderau (Character) | - | 1947 |
90% |
|
Dark Passage | Madge Rapf (Character) | - | 1947 |
No Score Yet |
|
Her Highness and the Bellboy | Countess Zoe (Character) | - | 1945 |
No Score Yet |
|
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes | Bruna Jacobson (Character) | - | 1945 |
No Score Yet |
|
Keep Your Powder Dry | Lieut. Colonel Spottiswoode (Character) | - | 1945 |
No Score Yet |
|
Tomorrow the World | Aunt Jessie Frame (Character) | - | 1945 |
100% |
|
The Seventh Cross | Mme. Marelli (Character) | - | 1944 |
No Score Yet |
|
Mrs. Parkington | Baroness Aspasia Conti (Character) | - | 1944 |
No Score Yet |
|
Dragon Seed | Third Cousin's Wife (Character) | - | 1944 |
100% |
|
Jane Eyre | Mrs. Reed (Character) | - | 1944 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Youngest Profession | Miss Featherstone (Character) | - | 1943 |
73% |
|
Journey Into Fear | Mrs. Mathews (Character) | - | 1942 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Big Street | Violette Shumberg (Character) | - | 1942 |
89% |
|
The Magnificent Ambersons | Fanny (Character) | - | 1942 |
99% |
|
Citizen Kane | Mrs. Mary Kane (Character) | $977.3K | 1941 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | What's My Line? | Guest | 1973 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Mrs. Ramsey (Guest Star) | 1972 |
No Score Yet | 48% | Bewitched | Endora (Character) | 1964-1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Love, American Style | Mrs. Cooper (Character) | 1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In | Unknown (Character) | 1971 |
No Score Yet | 100% | Night Gallery | Unknown (Character) | 1970-1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Virginian | Emma Garvey (Guest Star) | 1970 |
No Score Yet | 100% | The Wild, Wild West | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1967 |
92% | 96% | The Twilight Zone | Woman (Character) | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Rifleman | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1960 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Rawhide | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1960 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Startime | Unknown (Character) | 1960 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Rebel | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Wagon Train | Mary Halstead (Guest Star) | 1957 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Climax! | Unknown (Character) | 1956-1957 |