Agnes Moorehead

Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress whose 41-year career included work in radio, stage, film, and television. She is best known for her role as Endora on the television series "Bewitched", but she also had notable roles in films, including "Citizen Kane", "The Magnificent Ambersons", "Dark Passage", "All That Heaven Allows", "Show Boat", and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte". She is also known for her iconic vocal performance in the original 1943 radioplay of "Sorry, Wrong Number" and several subsequent re-recordings for Suspense.
Moorehead rarely played lead roles, but her skill at character development and range earned her one Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards and six Emmy Awards. She was the first woman to host the Oscars ceremony. Her transition to television won acclaim for drama and comedy. She could play many different types, but often portrayed haughty, arrogant characters.
Early life.
Agnes Robertson Moorehead was born on December 6, 1900, in Clinton, Massachusetts, the daughter of former singer Mary ("née" McCauley; 1883–1990), who was 17 when she was born, and Presbyterian clergyman John Henderson Moorehead (1869–1938). She was of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. Moorehead later claimed that she was born in 1906 to appear younger for acting parts. She recalled that she made her first public performance at the age of three, when she recited the Lord's Prayer in her father's church. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and her ambition to become an actress grew "very strong". Her mother indulged her active imagination, often asking, "Who are you today, Agnes?" while Moorehead and her younger sister Peggy (born Margaret Ann; 1906–1929) engaged in mimicry. This involved coming to the dinner table and imitating their father's parishioners. They were further encouraged by his amused reactions. Moorehead rarely spoke of her sister after her suicide at age 23.
As a young woman, Moorehead joined the chorus of the St. Louis Municipal Opera Company, known as "The Muny". In addition to her interest in acting, she developed a lifelong interest in religion; in later years, actors such as Dick Sargent recalled Moorehead's arriving on the set with "the Bible in one hand and the script in the other".
Moorehead always said that she graduated from Central High School in St. Louis in 1918. Moorehead earned a bachelor's degree in 1923, majoring in biology at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. While there, she also appeared in college stage plays. She received an honorary doctorate in literature from Muskingum in 1947, and served for a year on its board of trustees. When her family moved to Reedsburg, Wisconsin, she taught public school for five years in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, while she also earned a master's degree in English and public speaking at the University of Wisconsin (now the University of Wisconsin–Madison). She then pursued postgraduate studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which she graduated with honors in 1929. Moorehead also received an honorary doctoral degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
Career.
Moorehead's early career was unsteady, and although she was able to find stage work, she was often unemployed. She later recalled going four days without food, and said that it had taught her "the value of a dollar". She found work in radio and was soon in demand, often working on several programs in a single day. She believed that it offered her excellent training and allowed her to develop her voice to create a variety of characterizations. Moorehead met actress Helen Hayes, who encouraged her to enter films, but her first attempts were met with failure. When she was rejected as not being "the right type", Moorehead returned to radio.
Mercury Theatre.
By 1937, Moorehead had joined Orson Welles' Mercury Players, as one of his principal performers along with Joseph Cotten. (In an appearance on "The Dick Cavett Show" on February 19, 1973, she revealed that, in 1922, she had by chance met Welles (15 years her junior) when he was a mere seven years old at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.) She performed in his "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" radio adaptations, and had a regular role opposite Welles in the serial "The Shadow" as Margo Lane. In 1939, Welles moved the Mercury Theatre to Hollywood, where he started working for RKO Pictures. Several of his radio performers joined him, and Moorehead made her film debut as the mother of his own character, Charles Foster Kane, in "Citizen Kane" (1941), considered by most film critics as one of the best films ever made. Moorehead was featured in Welles' second film, "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942), and received the New York Film Critics Award and an Academy Award nomination for her performance. She also appeared in "Journey Into Fear" (1943), a Mercury film production.
Moorehead received positive reviews for her performance in "Mrs. Parkington" (1944), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination. Moorehead played another strong role in "The Big Street" (1942) with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, and then appeared in two films that failed to find an audience, "Government Girl" (1943) with Olivia de Havilland and "The Youngest Profession" (1944) with adolescent Virginia Weidler.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
By the mid-1940s, Moorehead became a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, negotiating a $6,000-a-week contract, which also allowed her to perform on radio, an unusual clause at the time. Moorehead explained that MGM usually refused to allow their actors to appear on radio, as "the actors didn't have the knowledge or the taste or the judgment to appear on the right sort of show." In 1943–1944, Moorehead portrayed "matronly housekeeper Mrs. Mullet", who was constantly offering her "candied opinion", in the Mutual Broadcasting System's "The Adventures of Leonidas Witherall"; she inaugurated the role on CBS Radio.
Throughout her career, Moorehead skillfully portrayed puritanical matrons, neurotic spinsters, possessive mothers, and comical secretaries. She had supporting roles in "Since You Went Away" (1944) and the crime drama "Dark Passage" (1947), starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall. She then played Aggie McDonald in the 1948 film, "Johnny Belinda". She played Parthy Hawks, wife of Cap'n Andy and mother of Magnolia, in MGM's hit 1951 remake of "Show Boat". Moorehead was in Broadway productions of "Don Juan in Hell" in 1951–1952, and "Lord Pengo" in 1962–1963.
Radio.
In her first radio role, Moorehead appeared as a replacement for Dorothy Denvir's role as Min Gump in "The Gumps". During the 1940s and 1950s, Moorehead was one of the most in-demand actresses for radio dramas, especially on the CBS show "Suspense". During the 946-episode run of "Suspense", Moorehead was cast in more episodes than any other actor or actress. She was often introduced on the show as the "first lady of "Suspense"". Moorehead's most successful appearance on "Suspense" was in the play "Sorry, Wrong Number", written by Lucille Fletcher, broadcast on May 18, 1943. Moorehead played a selfish, neurotic woman who overhears a murder being plotted via crossed phone wires and eventually realizes she is the intended victim. She recreated the performance six times for "Suspense" and several times on other radio shows, always using her original, dog-eared script. The May 25, 1943 airing was made part of the National Sound Registry by the Library of Congress in 2014. In 1952, she recorded an album of the drama, and performed scenes from the story in her one-woman show in the 1950s. Barbara Stanwyck played the role in the 1948 film version.
In 1941, Moorehead played Maggie in the short-lived "Bringing Up Father" program on the Blue Network. From 1942 to 1949, Moorehead played the role of the mayor's housekeeper in the radio version of "Mayor of the Town". She also starred in "The Amazing Mrs. Danberry", a situation comedy on CBS in 1946. Moorehead's title character was described as "the lively widow of a department store owner who has a tongue as sharp as a hatpin and a heart as warm as summer." Moorehead played one of her last roles on January 6, 1974, as Mrs. Ada Canby in the ironically titled "The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill", the inaugural episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
Films of the 1950s–1960s.
In the 1950s, Moorehead continued to work in films and appeared on stage across the country. Her stage roles included a national tour of Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell", co-starring Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton, and Cedric Hardwicke, and the pre-Broadway engagements of the new musical "The Pink Jungle". She had a supporting role in the big-budget Howard Hughes film "The Conqueror" (1956), starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward, a film she later regretted appearing in. She starred in "The Bat" (1959) with Vincent Price. She appeared as the hypochondriac Mrs. Snow in Disney's hit film "Pollyanna" (1960). She starred with Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Mary Astor, and Joseph Cotten in "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964) as the maid Velma, a role for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.
Television.
In 1959, Moorehead guest-starred on many series, including "The Rebel" and "Alcoa Theatre". Her role in the radio play "Sorry, Wrong Number" inspired writers of the CBS television series "The Twilight Zone" to script an episode with Moorehead in mind. In "The Invaders" (broadcast January 27, 1961), Moorehead played a woman whose isolated farm is plagued by mysterious intruders. Moorehead found the script odd, because it had only one line of dialogue, at the very end. Her character gasped in terror once or twice, but never spoke. In "Sorry, Wrong Number", Moorehead offered a famed, bravura performance using only her voice.
Moorehead also had guest roles on "Channing", "Custer", "Rawhide" in "Incident at Poco Tiempo" as Sister Frances, and "The Rifleman". On February 10, 1967, she portrayed Miss Emma Valentine in "The Night of the Vicious Valentine" on "The Wild Wild West", a performance for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
"Bewitched".
In 1964, Moorehead accepted the role of Endora, Samantha's (Elizabeth Montgomery) mortal-loathing, quick-witted witch mother in the situation comedy "Bewitched". She later commented that she had not expected it to succeed and that she ultimately felt trapped by its success, but she had negotiated to appear in only eight of every 12 episodes made, thus allowing her sufficient time to pursue other projects. She also felt that the television writing was often below standard and dismissed many of the "Bewitched" scripts as "hack" in a 1965 interview for "TV Guide". The role brought her a level of recognition that she had not received before as "Bewitched" was in the top-10 programs for the first few years it aired.
Moorehead received six Emmy Award nominations, but was quick to remind interviewers that she had enjoyed a long and distinguished career. Despite her ambivalence, she remained with "Bewitched" until its run ended in 1972. She commented to the "New York Times" in 1974, "I've been in movies and played theater from coast to coast, so I was quite well known before "Bewitched", and I don't particularly want to be identified as a witch." Later that year, she said she had enjoyed playing the role enough, but it was not challenging and the show itself was "not breathtaking", although her flamboyant and colorful character appealed to children. She expressed a fondness for the show's star, Elizabeth Montgomery, and said she had enjoyed working with her. Co-star Dick Sargent, who in 1969 replaced the ill Dick York as Samantha's husband Darrin Stephens, had a more difficult relationship with Moorehead, describing her as "a tough old bird."
In fall 1964, Moorehead participated in a 5-minute commercial spot featuring casts of both "Bonanza" and "Bewitched", announcing the new 1965 Chevrolet line. Moorehead was featured with Dan Blocker extolling the virtues of the new '65 Chevy II.
Later years.
In the 1970s, Moorehead's life was increasingly affected by declining health. In 1970, Moorehead appeared as a dying woman who haunts her own house in the early "Night Gallery" episode "Certain Shadows on the Wall". She co-starred with Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds in the horror film "What's the Matter with Helen?" (1971) and had the lead role in the low-budget ax murderer film "Dear Dead Delilah" (1972) with Will Geer, her last starring role. She also reprised her role in "Don Juan in Hell" on Broadway and on tour, with an all-star cast that featured Edward Mulhare, Ricardo Montalban, and Paul Henreid.
Moorehead supplied the voice of the friendly "Goose" in Hanna-Barbera's 1973 adaptation of E. B. White's children's book "Charlotte's Web".
For the 1973 Broadway adaptation of "Gigi", Moorehead portrayed Aunt Alicia and performed various songs, including "The Contract" for the original cast recording. She fell ill during the production, resulting in Arlene Francis having to replace her. Moorehead died shortly afterward.
In January 1974, three months before her death, Moorehead performed in two episodes (including the first) of "CBS Radio Mystery Theater", the popular series produced by old-time radio master Himan Brown.
Personal life.
Marriages.
In 1930, Moorehead married actor John Griffith Lee; they divorced a year after fostering a boy named Sean in 1952. She married actor Robert Gist in 1954, and they divorced in 1958.
Sexuality.
Moorehead's sexuality has been the subject of much speculation and dispute. A number of articles that appeared in periodicals in the alternative press have identified her as a lesbian. Paul Lynde, Moorehead's co-star on "Bewitched", stated: "Well, the whole world knows Agnes was a lesbian – I mean classy as hell, but one of the all-time Hollywood dykes". Journalist Boze Hadleigh reported an incident, also sourced to Lynde, in which, when she caught one of her husbands cheating on her, "Agnes screamed at him that if he could have a mistress, so could she." In an interview, Moorehead was reported to have acknowledged her same-sex orientation while she identified a number of other Hollywood actresses who "enjoyed lesbian or bi relationships."
Moorehead's close friend Debbie Reynolds stated categorically that Moorehead was not a lesbian. Reynolds's autobiography mentions the rumor and states it was started "maliciously" by one of Moorehead's husbands during their divorce. Moorehead's longtime friend and producer Paul Gregory concurs in the assessment. Quint Benedetti, Moorehead's longtime employee who is gay, also stated that Moorehead was not a lesbian and attributed the story to Paul Lynde's frequent gossiping and rumor-mongering.
Politics.
Moorehead rarely spoke publicly about her political beliefs, but she supported both Franklin Delano Roosevelt (she portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt multiple times over the course of her career), and close friend Ronald Reagan for his 1966 run for governor of California.
Death.
Moorehead died of uterine cancer on April 30, 1974, in Rochester, Minnesota, aged 73. Her sole immediate survivor was her mother Mary, who died in 1990, aged 106. Moorehead may have developed cancer from radioactive fallout from atmospheric atomic bomb tests while making "The Conqueror" with John Wayne in St. George, Utah. Several production members, as well as Wayne himself, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz (who died by suicide) and its director Dick Powell, later succumbed to cancer and cancer-related illnesses. The cast and crew totaled 220 people. By the end of 1980, as ascertained by "People", 91 of them had developed some form of cancer, and 46 had died of the disease.
Brian Dunning, author and host of the science podcast Skeptoid, has called into question the allegations of a connection between the death of Moorehead and others supposedly exposed to radioactive fallout. In a 2010 episode of his podcast, Dunning states that the original source of the claim "was apparently a 1979 article in the tabloid "The Star" by Peter Brennan, who merely speculated about the coincidence without doing any real research."
Moorehead is entombed in a crypt at Dayton Memorial Park in Dayton, Ohio. In 1994, she was posthumously inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Moorehead bequeathed $25,000 to Muskingum College, with instructions to fund one or more "Agnes Moorehead Scholarships". She also left half of her manuscripts to Muskingum with the other half going to the University of Wisconsin. Her family's Ohio farm went to John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, along with her collection of Bibles and biblical scholarship materials.
Her mother Mary received all of Moorehead's clothing and jewelry, and Moorehead made provisions to support Mary for the rest of her life. The Beverly Hills home was left to her attorney Franklin Rohner, along with the furnishings and personal property within. Small bequests were made for friends and domestic staff along with some charitable contributions. In her will, she made no provision for Sean, "né" John Griffith Lee, whom she had allegedly adopted, but she only fostered Sean until his 18th birthday, and the will stated that she had "no children, natural or adopted, living or deceased".
Radio credits.
Moorehead appeared on hundreds of individual broadcasts across a radio career that spanned from 1926 to her final two appearances, on "CBS Radio Mystery Theatre" in 1974.
Theater.
Moorehead began appearing on stage during her training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She appeared in seven productions as a student. She continued acting in the theater throughout her career until just a few months before her death.