The Elizabeth Montgomery Story

Most of us might remember Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha in the long running television show, Bewitched. This beauty lady had a very interesting background.

When I was a kid, I loved watching Bewitched. I did not think much of the movie but when it comes to remakes, I am hard to please. About a week ago I found a web site that is showing the TV show and found myself watching the whole first season.
(Click here to watch Bewitched_Full_Length)
I wanted to know more about Elizabeth Montgomery so I Googled her. I was sad to find out that she was dead.
Click below to view Certificate of Death:
(http://www.findadeath.com/Decesed/m/Elizabeth%20Montgomery/Lizzie%20DC.jpg)

Her parents were Elizabeth Daniel Allen and Robert Montgomery. Robert Montgomery was an actor, director and President of the Screen Actors Guild. He died of cancer at age 77. His daughter, actress Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995) age 62, and son, Robert Montgomery, Jr. (1936-2000) both died of cancer. They had three children. Elizabeth had an older sister, Martha Bryan Montgomery, born October 13, 1930, who died of spinal meningitis at the age of 14 months.

Elizabeth Montgomery had been married 4 times:

Elizabeth's marriage (1954) to her first husband, New York socialite Frederick Gallatin Cammann, barely lasted a year.

Gig Young came along after she appeared on an episode of Warner Brothers Presents in 1956, and the two married later that year.

In 1963, Montgomery divorced Young due to his alcoholism.

William Asher met Elizabeth when she auditioned for the feature film Johnny Cool. He was the producing and directing. They got married in 1963 but the marriage was not made public until January of 1964 when Liz was pregnant with her first child. Also in 1964, Asher and Elizabeth began the blockbuster series Bewitched with Elizabeth as star and Asher as producer/director. Two more children were born to the couple, Robert Deverell on October 5, 1965 and Rebecca Elizabeth on June 17, 1969.

Asher again returned to feature films in the mid 60's with a series of beach pictures, one of which was How to Stuff a Wild Bikini and featured a cameo appearance by Elizabeth.
Soon after Bewitched ended in 1972, the marriage came to an end too.

By the way, Elizabeth's famous nose twitch was actually a nervous habit. William Asher noticed that when Elizabeth was nervous she would twitch her upper lip and decided to use it as a trademark for Samantha's character.

Robert Foxworth was the longtime companion to Elizabeth Montgomery. After living together for nearly twenty years, she entered her fourth and final marriage, in 1993.

I noticed that she played Lizzie Borden in William Bast's The Legend of Lizzie Borden in 1975. I also noticed that she liked being called Lizzie and her mothers name was Elizabeth. I found this interesting.

How many of you remember who Lizzie Andrew Borden was? Here is a hint.

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

Lizzie Andrew Borden was a New England spinster who was the only suspect for the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Although she was acquitted, she was at the time believed to be guilty. No one else was ever arrested or tried. Dispute over the identity of the killer continues to this day.
Elizabeth Montgomery and Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th-century Massachusetts resident, John Luther.

In June 1992, Montgomery and Dick Sargent, who stayed a good friend, were Grand Marshals at the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade. She had liberal political views, being an outspoken champion of women's rights and gay rights most her life. She did not see eye to eye with her conservative Republican father, who was once a media advisor to President Eisenhower.
Samantha, and Darrin were the first American television couple to sleep in the same bed. Up to then, all television couples slept in separate beds.

While Bewitched was still a TV hit, she was a vocal critic of the Vietnam War and in the late 1980s and early 1990s she narrated a series of political documentaries, including, Cover up: Behind the Iran Contra Affair and the Academy Award winning, The Panama Deception.
She was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1995. Thinking that she only had the flu during the filming of Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan, she kept on working. By the time she went to the hospital it was too late. Not wanting to die in a hospital, she to returned to her home. She died there, with her children and husband by her side on May 18, 1995, eight weeks after her diagnosis. Elizabeth was cremated after her death. She was 62 years old.

On April 19, 1998, an event auction or sale of her clothing was held by her family to benefit AIDS Healthcare Foundation of Los Angeles. Erin Murphy, who played her daughter, Tabitha on the series, modeled the clothing that was auctioned. Elizabeth's daughter, Rebecca Asher, was born on the same day as the twins Erin Murphy and Diane Murphy, who portrayed her TV daughter Tabitha on Bewitched.

A star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame, 6533 Hollywood Blvd. was presented in honor of her work in television on January 4, 2008. That is the only award she ever received unless you want to count that in June 2005, a nine foot bronze statue of Elizabeth as Samantha Stephens riding sidesaddle on her broomstick can be seen in a downtown park in Salem, Massachusetts, home to the infamous witch trials of the 17th century.

All in all I think this classy lady was one of television’s great actress.