Margaret Hamilton (actress)

For other people named Margaret Hamilton, see Margaret Hamilton.

Margaret Hamilton
Hamilton, c. 1958
Born	Margaret Brainard Hamilton (1902-12-09)December 9, 1902 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	May 16, 1985(1985-05-16) (aged 82) Salisbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Alma mater	Wheelock College
Occupation(s)	Actress, schoolteacher
Years active	1929, 1933–1982
Notable work	Miss Gulch and The Wicked Witch of the West in MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Paul Meserve ​ ​ (m. 1931; div. 1938)​
Children	1
Relatives	Neil Hamilton (distant cousin) Dorothy Hamilton Brush (sister)

Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American entertainer and educator, whose fifty-year career in entertainment spanned theatre, film, radio and television. She was best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz.

A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton appeared in films and made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals and retained a lifelong commitment to public education.

Early life

Hamilton was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of W.J. Hamilton and practiced her craft doing children's theater while she was a Junior League of Cleveland member. She attended Hathaway Brown School.

Hamilton made her debut as a "professional entertainer" on December 9, 1929, acting and performing vocals in a "program of 'heart rending songs'" in the Charles S. Brooks Theater at the Cleveland Play House. Before she turned to acting exclusively, her parents insisted she attend Wheelock College in Boston, which she did, later becoming a kindergarten teacher.

Film career

Hamilton made her screen debut in the MGM film Another Language (1933) starring Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery. She went on to appear in These Three (1936), Saratoga, You Only Live Once, When's Your Birthday?, Nothing Sacred (all 1937), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Mae West's My Little Chickadee (with W. C. Fields, 1940), and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, with Harold Lloyd, 1947. She strove to work as much as possible to support herself and her son. She never put herself under contract to any one studio and priced her services at $1,000, $21,200 in today's money a week.

Hamilton co-starred opposite Buster Keaton and Richard Cromwell in a 1940s spoof of the long-running local melodrama The Drunkard, titled The Villain Still Pursued Her. Later in the decade, she was in a little-known film noir, titled Bungalow 13 (1948), in which she again costarred opposite Cromwell. Her crisp voice with rapid but clear enunciation was another trademark. She appeared regularly in supporting roles in films until the early 1950s and sporadically thereafter.

Opposite Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, she played a heavily made-up witch in Comin' Round the Mountain, where her character and Costello's go toe-to-toe with voodoo dolls representing each other. She appeared, uncredited, in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's People Will Talk (1951) as Sarah Pickett. In 1960, producer/director William Castle cast Hamilton as a housekeeper in his 13 Ghosts horror film, in which 12-year-old lead Charles Herbert's character taunts her about being a witch, including the final scene, in which she is holding a broom in her hand.

The Wizard of Oz

Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West with Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, 1939

(L-R): Doris Dudley, Linda Darnell, Margaret Hamilton, Glenda Farrell and Leslie Brooks in City Without Men, 1943

In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, opposite Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, her most famous role, and one of the screen's most memorable villains. Hamilton was cast after Gale Sondergaard, who was first considered for the role, albeit as a more glamorous witch with a musical scene, declined the role when the decision was made that the witch should appear ugly.

On December 23, 1938, Hamilton suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland, in which the trap door's drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit. Hamilton had to recuperate in a hospital and at home for six weeks after the accident, before returning to the set to complete her work on the film. She refused to have anything further to do with fire for the rest of the filming.

After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I will return to work on one condition – no more fireworks!" Garland visited Hamilton while the latter recuperated at home looking after her son. Studio executives cut some of Hamilton's more frightening scenes, worrying they would frighten children too much. Later in life, she would comment on the role of the witch in a light-hearted fashion. During one interview, she joked:

I was in need of money at the time, I had done about six pictures for MGM at the time, and my agent called. I said, 'Yes?' and he said 'Maggie, they want you to play a part on the Wizard.' I said to myself, 'Oh, boy, The Wizard of Oz! That has been my favorite book since I was four.' And I asked him what part, and he said, 'The Witch', and I said, 'The Witch?!' and he said, 'What else?'

Hamilton's stand-in and stunt double for the Witch, Betty Danko, also suffered an on-set accident, on February 11, 1939. Danko made the fiery entrance to Munchkinland, not Hamilton. She was severely burned during the "Surrender Dorothy!" skywriting sequence at the Emerald City. Danko sat on a smoking pipe configured to look like the Witch's broomstick. The pipe exploded on the third take of the scene. She spent 11 days in the hospital and her legs were permanently scarred. The studio hired a new stunt double, Aline Goodwin, to finish the broomstick-riding scene for Danko.

When asked about her experiences on the set of The Wizard of Oz, Hamilton said her biggest fear was that her monstrous film role would give children the wrong idea of who she really was. In reality, she cared deeply about children, frequently giving to charitable organizations. She often remarked about children coming up to her and asking her why she had been so mean to Dorothy. She appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1975 where she explained to children she was only playing a role and showed how putting on a costume "transformed" her into the witch. She also made personal appearances, and Hamilton described the children's usual reaction to her portrayal of the Witch:

Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we're in an auditorium, I'll do it. And there's always a funny reaction, like 'Ye gods, they wish they hadn't asked.' They're scared. They're really scared for a second. Even adolescents. I guess for a minute they get the feeling they got when they watched the picture. They like to hear it but they 'don't' like to hear it. And then they go, 'Ooooooh ... !' The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess ... because when I talk like the Witch, and when I laugh, there is a hesitation and then they clap. They're clapping at hearing the sound again.

In By Your Leave (1934), she played his housekeeper, and in Saratoga (1937), she has a colloquy with Morgan regarding a cosmetic product he invented, with side glances and eye rolls by Morgan as to its effect on her "beauty"). Hamilton's line from The Wizard of Oz – "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" – was ranked 99th in the 2005 American Film Institute survey of the most memorable movie quotes. Her son, interviewed for the 2005 DVD edition of the film, commented that Hamilton enjoyed the line so much, she sometimes used it in her real life.

A few months after filming Oz, she appeared in Babes in Arms (1939) as Jeff Steele's aunt, Martha, a society do-gooder who made it her goal to send the gang of child actors, led by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, to a work farm. In 1945, she played the domineering sister of Oz co-star Jack Haley in George White's Scandals, comically trying to prevent him from marrying actress Joan Davis, even going so far as to throw a hatchet at her. Hamilton and Ray Bolger were cast members in the 1966 fantasy film The Daydreamer, a collection of stories by Hans Christian Andersen. A few years later, they were reunited on Broadway for the short-lived musical Come Summer.

Radio, television, and stage career

Margaret Hamilton, Ray Bolger, and Jack Haley reunited in 1970, a year after the death of co-star Judy Garland

Hamilton with Oscar the Grouch on episode #0847 of Sesame Street, 1976. The episode elicited negative reception among kids and parents, which led to it not being rebroadcast for over forty years, and was even believed to have been lost.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Hamilton had a long-running role on the radio series Ethel and Albert, or The Couple Next Door, in which she played the lovable, scattered Aunt Eva, with her name later changed to Aunt Effie. In 1957, she appeared in two episodes of The Phil Silvers Show. During the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton appeared regularly on television. She did a stint as a What's My Line? mystery guest on the popular Sunday night CBS-TV program. She played Morticia Addams's mother, Hester Frump, in three episodes of The Addams Family (1965–66). Hamilton had been offered the role of Grandmama, but turned it down.

In 1962, Hamilton played Leora Scofield, a suffragist who arrives in Laramie, Wyoming, to bolster feminist causes in a territory where women had already obtained the right to vote, in the episode "Beyond Justice" of NBC's Laramie.

Having started on the stage in the early 1930s, Hamilton began to work extensively in the theater after leaving Los Angeles. She appeared on Broadway in the musical Goldilocks opposite Don Ameche and Elaine Stritch, gave a lighter touch to the domineering Parthy Anne Hawks in the 1966 revival of Show Boat, dancing with David Wayne. In 1968, she was the tender Aunt Eller in the Lincoln Center revival of Oklahoma!. Hamilton toured in many plays and musicals, even repeating her role of the Wicked Witch in specially written stage productions of The Wizard of Oz. For her last stage role, she was cast as Madame Armfeldt in the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, singing the song "Liaisons" for the national tour costarring with Jean Simmons as her daughter Desiree.

Even with her extensive film career, Hamilton took roles in whatever medium she could get if she was free, making her soap opera debut as the nasty Mrs. Sayre on Valiant Lady, who schemed to prevent her daughter from marrying the heroine's son. In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on another CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, Katie. For ABC's short-lived radio anthology Theatre-Five, she played a manipulative, ailing Aunt Lettie to Joan Lorring as the unhappy niece Maude in "Noose of Pearls".

In the early 1970s, Hamilton joined the cast of another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns, on which she played Miss Peterson, Simon Gilbey's assistant. She had a small role in the made-for-television film The Night Strangler (1973) and appeared as a befuddled neighbor on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, a friend of the character played by Mary Wickes. In The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976), she portrayed Lynde's housekeeper, reprising the Wicked Witch role, as well as introducing Lynde to the rock group Kiss. When Hamilton reprised her role as the Wicked Witch in a 1976 episode of Sesame Street, "the show's producers were flooded with letters from parents saying it was too frightening for children."

She appeared as herself in three episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, between 1975 and 1976, because Fred Rogers wanted his viewers to recognize the Wicked Witch was just a character and not something to be afraid of. Hamilton continued acting regularly until 1982. Her last roles were two guest appearances as veteran journalist Thea Taft in 1979 and 1982, on Lou Grant.

Throughout the 1970s, Hamilton lived in New York City's Gramercy Park neighborhood and appeared on local (and some national) public-service announcements for organizations promoting the welfare of pets. Her most visible appearances during this period were as general store owner, Cora, in a national series of television commercials for Maxwell House coffee. On October 30, 1975, she guest-starred on the radio revival series CBS Radio Mystery Theater. In the episode, entitled "Triptych for a Witch", Hamilton played the title role.

Hamilton as Madame Armfeldt in the national tour of A Little Night Music, 1974

In 1973, Hamilton produced the stage production of An Evening with the Bourgeoisie. Her other mid-1970s stage productions, as the producer, were The Three Sisters and House Party.

Personal life

Hamilton married Paul Boynton Meserve on June 13, 1931, and made her debut on the New York City stage in 1932. While her acting career developed, her marriage began to fail; the couple divorced in 1938. They had one son, Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve, whom she raised on her own. Hamilton had three grandchildren, Christopher, Scott, and Margaret. She never remarried.

Her Gramercy Park neighbor Sybil Daneman reported that Hamilton loved children, but they were often afraid to meet her because of her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Daneman's nephew refused to meet Hamilton, because even though he understood she was an actress, he thought it was still possible she really was like the character in the movie.

Hamilton remained a lifelong friend of The Wizard of Oz castmate Ray Bolger (who played the Scarecrow). Hamilton was a regular parishioner of the Presbyterian church. A Republican, she supported the campaign of Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.

Final years and death

Hamilton's early experience as a teacher fueled a lifelong interest in educational issues. She served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education from 1948 to 1951 and was a Sunday school teacher during the 1950s. Hamilton lived in New York City for most of her adult life, and summered in a cottage on Cape Island, Southport, Maine. In 1979, she was a guest speaker at a University of Connecticut children's literature class.

Hamilton later moved to Millbrook, New York. She was admitted to a nursing home in Salisbury, Connecticut, six months before her death. She died of a heart attack on May 16, 1985, at the age of 82. Hamilton's remains were cremated.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1933	Zoo in Budapest	Assistant Matron for orphans	Uncredited
	Another Language	Helen Hallam
1934	Hat, Coat, and Glove	Madame Du Barry
	There's Always Tomorrow	Ella
	By Your Leave	Whiffen
	Broadway Bill	Edna
1935	The Farmer Takes a Wife	Lucy Gurget
	Way Down East	Martha Perkins
1936	Chatterbox	Emily 'Tippie' Tipton
	These Three	Agatha
	The Moon's Our Home	Mitty Simpson
	The Witness Chair	Grace Franklin
	Laughing at Trouble	Lizzie Beadle
1937	You Only Live Once	Hester
	When's Your Birthday?	Mossy
	The Good Old Soak	Minnie
	Mountain Justice	Phoebe Lamb
	Saratoga	Maizie	Uncredited
	I'll Take Romance	Margot
	Nothing Sacred	Vermont Drugstore Lady
1938	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Mrs. Harper
	A Slight Case of Murder	Mrs. Cagle
	Mother Carey's Chickens	Mrs. Pauline Fuller
	Four's a Crowd	Amy
	Breaking the Ice	Mrs. Small
	Stablemates	Beulah Flanders
1939	The Wizard of Oz	Miss Almira Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West
	The Angels Wash Their Faces	Miss Hannaberry
	Babes in Arms	Martha Steele
	Main Street Lawyer	Lucy, Boggs' Housekeeper
1940	My Little Chickadee	Mrs. Gideon
	The Villain Still Pursued Her	Mrs. Wilson
	I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now	Mrs. Thriffie
	The Invisible Woman	Mrs. Jackson
1941	Play Girl	Josie
	The Gay Vagabond	Agatha Badger
1942	Twin Beds	Norah
	Meet the Stewarts	Willametta
	The Affairs of Martha	Guinevere
1943	City Without Men	Dora
	The Ox-Bow Incident	Mrs. Larch	Uncredited
	Johnny Come Lately	Myrtle Ferguson
1944	Guest in the House	Hilda – the Maid
1945	George White's Scandals	Clarabelle Evans
1946	Janie Gets Married	Mrs. Angles
	Faithful in My Fashion	Miss Applegate
1947	The Sin of Harold Diddlebock	Flora
	Dishonored Lady	Mrs. Geiger
	Pet Peeves	Haughty Woman	Short film, uncredited
	Driftwood	Essie Keenan
1948	Reaching from Heaven	Sophie Manley
	State of the Union	Norah
	Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven	Ruby Cheever
	Bungalow 13	Mrs. Theresa Appleby
1949	The Sun Comes Up	Mrs. Golightly
	The Red Pony	Teacher
	The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend	Mrs. Elvira O'Toole	Uncredited
1950	The Great Plane Robbery	Mrs. Judd
	Wabash Avenue	Tillie Hutch
	Riding High	Edna
1951	Comin' Round the Mountain	Aunt Huddy
	People Will Talk	Miss Sarah Pickett – Housekeeper	Uncredited
1960	13 Ghosts	Elaine Zacharides
1962	The Good Years	Narrator
	Paradise Alley	Mrs. Nicholson
1964	Charlie Weaver		John Deere film
1966	The Daydreamer	Mrs. Klopplebobbler
1967	Rosie!	Mae
1969	Angel in My Pocket	Rhoda
1970	Brewster McCloud	Daphne Heap
1971	The Anderson Tapes	Miss Kaler
1972	Journey Back to Oz	Aunt Em	Voice

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950–51	The Bigelow Theatre	Mrs. Greenstreet	Episodes: "Papa Romani" (S 1:Ep 2) "Dear Amanda" (S 1:Ep 15)
1952	Gulf Playhouse	Guest	Episode: (S 1:Ep 3)
	My Hero	Mrs. Morgan	Episode: "Lady Mortician" (S 1:Ep 2)
1953	Lux Video Theatre	Charity Ames	Episode: "Wind on the Way" (S 3:Ep 42)
	Ethel and Albert	Aunt Eva	2 episodes
	Man Against Crime	Mrs. Barker	Episode: "A Family Affair" (S 4:Ep 26)
	A String of Blue Beads	Mrs. Loomis	Television film
	Man Against Crime	Mrs. Parmalee	Episode: "Petite Larceny" (S 5:Ep 11)
1954	The Campbell Playhouse	Guest	Episode: "An Eye for an Eye" (S 2:Ep 35)
	The Best of Broadway	Sarah	Episode: "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (S 1:Ep 2)
	Center Stage	Guest	Episode: "Lucky Louie" (S 1:Ep 5)
	The Elgin Hour	Gwen	Episode: "Warm Clay" (S 1:Ep 4)
1955	The Best of Broadway	Usher	Episode: "The Guardsman" (S 1:Ep 7)
	Valiant Lady	Mrs. Sayre	Main cast member
	The Devil's Disciple	Mrs. Dudgeon	TV movie
	The Way of the World	Guest	Short lived TV series
1957	On Borrowed Time	Demetria Riffle	Television film
	The Phil Silvers Show	Miss Gloria Formby / Hermione Nightengale	2 episodes
1958	The Christmas Tree	Miss Finch	Television film
1959	Once Upon a Christmas Time	Miss Scugg	Television film
1960	Dow Hour of Great Mysteries	Lizzie Allen	Episode: "The Bat" (S 1:Ep 1), based on the play of the same name by Mary Roberts Rinehart
	The Secret World of Eddie Hodges	Mrs. Grundy	Television film
1961	Ichabod and Me	Mehitabel Hobbs	Episode: "The Purple Cow (S 1:Ep 6)
1962	Laramie	Leora Scofield	Episode: "Beyond Justice" (S 4:Ep 9)
	The Danny Thomas Show	Miss Fenwick	Episode: "Bunny, the Brownie Leader" (S 10:Ep 13)
	Car 54, Where Are You?	Spinster	Episode: "Benny the Bookie's Last Chance" (S 2:Ep 17)
	The Patty Duke Show	The Lane Family housekeeper	Episode: "Double Date" (S 1:Ep 10)
	Car 54, Where Are You?	Miss Pownthleroy	Episode: "Here Comes Charlie" (S 2:Ep 23)
	The Patty Duke Show	Mrs. Williams	Episode: "Let 'Em Eat Cake" (S 1:Ep 21)
1964–67	The Secret Storm	Katie	Recurring
1965–66	The Addams Family	Hester Frump	Recurring
1967	Ghostbreakers	Ivy Rumson	Television film
1968	The Merv Griffin Show	Guest	Judy Garland was guest hosting 2 shows
1970	As the World Turns	Miss Peterson #2	Recurring
1971	Is There a Doctor in the House	Emma Proctor	Television film
1973	Sigmund and the Sea Monsters	Mrs. Eddels	Recurring
	Gunsmoke	Edsel Pry	Episode: "A Quiet Day in Dodge" (S 18:Ep 19)
	The Night Strangler	Professor Crabwell	Television film
	The Partridge Family	Clara Kincaid	Episode: "Reuben Kincaid Lives" (S 4:Ep 5)
1975–76	Mister Rogers' Neighborhood	Herself / Margaret H. Witch	4 episodes
1976	Sesame Street	Herself / Wicked Witch of the West	Episode: Episode #7.52 (S 7:Ep 52)
	The Paul Lynde Halloween Special	The Wicked Witch of the West	Reprisal for a Halloween Special
1979	Letters from Frank	Grandma Miller	Television film
1979–82	Lou Grant	Thea Taft	2 episodes
1982	Pardon Me For Living	Miss Holderness	Television film

See also

• Miss Gulch Returns!, 1979 play

Further reading

• Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Margaret Hamilton". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 122–124. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.
• Billie, Don (2024). Margaret Hamilton: From Cleveland, Ohio to the Land of Oz. Don Billie. ISBN 979-8218498528.

External links

• Margaret Hamilton at IMDb
• Margaret Hamilton at the Internet Broadway Database
• Margaret Hamilton at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Margaret Hamilton at Playbill Vault
• Margaret Hamilton at the TCM Movie Database
• Margaret Hamilton correspondence and ephemera, 1944-1979, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Obituary, New York Times, May 17, 1985
• Margaret Hamilton fan site