Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was born on April 15, 1933. She was the daughter of actors Robert Montgomery and Elizabeth Allen. She made her TV debut in her father's series Robert Montgomery Presents and her film debut in 1955's The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell. While best remembered for playing Samantha in Bewitched, Montgomery refused to do Samantha's famous witch-twitch for fans after the show went off the air, and was reluctant to discuss the role. She spent the years after Bewitched playing dramatic roles that took her as far away from the good-natured Samantha as possible. In addition to the five Emmy Award and four Golden Globe nominations that Montgomery earned for her work as Samantha, she received more Emmy nods for playing a rape victim in A Case of Rape (1974); her portrayal of alleged axe murderer Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975); and her role as a strong woman facing hardship in 1820s Ohio in the mini-series The Awakening Land (1978). She also made a chilling villain in the 1985 movie Amos, playing a nurse in a state home who terrorized residents Kirk Douglas and Dorothy McGuire .

Montgomery was married to actor Gig Young from 1956 to 1963, Bewitched director William Asher from 1963 to 1973, and lived with actor Robert Foxworth (whom she married in 1993) for 20 years until her death. She had three children with Asher. The star passed away May 18, 1995.

Character Bio

Samantha is a witch born into a large, eccentric family that includes her mother Endora, her father Maurice, her twin cousin Serena, her Uncle Arthur, and aunts Clara, Enchantra and Hagatha. With the exception of her Aunt Clara, Samantha's entire family frowns on her "mixed" marriage to a mortal. She is married to Darrin Stephens, a non-supernatural man whom she literally bumped into several times in one day, and subsequently fell in love with. Though now a dutiful wife and mother of two, she is not your typical suburban housewife. While trying to maintain her household, as well as her promise to Darrin of "no witchcraft," she copes daily with Endora's dislike of her husband, Darrin's dislike of her mother, a practical-joking warlock of an uncle, an irresistible, doddering older aunt who can unintentionally black out the entire Eastern seaboard of the United States, the world's nosiest neighbor, and assorted other wood nymphs, elves and warlocks. Though once crowned "Queen of the Witches" by the Witches Council, Samantha uses sound logic and clever instinct to find her way out of most of the supernatural challenges that befall the Stephens family in their home on Morning Glory Circle in Westport, Conn.