Margaret Hamilton (actress) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids 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	Actress, schoolteacher
Years active	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(s)	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 actress, vaudevillian and educator. 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 Jennie Adams. She attended Hathaway Brown School.

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 as Helen Hallam in the MGM film adaptation 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 was paid $1,000 a week ($20,400 in today's money ).

Hamilton co-starred opposite Buster Keaton and Richard Cromwell in The Villain Still Pursued Her. Later in the decade, she was in a little-known film noir, titled Bungalow 13 (1948). 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. 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.

On stage and screen, she was known for her rapid fire deadpan delivery, Midwestern accent, and her dark Contralto singing voice.

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. 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?'

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.

Radio, television, and stage career

Publicity photo of Hamilton as Miss Eddels in Sigmund and the Sea Monsters

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.

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. 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".

Hamilton with Oscar the Grouch on episode #0847 of Sesame Street, 1976.

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.

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.

She appeared as herself in three episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, between 1975 and 1976. Hamilton continued acting regularly until 1982.

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, 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.

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. In 1979, she was a guest speaker at a University of Connecticut children's literature class.

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

Interesting facts about Margare Hamilton

• Hamilton was cast as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz after Gale Sondergaard declined the role.
• Alhough Hamilton loved children, they were often afraid to meet her because of her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West.
• 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.
• 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.
• She remained a lifelong friend of The Wizard of Oz castmate Ray Bolger (who played the scarecrow).
• Hamilton lived in Manhattan for most of her adult life, and summered in a cottage on Cape Island, Southport, Maine. She later moved to Millbrook, New York.
• Her role as the Wicked Witch of the West is ranked by the American Film Institute as Hollywood's fourth-greatest villain of all time and the all time greatest female villain.
• Hamilton stood at only five feet tall.

Filmography

Film

Television

Images for kids

• 

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

• 

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

See also

In Spanish: Margaret Hamilton (actriz) para niños