Elizabeth Montgomery





This story was put together with the help of my very good friend, and Findadeath buddy, Steve Smith. Thanks so much, Steve.

She liked to be called, "Lizzie," and she lied about her age. She always claimed to be five years younger than she was. In fact, her brother would often tease her, because at some point, the older/younger sibling thing got switched. For the record, she was born in 1933.

According to her death certificate, she had colon cancer for years. How this figures in to this story is a mystery, because by all accounts, it sounds like she had just found out. Out of the blue.

Lizzie was most famous as "Samantha" in the long running television show Bewitched. My favorite episodes were when she played cousin "Serena." After the series went off the air, she concentrated on television films, racking up a respectable number of them, including my favorite, The Legend of Lizzie Borden. (I don't know why I tell you my favorites. Like you care.) In March of 1995, she was filming the CBS television film, Deadline for Murder. She thought she had the flu, because she was always tired and losing weight. After the shoot was over, she checked in to Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and had exploratory surgery. She was told (I guess) that her colon cancer was back. Shocked, Lizzie was too weak for radiation therapy, so she went home to rest and returned 4 days later. More surgery proved that the disease spread to her liver, and there was no hope. That must have sucked.

She went home to her house on Benedict Canyon. Unfortunately, all the photographs I have of her house are only of the driveway. Steve and I did try to sneak a peek of the house once, but a car was coming, and we freaked (It was after midnight. Whoops. We hopped Jimmy Stewart's fence, instead). Her house was number 1230, and she shared it with her partner of 20 years, Robert Foxworth. They had met in 1974, on the set of another classic piece of television, Mrs. Sundance. Here's the driveway. I once wrote to her at this address, and received this back from her. My sister told me that her signature looked like "Fabric Turnover." I thought that was funny.

Lizzie normally weighed 122 pounds, but had wasted down to 82 pounds in the following weeks. On May 8th, she went back in to Cedars Sinai, dehydrated and malnourished. They treated her, kept her on painkillers, and discharged her on May 15th. She went home to die with dignity. The doctors ceased giving her all medication, except for morphine.

Supposedly, she made Foxworth promise that he would marry again. They embraced, and she drifted off, never to wake again. Elizabeth Montgomery died quietly, alone, on May 18th. She requested that her husband and her three children wait quietly in the living room. She didn't want anyone to see her that way. Dunno if that's all true, but it's a classy ending, and she was a classy lady.



There was no funeral, and her body was cremated, and her ashes were given to her family. No one knows what was done with them.

A memorial service was held on June 18, 1995 at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. Herbie Hancock provided the music, and Dominick Dunne spoke about their days together in New York when they were first starting out. Other speakers included Robert Foxworth, who read out sympathy cards from fans, her nurse, her brother, daughter and stepson. Amanda McBroom (Mcget it?) sang, and the entire service ended with the lights going down, and a beautiful shot of her on a video screen. She got a standing ovation.

She asked that any donations in her memory should be made to the William Holden Wildlife Association in Kenya, or the LA Zoo.

In June of 1999, there was an auction of her things in Beverly Hills. Her 1977 Bentley, with the license plate BENTLIZ, went for 15 grand. Wish I could have been there. I wouldn't have bought it, I just wish I had been there.



Trivia: Lizzie was nominated for an Emmy 9 times, but never won.

As for her co-stars on Bewitched, you can go elsewhere on Findadeath for the stories of the Dicks, Sargent and York. Lizzie had a great dick joke, that's included in Sargent's story.

Agnes Moorehead played Sam's mother, Endora. She died of cancer on April 30th, 1974. Cancer. She worked on that John Wayne film, where everyone got cancer. They filmed it in nuke land, Nevada.

This was her home on Roxbury Drive, in Beverly Hills. The façade has changed a bit since she lived there, but the house still stands. Paul Lynde called her "One of the all time Hollywood dykes."






Marion Lorne played Aunt Clara. She died on May 9th, 1968, of heart failure.



Paul Lynde played Uncle Arthur. Phyllis Diller once called him the "Queen of Comedy." Legend has it, he was doing poppers during sex, alone, thus causing heart failure. Coming and going at the same time, as it were. His house has been leveled.

May 2002: Findadeath.com friend Leigh Parrish sends us this: Paul Lynde was canned from "Hollywood Squares" for, in addition to arriving on the set drunk and forgetting his lines, climbing out of his square and attempting to attack the contestants. This was in about 1979.

Trivia courtesy of Findadeath.com friend Kevin Hassell:

The house that Paul Lynde lived in was previously owned by Errol Flynn.

Lynde also owned a car of which only 17 were made. JFK owned another of the cars.

In the 60's, Lynde was staying at a hotel in California. He was on a higher floor. Anyway, a friend of his came to visit, and fell to his death. When the police questioned Lynde, he said that his friend was showing me a trick. There was a balcony, and supposedly the friend was fooling around by standing on it. That's what I read somewhere.

Good stuff as usual, Kevin. Thanks.






Findadeath.com friend Jon C. Darby writes in: Supposedly Paul Lynde was the original inspiration for a joke that has made its way into, among other things, the movie GROUNDHOG DAY. After a high speed chase through the Valley one night when he was driving recklessly while intoxicated, he crashed his car into a mailbox. Cops came to the car, guns drawn, and he lowered his window and told them "I'll have a cheeseburger hold the onions and a large Sprite."

Alice Ghostley played Esmerelda. I took her and her sister on a tour of Hollywood death sites, including Lizzie, Lynde and Moorehead. She left me with this note. She is just as wonderful in person, and funny. She wouldn't verify the Agnes Moorehead lesbian thing (she said, "I heard that too!"), but she did dish the dirt on a few others.

Findadeath.com friend Martin Harrison sends this in:

I recently spotted Alice Ghostley making an appearance in Sabrina the Teenage Witch as Sabrina's great grandmother . . . . I thought that was a nice touch, presumably by someone in casting.

Another entry: You may have already heard this, but Alice Ghostley as well as the
guy who played Dr. Bombay have made repeat appearances on the NBC Soap
"Passions". Ghostley plays a dead witch and the Dr. Bombay guy plays a
witch doctor for one of the main characters (who is also a witch)...

David White played Larry Tate. His wife died in childbirth, and his son was killed in the Pan Am/Lockerbie bombing over Scotland. A daughter survives him. David lived on Blix Street in North Hollywood. Here's his house. He died on November 27, 1990 - at the North Hollywood Medical Center. Thank you to findadeath.com friends Chad Jones for the house pics, and Terri Rios for the Med Center.



Alice Pearce played the first Mrs. Kravitz. She died of ovarian cancer on March 3rd, 1966. The pig below replaced her.



Sandra Gould played the "other" Mrs. Kravitz. She was a pig. Like a beach ball with lips. Or even more spot on, she looks like Mickey Rooney. Wish I had a photo of her now. You'd laugh. When I met her, she was eating a Subway sandwich, and talking to me at the same time, thus covering me with big glops of the daily special. Then she told me that I should HIRE her for an appearance. Old whore. Update - Okay - I pissed a lot of people off with my description of Sandra. I feel sort of bad, because she had a son and all of that. I was really irritated with her, and became unnecessarily mean about her. I'm keeping my words up, because I will not be a hypocrite - but I'll try not to be unusually cruel in the future. Sandra lived on Oakdell Lane, in Studio City. Here's her house, with the carport. You can't see the broken down car and trashcans that are there. (I ain't sayin a word.) Here's another shot of the house. On Tuesday the 20th of July 1999, Sandra died of a stroke after heart surgery, in St. Joseph's Medical Center, in North Hollywood. Thank you to Findadeath.com friend Chad Jones for the new photographs.



UPDATE OCTOBER 2000:


George Tobias played Mr. Kravitz. Findadeath.com friend Bob Siler adds this account of what happened to George after death (read it! It's great!) and his funeral. He lived on Whitsett on North Hollywood. Here's his house. This shot is a little closer. Here's his front door. Big thanks to Findadeath.com friend Chad Jones for these pictures.





Maurice Evans played Samantha's father, Maurice. Just acquired a little dirt on the guy. True or false, it makes interesting conversation. "Maurice, who was hated by Orson Welles and other Shakespearean actors (mainly because he was a millionaire through good pay and damned good investments and they weren't), was described by a queenly old friend of mine as "the most gentlemanly chicken hawk as ever graced the Earth". He returned to England shortly after capping his career with THE JERK and appearances on Hart to Hart and died in an upscale retirement community in Maidstone.
His friend and business manager David "Taffy" Barlow, a former lover himself until he got too old, made Maurice's last days all the more comfortable by hiring teenaged rent boys to strip down and lie in the bed with him. This quite shocked some of his deathbed visitors. I don't know if any BEWITCHED stars were among them (when that cast started dropping they went down like a pack of lemmings), but I suspect Gielgud and some of the other more stately heirs of Queen Vic were among them." Thanks for the picture, Milt Gasser.

There were many more, but these were my favorites, and I don't have much more info on the others. As always, feel free to share.