The ‘Bewitched’ Cast Could’ve Used a Bit of Magic in Their Lives — Here’s What Happened to Them

Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha Stephens)

There’s no denying that Elizabeth Montgomery came out of the 1960s and early ‘70s as a major pop culture icon, her portrayal of Samantha Stephens ingraining itself in the imagination of a couple of generations of fans. It’s also certainly not surprising considering how endearing she was as that character.

Elizabeth was born on April 15, 1933 in Los Angeles, her father being film and TV actor Robert Montgomery, her mother Broadway actress Elizabeth Daniel Bryan. With that in mind, it’s hardly a shock that she would be drawn to the acting world herself. Her career starting with a 1951 appearance on her father’s anthology series, Robert Montgomery Presents. Between then and 1956, she would make 30 appearances on that show, playing a wide variety of roles.

Father/Daughter Dynamic

Herbie J Pilato points out that the relationship between Elizabeth and her father was strained and would become even more so over the years. “They loved each other dearly,” he explains, “but they were diametrically opposed on several levels. Firstly, with regards to politics — she was a liberal, he was a conservative. Even though she ultimately made her television debut on an episode of his anthology series, ‘Top Secret,’ he never wanted her to be an actress. In fact, he wanted her to settle down and get married and have a nice ‘regular’ life.”

Marriage … and Divorce

“She tried that with her first husband, New York high-roller Fred Cammann, who she had met on the set of Robert Montgomery Presents where he worked on the production end. Her father was thrilled when she married Cammann in New York, but Cammann wanted a wife and Elizabeth wanted to be a star. So he stayed on the East Coast, she journeyed to the West Coast and their marriage went south.” The marriage lasted from 1954-1955. “Her divorce from Cammann,” Herbie says, “put a wedge between she and her dad because Cammann was high society.”

Notably, her divorce was not the first wedge between father and daughter. His was. Details Herbie, “Robert Montgomery had divorced his wife, Elizabeth Allen, in 1950 and married yet another Elizabeth — Elizabeth Buffy Harkness. And Elizabeth Montgomery never forgave her father for divorcing her mother.”

Charting Her Own Path

On the acting front, it should be pointed out that Elizabeth didn’t owe her career to nepotism. Beyond her father’s show, she was able to practice her craft in multiple appearances on other anthology shows, like Armstrong Circle Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Appointment with Adventure, The Twilight Zone and Studio One. Prior to 1963, she also starred in movies for the small and big screen as well as made numerous guest appearances on episodic television. In the former category her credits include The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, The Spiral Staircase and Johnny Cool. In the latter it was The Third Man, Riverboat, Wagon Train, The Untouchables, Rawhide and 77 Sunset Strip.

‘Hate at First Sight’

By the time she’d made her 1963 film Johnny Cool, Elizabeth had been married a second time — in this case to Academy Award winning actor Gig Young. That marriage lasted from 1956 to 1963. It was on Johnny Cool where she met husband No. 3, William Asher, though things got off to a rough start between them.

“It was hate at first sight,” laughs Herbie, “because she was late for the audition. But then they just fell in love and wanted to work together. They wanted a regular series, because a series would give them the opportunity to go to work together on a daily basis in a more routine way as opposed to a feature film here and there.”

A Little Rascal and the Witch

That project took the form of Bewitched, which, according to TV historian Ed Robertson, has a lot more to do with former Little Rascal star Jackie Cooper than people might realize. “We actually owe Bewitched to Jackie Cooper,” he suggests, “in the sense that that was one of the shows he packaged when he ran the programming department at Screen Gems. He took a five-year sabbatical from acting and directing around ’63 or ’64, and he ran the programming department of Screen Gems at Columbia. He put together packages for the three networks, sold series and made TV movies produced by Screen Gems for broadcast on the networks. He did that until 1969. One of the shows he packaged was Bewitched and, presumably, I Dream of Jeannie and all the other great Screen Gems shows of that era.

Salesmanship

“Most people,” he elaborates, “think of Bill Asher when they think of Bewitched and Sol Saks, who had nothing do with it beyond the original concept. At the beginning it was Jackie Cooper, and once Asher and Elizabeth Montgomery got involved, they were essentially the ones who sold it to ABC.”

Professional Jealousy

As noted, Bewitched ran from 1964 to 1972 and became one of ABC’s biggest hits of the time and truly elevated Elizabeth to star status. “Because of that,” points out Herbie, “the wedge widened even further between her and her father when she became a bigger star on TV than he ever was on television or the big screen, where he began his career in the 1930s and ‘40s.”

From a Twitch to a Scowl

Bewitched actually would have gone on longer than eight seasons, but Elizabeth was anxious for things to come to an end. For starters, eight seasons of any show for most actors is pretty much enough time to live in the skin of one character. That frustration was becoming evident in her portrayal of Samantha. “Towards the end of the show, Elizabeth scowled a lot,” reflects Ed. “Especially at the end of the scene or during the final tag. She was visibly not happy doing the show then and apparently that’s been well documented.”

Looking to Escape

Herbie adds, “You watch some of those later shows — not all of them, but some of them — and she’s just dragging her feet. By the seventh and eighth year, it’s a different set, first of all, because the set that was used the first six years was destroyed by fire and they rebuilt it. But when they rebuilt it, there was a different lighting and a different lighting director in the way things were presented. So the show was different, many of the scripts were being remanufactured from the Dick York episodes and for Elizabeth, it wasn’t just that she was tired of the show, she was hurt during that eighth season, because Bill Asher hurt her. And it’s no big news that she was having an affair with Bewitched director Richard Michaels, who was Bill’s protégé.” When production ended after season 8, the two actually moved in together and stayed in a relationship for two and a half years.

Professional Marriages

He continues, “The thing is, the Bill Asher/Elizabeth Montgomery marriage was not the same as the years went on, and the show was not the same as the years went on. And usually — not always — when you have a partnership, whether it’s the man who’s the director and star or the woman who’s the director and star, usually when the show is over, the marriage is over. It was certainly true with Carol Burnett and Joe Hamilton and The Carol Burnett Show, or Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker after The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

Looking for Changes

Like many actors who become extremely identified with a single role, once Bewitched was over Elizabeth was definitely looking to take her career in a different direction. “When she left, she left,” observes Herbie. “For years there were all these rumors that she didn’t want to have anything to do with the show, or that she genuinely disliked it. None of that was true. But even during the show, she wanted to switch things up periodically and once she started playing Samantha’s cousin, Serena, it gave her more performance flexibility. But she loved the show, because in her eyes it was like a college course in the industry. She’d certainly done many guest spots on shows and did a few movies before that, but on a daily, day-to-day basis, she looked at it as a master’s class in television.”

Feeling Trapped

Ed Robertson says, “An actress always likes to do different things. That’s how they grow and that’s how they learn their craft. So the success of a television show is always a double-edged sword, because on the one hand it’s steady work and you know what you’re going to do every day for eight years. Not every working actor can say that. But at the same time, you want to play Hamlet or Lady Macbeth or something like that, but you can’t.”

Canceled by Choice

“When she left the show,” Herbie emphasizes, “everybody said, ‘Oh, the ratings were bad.’ No, ABC put it opposite All in the Family, where it was doing very well against that powerhouse. Everyone thought, ‘Well, the ratings weren’t the same…’ No, it wasn’t canceled. She quit. She ended the show. ABC went back to her and begged, her, but she didn’t want to do it anymore.”

Moving on From Samantha

Elizabeth pretty quickly put the education she’d acquired on Bewitched  to good use by seeking out a diversity of roles, focusing her attention on dramatic TV movies. It started with The Victim (1972) and continued with Mrs. Sundance (1972), a sequel of sorts to the big screen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; A Case of Rape (1974), the title of which says it all; The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), probably the most shocking turn for Elizabeth when you compare her to Samantha Stephens; Dark Victory (1976), playing a television producer with a terminal disease who finds strength to push through it thanks to the love she feels for her doctor (played by Hannibal Lecter… er, Sir Anthony Hopkins); A Killing Affair (1977), in which she costars with O.J. Simpson (that name rings a bell) as homicide detectives who fall in love. It goes on from there. Elizabeth starred in an additional 18 films by 1995, her final one being Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan.

Dramatic Intentions

States Ed, “My sense is that Elizabeth may have known it was going to be difficult after doing eight years of a show. She wanted to do something else and, from what I understand, she was eager to go back to her roots, so to speak, and play dramatic roles. Challenging roles like she did on Robert Montgomery Presents or The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables. With the made for TV movies at the height of their popularity in the mid-1970s, there were opportunities for actors to explore that within two-hour movies. It’s interesting that I can’t remember her doing a lot of comedic roles after Bewitched. She proved herself; most of the TV movies she did were well-publicized, got good numbers and it’s one of the reasons she made so many, because her ‘TV Q’ was very high. The networks knew she was bankable and she was willing to stretch herself.”

Queen of the TV Movies

“She became the Queen of TV movies,” says Herbie. “She was the first. Then it was Jane Seymour and then it was Valerie Bertinelli, but Elizabeth was first. And with films like A Case of Rape and The Legend of Lizzie Borden, there was no stopping her fame.”

Or, it would seem, the rift between her and her father. “When Elizabeth did Lizzie Borden in particular, her father really resented that because he took that as a slap in the face that Elizabeth would portray a woman who murdered her father and stepmother. When Robert found out that she was going to do that movie, he called Elizabeth up and said, ‘Oh, you would!'”

Finding Lasting Love

Elizabeth’s personal life went through another change when she made Mrs. Sundance, falling in love with costar Robert Foxworth. After living together for nearly 20 years, the two were married on January 28, 1993. Additionally, she was extremely devoted to her political beliefs and very active in them in addition to working with a number of charities.

Towards the End …

Although she didn’t talk about it much, over the years Elizabeth had battled colon cancer, truly believing that she had beaten it. Unfortunately, in the spring of 1995, she thought she was suffering from influenza or something similar while filming Deadline for Murder and waited until shooting had wrapped to go to the doctors. Sadly it was actually the return of the cancer which had, by that time, spread to her liver and was inoperable. She chose to return home to Robert rather than stay at the hospital, passing away on May 18, 1996 at the age of 62, leaving generations of fans heartbroken.

Dick York (Darrin Stephens)

When Dick York’s career began, in many ways it seemed the most promising of anyone’s — but life, unfortunately, frequently got in the way and prevented him from achieving all that he could. Born September 4, 1928 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Dick entered the world of entertainment at the age of 15 (after being discovered by a nun!) on the radio program That Brewster Boy. From there he appeared on hundreds of other radio shows, before moving to New York where he found himself on Broadway in such productions as Tea and Sympathy and Bus Stop. Next up were live television productions in which he acted alongside actors like Jack Lemmon, Janet Leigh and Glenn Ford.

Life-Changing Injury

After having small roles in a number of film shorts from 1955 to 1960, Dick found himself cast in seven films, including 1960’s Inherit the Wind. The year before, sadly, he shot the Western They Came to Cordura, which was an experience that most definitely changed his life — though not in a good way. As bewitched.net quotes him explaining, “Gary Cooper and I were propelling a handcar carrying several wounded men down the railroad track. I was on the bottom stroke of this sort of teeter-totter mechanism that made the handcar run. I was just lifting the handle up as the director yelled ‘cut!’ and one of the wounded cast members reached up and grabbed the handle. Now, instead of lifting the expected weight, I was suddenly, jarringly, lifting the entire weight off the flatbed; 180 pounds or so. The muscles along the right side of my back tore. They just snapped and let loose. And that was the start of it all: the pain, the painkillers, the addiction, the lost career.”

Pushing Forward Through the Haze

As severe as the injury was, he wasn’t aware at that time of the longterm effect it would have on him. Besides the aforementioned Inherit the Wind, he continued what had already been an extensive series of television appearances, ranging from anthologies (including two episodes of The Twilight Zone) and episodic shows. Additionally, he starred in the 1962-1963 series Going My Way, a comedy drama that featured Gene Kelly as Roman Catholic priest Father Chuck O’Malley. Dick was his childhood friend Tom Colwell, now the director of a secular neighborhood youth center.

A Unique Audition

Bewitched was next for him, and Herbie relates a humorous story as relayed to him by Dick himself: “Dick told me he got the part because he’d jumped on Elizabeth’s lap at the audition, turned to everybody in the room, including Bill Asher, and said, ‘Aren’t we cute together? You have to hire me.’ So he got it on personality and the physical comedy genius that he showed from the get go. He said, ‘That’s how I got all my jobs.’ Not sure if that meant he jumped on people’s laps all the time or not.”

Mortal Frustrations

One point he makes is that Dick York was actually unhappy that Darrin was always so against the magic part of the show and abrasive to Samantha, which is not the way he would have preferred to play it. “He was directed to play in that way,” he says. “First and foremost, he always saw the show as a love story about two people who truly did adore each other. They say comedy really stems from a man in trouble, well, from the minute Dick York stepped in to the role of Darrin, he played a man in trouble. It was always this spastic performance of constantly being pulled into this turmoil that he dealt with.”

Coping With Changes

By the time he was cast as Darrin Stephens on Bewitched, Dick’s back problems were already starting to become an issue. Nonetheless, everyone seemed willing to work with him as best they could. In fact, the crew constructed a slanted wall for him to lean on between takes, which reportedly did wonders for him during the show’s first two seasons. Beginning with season 3,  however, things became increasingly worse, to the point where Darrin would either be on the couch, in bed or away on business, which caused the writers to rely more and more on Samantha’s witch and warlock relatives. By season 5, after collapsing on set, and following a hospital bedside conversation with William Asher, the mutual decision was made that he would leave the series. Beginning with season six, he would be replaced by actor Dick Sargent.

Moving On

Says Herbie, “Dick York was devastated when he left the series. He really was. He felt that if he had been given that summer of ’69 to heal, he would’ve been able to finish the run of the show — which was really kind of an amazing statement. Over the years he’d missed 14 episodes.”

Battling Pain and Addiction

For a year and a half after that, Dick remained largely in bed, his body filled with painkillers. Eventually he decided to quit the pills, which resulted in six months of painful — physically and emotionally — detox. He did act again in a 1983 episode of Simon & Simon and a 1984 episode of Fantasy Island, but for all intents and purposes his career was sadly over.

Things Go From Bad to Worse

Healthwise, things got worse for him. For the majority of his life, Dick had been a three-packs-a-day smoker, which resulted in his contracting emphysema. By 1989 it had become necessary for him to have an oxygen tank with him at all times to breathe. Of his final years, Wikipedia says, “While bedridden in his Rockford, Michigan home, he founded Acting for Life, a private charity to help the homeless and others in need. Using his telephone as his pulpit, York motivated politicians, business people and the general public to contribute supplies and money.”

Dick York Revealed

Before he decided to write a book about the show, Herbie had written a script for a Bewitched reunion movie. He had begun communicating with Dick and eventually found himself at the actor’s home in Michigan. “I have to say, it was difficult, because by then he was so sick with emphysema,” he admits. “But he was an incredible person. Very bright, very intelligent and a very spiritual person. He and Agnes Moorehead got along very well. She had a great respect for his talent. Agnes Moorehead was not someone you could easily impress, but she just adored him.”

Dick would die as a result of complications from emphysema on February 20, 1992. He was only 63.

Agnes Moorehead (Endora)

You know you can’t have a sitcom about newlyweds without an interfering mother-in-law who just despises the man her daughter has decided to marry. Well, the fact that mother and daughter are witches just adds to the fun. Naturally we’re talking about the character of Endora as played by actress Agnes Moorehead. Born Agnes Robertson Moorehead on December 6, 1900, she enjoyed a 41-year career that spanned radio, stage, film and television (for which, whether she liked it or not, she’s best remembered). By all reports, her first “performance” was reciting the Lord’s Prayer at the church of her father, a Presbyterian clergyman. As she got a little older she joined the chorus of the St. Louis Municipal Opera Company.

‘Citizen’ Agnes

Although she managed to score some stage work, jobs were difficult to come by early on and she struggled. She eventually found a home on radio dramas and comedies, which allowed her to create a wide variety of characters. In 1937 she joined and became an important part of Orson Welles’ Mercury Players and even played Margo Lane to his The Shadow on radio. Welles moved to Hollywood, bringing a couple of members of the Mercury Players, including Agnes. When he made the classic film Citizen Kane, she played the mother of his character, Charles Foster Kane. How’s that for a feature film debut?

A Career in Film and TV

In the mid-1940s, she became a contract player for MGM with a (very unusual) clause in her contract that allowed her to perform on the radio as well. Prior to being cast as Endora on Bewitched, she appeared in 60 movies. She also guest starred on numerous TV shows, including an acclaimed performance on The Twilight Zone. Her signing on for Bewitched seemed surprising to many people, including Agnes herself.

Finding Endora

Explains Herbie, “They could not find their Endora, and Elizabeth and Bill were shopping in Bloomingdale’s in New York and he ran into her and asked her about doing the show. He ran over to Elizabeth and he says, ‘I found mother!’ And she thought he meant his mother or hers. So they asked Agnes Moorehead right on the spot if she would do the show and she replies, ‘Maybe, maybe not.’ She ended up doing it, but gave the sense that the pilot was beneath her. She said, ‘I’ll do the pilot, but it probably won’t sell.’ Then it sold and she still gave the impression that it was beneath her. But everybody — including her — knew she was having a great old time throwing herself over the mantle at the fireplace in those chiffon gowns. She just ate it up. She and Elizabeth had a very dear respect for each other. Agnes Moorehead respected her as an actress and also respected her because of her father, who she knew.”

Looking for Joy in TV

Muses Ed, “Agnes Moorehead came from a a very rich career with Orson Welles and the Mercury Players. She was a great stage actress and I believe she said to Dick York between takes, ‘It’s fun to do the show, but when can we act?’ It wasn’t challenging to her but, that being said, she brought great joy to Endora. Even just being the mother-in-law, I always got the sense that she, being the gifted actress she was, brought nuances to it so that it would seem fresh and fun beyond the wild getups with Endora popping in with a ski suit on or something, having been in Swiss Alps — it was an exotic life, when she wasn’t making trouble for Darrin.”

Emmy Winner

Agnes stayed with the show until the end in 1972. That year she appeared in the TV movies Rolling Man and Night of Terror, as well as 1973’s Frankenstein: The True Story. In terms of episodic television, she guest-starred on a 1972 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D. Her final role was in the 1974 TV film Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love. Impressively, during her time on Bewitched she guest starred on other shows and even took home a supporting actress Emmy for a role on The Wild Wild West.

Agnes died of uterine cancer on April 30, 1974 at the age of 73. There are some who believe that she developed cancer during the making the John Wayne film The Conqueror as a result of atomic bomb testings in Utah.

Dick Sargent (Darrin Stephens)

When Bewitched returned for its sixth season, regular viewers were shocked to see that Dick York was no longer playing Darrin Stephens, and that he had been replaced by actor Dick Sargent, who would remain as the character until the show ended following its eighth year. He was born Richard Stanford Cox on April 19, 1930 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Dick began his education at the San Rafael Military Academy (his father was a colonel in World War I), before deciding to major in drama at Stanford University.

A Change in Darrins

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Dick Sargent was definitely a working actor, scoring parts in a wide number of films and television series guest starring roles, but none of them put him in front of an audience in the same way that Bewitched did, though there’s no question that his Darrin was different from Dick York’s.

“When I was a kid,” reflects Ed, “I would would watch Bewitched with my family.  I remember my mother and my older siblings mentioning how angry Dick York always seemed. My family seemed to prefer Dick Sargent because he was calmer; he didn’t yell as much. As Sargent said in more than one interview, it made sense for him to play it that way, because if you think of each year of the show as a year in their marriage, by the fifth year, if not before, you would think Darrin Stephens would be long accustomed to the weird stuff happening in his house and in his life. Unless you want to live with high blood pressure, you make adjustments. He also talked about the fact that most people in a successful marriage learn to compromise. You don’t stay married unless you grow, evolve and compromise. Even though Darrin loved Samantha and came to accept her wacky relatives, he never quite evolved in that way.”

Elizabeth Montgomery and the Darrins

Herbie expands on the subject, “I had talked with Elizabeth about the casting and said, ‘People are going to want to know what you feel about the Darrin situation.’ She said, ‘Well, people complained that Dick Sargent wasn’t as animated and as aghast at the magic happening as much as Dick York was.’ In her very diplomatic way, she said that by the time Dick Sargent had come to play Darrin, the shock of having magic in his life was not as shocking. Having said that, if you watched the show, for whatever reason Elizabeth was more kissy-feely with Dick Sargent as Darrin as opposed to Dick York. Whenever Dick York and Elizabeth kissed, it was little pecks and things like that. I think because Dick Sargent happened to be gay that maybe she felt more comfortable kissing him without there being a threat. Not that there was a threat from Dick York, it was just different.”

Endora Finds a New Target

As much as Elizabeth enjoyed Dick Sargent, Herbie points out that Agnes Moorehead did not. “As a matter of fact,” he explains, “she stood up at the first reading of the first script and she said, ‘I do not like change.’ She just did not want him on the show. It got to the point where Elizabeth finally had to pull her over and have a talk with her and say, ‘Look, I know how you can be and you know how you can be. You need to be a little bit more accepting and cordial to Dick Sargent.’ As it turned out, it wasn’t so much that she didn’t like Dick Sargent, she just loved Dick York so much.”

Putting Himself Out There

When Bewitched finally came to a close, Dick picked up his career where it had been, doing the occasional film and appearing on different shows. In the 1980s he worked alongside actress Sally Struthers for the Christian Children’s Fund. Later, in 1991, on National Coming Out Day he announced publicly that he was gay and one person who didn’t hesitate in her support was Elizabeth Montgomery — the following year the two of them served as Grand Marshals of the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.

His Final Years

Like many of his Bewitched costars, Dick did not live a long life. In 1989 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and while it seemed it had been caught in time, the disease nonetheless spread to other parts of his body. He ended up dying on July 8, 1994 at the age of 64. In the aftermath, Elizabeth commented, “He was a great friend and I will miss his love, his sense of humor and his remarkable courage.”

Erin Murphy (Tabitha)

As previously noted, there weren’t a lot of happy endings when it came to the cast of Bewitched, but it’s wonderful that Erin Murphy is one. Born June 17, 1964 along with fraternal twin Diane Murphy in Encinco California, they were cast in the single role of Samantha and Darrin’s daughter, Tabitha in the show’s third season. Eventually Diane dropped out, but Erin was there for 103 episodes. Even more importantly, as she explained to us in an in-depth exclusive interview, she managed to avoid the child actor curse and has lived a wonderful life.

Avoiding the Child Star Curse

“Somehow, some way, Erin Murphy escaped that dreadful former child star syndrome,” Herbie enthuses. “Whether that leads to depression or suicide, it’s just dreadful, because you’re on the set as a little kid in the old days of the industry and people are telling you how beautiful you are and how wonderful you are. There was not a lot of therapy and then the show is canceled and nobody gives a s–t about you anymore. But Erin and her sister, Diane, both made it. Erin became the face of Bewitched, because she looked like Elizabeth and enjoyed acting more than her sister did, and it just worked out.”

It’s All About Family

Points out Ed, “Erin took the time to raise her family and took advantage of the opportunities of growing up in L.A. and the entertainment industry and tried her hand at different things. I think she was raised well by her parents and on top of that — and I’m not the first person to say it — it’s kind of strange that she really does look like Elizabeth Montgomery. When I talk to former child stars who succeed as grownup actors, I have found that the ones who are able to make that transition, or the ones who don’t end up screwed up in the head, are the ones that were reared by strong, responsible parents who didn’t take advantage of their kids’ fame, didn’t take advantage of the money and raised the kids to be as normal as possible.”

David White (Larry Tate)

Darrin’s boss at the advertising agency of McMann & Tate is Larry Tate, played by actor David White, who was around throughout Bewitched’s full run. Born April 4, 1916 in North Hollywood, California, he began his career at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Cleveland Play House. Following a stint in World War II as part of the United States Marine Corps, he made his Broadway debut in Last and Bough. His first credited role in a film is 1960’s The Apartment, his last 1985’s Brewster’s Millions. He appeared in several other films and as a guest star on numerous television series. He suffered a fatal heart attack on November 27, 1990 at the age of 74.

Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur)

Cast as Samantha’s eccentric warlock uncle, Arthur, is the brilliant Paul Lynde who certainly gives the impression that he was something of a regular on Bewitched. Truth be told, the man only appeared on a total of 11 episodes. Notes Herbie, “His comedic timing and delivery was like no other. Viewers have, for years, believed he made many more appearances than he actually made. That’s a testament to his talent and his presence on screen.” Adds his friend and biographer, Cathy Rudolph, “He used to say to me, ‘I was only on the show 11 times; they must have run a lot of reruns, because everybody calls me Uncle Arthur when I go on the street.’ The kids especially — and he loved it.” For so much more on Paul Lynde, please check out our exclusive in-depth profile on him.

Alice Pearce (Mrs. Kravitz)

The Stephens’ nosey next door neighbor was Gladys Kravitz, who was always keeping her eye on their house, desperately trying to prove that there were strange happenings taking place there. The first actress to play the role was Alice Pearce, born October 16, 1917 in New York City. Her start was as a nightclub comedian, who found herself cast in the Broadway production (and then the feature film adaptation) On the Town. As a result of her impact in the role, she was given her own TV variety series, The Alice Pearce Show, which ran on ABC in 1949. She made numerous appearances in films and television shows, appearing in 27 episodes of Bewitched. Although she kept it a secret, she was actually diagnosed with ovarian cancer prior to her first appearance on the series and died from the disease on March 3, 1966 at the age of 48.

Sandra Gould (Mrs. Kravitz)

Following the passing of her predecessor in the role, Sandra Gould played Alice Kravitz for a total of 29 episodes between Bewitched’s third and seventh seasons. Born July 23, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York, her film career spans from 1947’s T-Men to 1992’s The Nutt House, many of her performances going uncredited. Sandra also made many guest star appearances on TV shows. Suffering a stroke following heart surgery, she died on July 20, 1999 a few days before she would have turned 83.

George Tobias (Mr. Kravitz)

The voice of reason in the Kravitz household, he frequently threatened to have his wife locked up for her seemingly insane accusations regarding the Stephens’. The man playing him is George Tobias, born July 14, 1901 in New York City. An in-demand character actor, he appeared in dozens of films between 1927’s The Lunatic and 1970’s Tora! Tora! Tora! He made many TV guest appearances and starred in the 1959 series Hudson’s Bay and 1960-1961’s Adventures in Paradise, in addition to the 55 appearances he made on Bewitched. He died on February 27, 1980 at the age of 78.

Irene Vernon (Louise Tate)

Irene Vernon was the first actress to play Larry Tate’s wife, Louise. She ended up leaving the series due to pressure from both Elizabeth Montgomery and William Asher following the departure of writer Danny Arnold (who would go on to create Barney Miller), who she had a close friendship with. She was born January 16, 1922 in Mishawaka, Indiana and was a frequent guest star performer on TV shows. Additionally she had uncredited roles in a number of feature films (the one exception being 1950’s The Sound of Fury). She passed away at the age of 76 on April 21, 1998 of congestive heart failure.

Kasey Rogers (Louise Tate)

Born December 15, 1925, Kasey Rogers — who would go on to replace Irene as Louise Tate — like most of her costars enjoyed guest starring roles on different episodic TV shows, and appeared in many films in small or uncredited roles. Additionally, she was the coauthor of five books, including The Bewitched Cookbook: Magic in the Kitchen. On top of all of that, she got involved in the world of motocross racing. She lived until the age of 80, passing away on July 6, 2006 from a combination of a long battle with throat cancer, cardiac arrest and a stroke.

Marion Lorne (Aunt Clara)

One of Samantha Stephens’ most beloved relatives was the befuddled Aunt Clara, played by Marion Lorne, who was born August 12, 1883 in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Her early career consisted primarily of stage work, though she made the leap to the big screen in 1951 in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Strangers on a Train. She played Aunt Clara in 27 episodes between 1964 and 1968, but died of a heart attack on May 9, 1968 at the age of 84. She was posthumously awarded an Emmy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress for her Bewitched role.

Bernard Fox (Dr. Bombay)

Doctor Bombay was a doctor who definitely made house calls (albeit magical ones), and he was brought to life by Welsh actor Bernard Fox, who was born on May 11, 1927. He appeared on many TV shows and in movies. Interestingly, he boarded the Titanic twice, first in 1958’s A Night to Remember and then James Cameron‘s modern classic released in 1997. “The irony of Bernard Fox playing Dr. Bombay,” points out Herbie, “is that he was a witch doctor, but in the first episode of the show he appeared in he played more of a professor of sorts who was actually a witch hunter.” He passed away from heart failure on December 14, 2016 at the age of 89.

Alice Ghostley (Esmeralda)

William Asher approached actress Alice Ghostley twice about joining the cast of Bewitched. First, to replace Alice Pearce as Mrs. Kravitz. “But,” says Herbie, “she was friends with Alice and felt funny about replacing her. And when Marion Lorne died — and she’d also known Marion — Bill Asher went back to Alice and said, ‘Look, you wouldn’t be playing the same character, but you’d be playing a similar character to Aunt Clara. We need a bumbling witch.’ So that’s when she became the ‘maid.'”

She was born on August 14, 1923 in Vernon County, Missouri. Although Alice was known for her stage role, her greatest recognition came from television where she guest starred on many shows, recurred on a few others and was a regular on Designing Women. She made a total of 15 appearances on Bewitched. She died at the age of 84 on September 21, 2017 after a long battle with colon cancer and suffering a series of strokes.

Maurice Evans (Maurice)

Born June 3, 1901 in England, Maurice Evans enjoyed a long life on the stage, both in England and America, with an emphasis in Shakespeare. That experience fed his performance as Samantha’s father, Maurice, on Bewitched. Despite his success in the theater and the movies, it is that role for which he’s best remembered as well as the part of talking orangutan Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). He suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 87 on March 12, 1989.