Let's Talk About . . . Agnes Moorehead

She was quite beautiful too.

How do you know she wasn't a lesbian, OP? That is an obnoxious way to begin a thread.

Plus, it doesn't diminish her acting abilities to suggest she was a lesbian.

Go-head

Go-head

Go-head

Moore-head!

She was indeed a lesbian.

She called her mansion, in Beverly Hills, Villa Agnesse

Sorry, total lez.

I remember reading an interview she did with Boze Hadleigh. He tried valiantly to get her to reveal herself as a lesbian, but she frittered around the topic and denied it. IIRC, she was also very negative and dismissive of gay rumors regarding her Hollywood colleagues. Sad for her and typical of the times she lived in.

Uber-religious.

Deeply-closeted.

What's your damage, OP?

And don't forget "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte."

I just think it's demeaning that everyone refers to her as "Agnes the Dyke" when she was such an accomplished person. I don't think she was a lesbian, and of course I don't care, but she was so, so much more.

FWIW, she was married twice (her first marriage lasted 20 years) and Debbie Reynolds has specifically denied she was a lesbian.

I'll admit she was a little weird in the religious department, but what great artists aren't a little odd?

People may also be surprised to know that she was considered one of Hollywood's great hostesses, and her annual birthday/Christmas party was attended by everyone and generally considered the unofficial kickoff of the Hollywood holiday season.

She lived on North Roxbury in Beverly Hills, right across the street from Lucy and Desi and the Jimmy Stewarts and the Jack Bennys.

Who is this EVERYONE you are referring to and are you trying to say it's 'demeaning' to be a lesbian?

are you the OP?

Debbie Reynolds says Debbie Reynolds is straight, so she is hardly the source I would consider 100% accurate.

Let's talk about other aspects of "The Fabulous Redhead", which is what Agnes' one-woman show was called. Whether she was a closeted lesbian shouldn't matter. She was deeply religious, the daughter of a minister, and was raised in a very different era. But she was one of the most versatile character actresses that ever graced the screen, and was never out of work. To think she was doing whiney "po white" Velma Cruthers in "Hush" the same year she was being elegant as Endora is a testament to her talent! It's great to hear what Elizabeth Montgomery said about her. There was real affection there, and it shows on "Bewitched". The show wouldn't have worked as well without that chemistry.

She could do hysteria better than anyone else. Orson Welles once called her “the best actress in America” (or the world) but I can’t find the quote online. I read it in a book a long time ago.

Her marriages lasted so long because in both cases she and the husband spent most of their time apart. She and her first husband didn’t have a close relationship for long; for the most part she stationed him in Ohio to run the farm she owned there. She and her second husband separated soon after they married, but didn’t bother to divorce until years later, making it look like a 6-8 year marriage. I’d say both marriages were pretty “open” given the lack of time they spent together.

Debbie Reynolds is not objective at all when it comes to Agnes Moorehead. She basically worshiped her, so I take anything she says on the subject with a block of salt.

The gay guys here only want beautiful women to be lesbians and Agnes was a dog.

I disagree. She was very striking; hardly a dog.

I got the BF the first two seasons of BEWITCHED (Christ! there's like 38 episodes apiece!) and she really is a joy.

She is so committed to the role - most other actresses would become one-note in that kind of part after the first couple dozen episodes.

The episodes that feature mother-daughter stories are our favorites.

And her relationship with Derwood is really a lot more complex than I had remembered as a child.

And there's an extra who keeps appearing behind the counter at airports, on the floor in restaurants and other crowd scenes who is as cute as a but. Bet he was fucking Dick Sergeant.

The twins who played Tabitha have said she always tried to get them to pray with her on the set, which unnerved their parents.

It is amazing that the black and white episodes of Bewitched are a lot more complex then the later color ones. All of the relationships, from Sam and Endora, to Sam and Darrin, to Darrin and Endora are a lot less cartoony and real then the color ones. Even in the B & W ones Sam's best relationships are with Endora and Aunt Clara.

Agnes always played everything the same way - sometimes she was a young shrew and sometimes she was an old shrew - that was her range.

Milton Berle once said about the honoree at a Friar's Roast: "He's been looking forward to this evening as much as he's been looking forward to a blow job from Agnes Moorehead."

Her face was not her fortune.

[quote]It is amazing that the black and white episodes of Bewitched are a lot more complex then the later color ones.

That's true of almost every show that switched from B&W to color. It's like they decided that they no longer needed writers and good scripts because they had this wonderful new toy called color to play with instead.

You see it most clearly on the westerns. The B&W Gunsmokes are very tightly scripted, and then color comes along and its nothing but filler of people riding horses across the beautiful countryside.

To get back to Agnes, it should be noted that her death may well have been one of the ones caused by filming The Conqueror downwind from a nuclear test site.

The cast and crew totaled 220 people. By 1981, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease.

I don't agree that she was a dog, either. Oftentimes when she played very shrewish characters, e.g. Madge Rapf in Dark Passage or that busybody in Since You Went Away, she could appear ugly. But she was in a movie called Government Girl in 1943 and there's a scene that involves a reception line. Agnes is standing next to Olivia de Havilland and Aggie's glamour makes de Havilland fade into the background. She was often quite beautiful in still photos taken during her tour of Don Juan in Hell in the 1950s. She could be beautiful or ugly or anything in between, depending on what the role called for. The roles she played for Welles simply required her to appear plain. She really was extremely versatile, given how distinctive her face was to begin with.

I thought the gay guys here did NOT want beautiful women to be lesbians . . . .

[quote] She was indeed a lesbian. by: Debbie Reynolds.

Actually, according to Debbie in an interview she did on TCM a few years ago, Aggie wasn't a lesbian.

I think that even if she wasn't an active lesbian, she was a repressed one (due to the extreme religiosity). She pinged too hard onscreen to be totally straight.

Agnes was known for giving younger actresses a thorough tongue lashing.

Debbie was the one who was always shouting to her "Agnes! More head, more head!" Of course she'd want to keep that quiet.

I would like to see an attractive photo of Agnes Moorehead, please.

This is a rather nice photo from her early days in Hollywood.

She was very over the top in some of her roles, she cracks me up. I liked her in Dark Passage, she was a tough cookie.

Here she is in "Mrs. Parkington," looking downright glamorous.

How the hell should I know, Darling? I never sucked her cock.

Looking very glam here, almost like Liz Taylor's "handsomer" older sister.

And at her most beautiful.

R20, she very rarely played sympathetic characters, although I think she was supposed to be in Caged. There aren’t any others I can think of offhand. I wonder if she just didn’t have it in her personally to play someone sympathetic.

R27, pause the linked YouTube tribute at the following points:

:18 (That may have been from Government Girl)

1:25 (Don Juan in Hell)

2:53 (offstage)

3:00

3:07 (offstage)

2:32 is with her first husband, Jack Lee

1:08 may have been her much younger second husband, Robert Gist. I just found a website called Just Call Me Aggie that has a lot of info on both of her husbands. Gist fathered children out of wedlock left and right, two during his marriage to Moorehead. It also has the full picture from 1:25.

R29, 1:56-2:18 is Madge Rapf. Watch how her face changes from okay to very pretty to ugly. That hairstyle wasn’t doing her any favors.

Her papers are at the University of Wisconsin - I've been wanting to go take a look (am in Chicago).

She was complicated. People have complicated lives.

Thanks for this thread, OP. I loved her even though I was a tiny gay watching Bewitched re-re-reruns.

Am excited to listen to Sorry, Wrong Number. Link for others who might like it.

She may or may not have been a lesbian but she was clearly a religious fundie who left a large portion of her estate to the racists at Bob Jones University.

How about The Twilight Zone, when she played the hysterical woman attacked by a tiny creature from "outerspace." No words, just facial expressions-a masterpiece!

She was a very peculiar person. She became a fundie in her later years, though she was always religious. She carried a Bible at all times when she was on the set of Bewitched, and she read the children Bible stories from a children's storybook. But at that time of her life she had many gay friends, including Lynde. Montgomery said she knew that Moorehead was a lesbian.

Paul Lynde, who was close friends with her, also said that she was a lesbian.

Reynolds always had Sunday dinner with Moorehead, but she admitted that she didn't know her very well. I think she says that Moorehead wasn't gay because she knows about the rumor.

Anyone know which bio of Montgomery or Moorehead is the best?

"Milton Berle once said about the honoree at a Friar's Roast: "He's been looking forward to this evening as much as he's been looking forward to a blow job from Agnes Moorehead."

I doubt anyone would look forward to blowing him.

R40, the ONLY bio of Moorehead portrays her as a proper heterosexual woman.

>>>I would like to see an attractive photo of Agnes Moorehead, please

there.are.none

[quote]I doubt anyone would look forward to blowing him.

Mrs Patrick Campbell just fainted.

Unless you were gnawing at her clit, OP, there's no definitive way to say whether she was doing the lez-lez or not.

That schnozz had to be photographed very carefully.

It was better from her left, R45, but she didn't have the clout or my vanity to insist on it.

How wonderful for her, that she found everlasting fame and, no doubt, glorious financial securit in Bewitched when so many other elder actresses were being ignored or forgotten. And she could even look fab and glamorous in the role, unlike so many of her earlier character parts.

Nobody seemed to dislike her. Well, except for maybe creepy old Milton Berle.

Agnes Moorehead is being lauded on Datalounge because she played Endora - essentially a catty bitch in caftans and elaborate earrings.

Paul Lynde called her "one of Hollywood's biggest ALL-TIME dykes".

R42 is incorrect. The bio does not give a definitive account of Moorehead's life, which it freely admits, because Moorehead liked to fool people. She enjoyed creating a false persona around herself to keep people guessing. Many of Moorehead's gay friends said they didn't think she was gay, but Lynde outed her. No one really knew who she was because she preferred it that way. She didn't want even her friends to know who she really was.

We do know that she had a son, who was adopted. She tried to pass him off as a biological son at times, even though she'd adopted him when she was two. Her father had been a minister, and she was religious, though her fundie beliefs didn't start until she was near death. She had many gay friends in her life.

Paul Lynde insisted that he knew she was gay. Montgomery said that Moorehead was incredibly private, but that she knew Moorehead was gay. A lot of the actors on that show were gay. Montgomery, her husband, and the producer of Bewitched decided early on that "bewitched" was, in part, an allegory for gay people being forced to be in the closet (hence Sam having to hide her powers and true self). Montgomery said they discussed it at meetings and on the set, but never when a rep from the network was present. Montgomery was extremely gay friendly. Her father was actor Robert Montgomery and her mother was a theater actress...her father's best friend was Noel Coward. Coward was considered part of the family, and attended family functions. Liz adored him.

What does it mean when in the past when someone's "papers" were donated to a library? Is it like the letters they wrote when they were alive or their phone bills? Today, does anyone even have papers? Or woud there just be a laptop? Doesn't seem to have the same cache or mystique frankly.

If she was incredibly private about her life to even her closest friends, I would suspect she simply didn't have any sex life....but undoubtedly felt she would appear dreary and dull in Hollywood if there didn't appear to be something.

Well I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on Agnes' attractiveness.

She was a brilliant actress. I've seen her films and listened to her radio shows, and my guilty pleasure is "The Conqueror" where she's the mother of Genghis Khan, played by John Wayne.

Wayne thought it would be unpatriotic to think you could get sick from atomic bomb testing residue in the Nevada desert, so they shot it there. Pity that so many of the crew and cast - including Moorehead - died of cancer.

[quote]even though she'd adopted him when she was two.

Wow - she adopted a baby when she was only two? That's quite an accomplishment!

What did Susie Lee have to say about Agnes? Surely someone must have asked.

R8 , you do realize that those Boze Hadleigh interviews are all fictitious, don't you?

As is "Susie Lee," R57.

[quote] "Milton Berle once said about the honoree at a Friar's Roast: "He's been looking forward to this evening as much as he's been looking forward to a blow job from Agnes Moorehead."

[quote] I doubt anyone would look forward to blowing him.

Berle supposedly had one of the biggest cocks in Hollywood.

Now hear this, Datalounge! Samples from Agnes' CD, THE LAVENDER LADY.

She got her start in film late, and as a consequence, is not remembered for being a great beauty. However, when she was younger and making a name for herself in radio, she was quite attractive.

Notorious pussyhound, big Bush supporter.

I do not think Susie Lee was a fake. Not for a moment. And hers were some of the best threads on DL. So sue me...

Born in 1900, she was already in her 40s in the 1940s when she hit her stride as Hollywood's most glamorous character actress. Compared to the Fay Bainters, Jane Darwells and Marjorie Mains of her generation, she was certainly the sophisticated lady who could play high or low class.

R57 is bonkers.

Did she eat ass?

Every time I see those Nice N' Easy commercials, I still find it hard to believe that the blonde is Angela from "The Office".

In the Magnificent Ambersons she's not like anybody else I'd ever seen in the movies - just incredible - like watching a live wire.

IT'S NOT HOT!!!

She had a very strict upbringing, and her mother was by turns both domineering and distant. Her younger sister committed suicide. Her father was a fundie preacher. It's not a stretch to think that these kinds of things would affect her view of herself, and ultimately caused her to feel quite fractured about her sexuality.

In regards to her son Sean, they had a falling out as he got older and more rebellious. They eventually stopped talking, and he lived for a time with Paulette Goddard in Switzerland. After that, he was never heard from again and I doubt that he had contact with Agnes before she died.

She looked a lot like my grandmother, who was a statuesque redhead. Big-boned. Not fat, very German-looking.

I was afraid of my grandmother, didn't like her. Crazy woman. I always cringed when Endora was on-screen.

[quote] Her father had been a minister, and she was religious, though her fundie beliefs didn't start until she was near death.

I guess that depends on how you're defining fundie. I remember reading things about Bewitched where she was reading the Bible on set, though it sounds like she was never overbearing about it…so that would have been fairly well before her death.

[R41] Though what [R59] said is correct (Berle was HUGE) look at the quote again. Berle is saying that about someone who's being honored…not himself.

[R51] Papers can be a number of things. You're right that in the digital age it will be different. Mostly it would be correspondence, personal and professional, books that they owned, scripts, contracts, etc.

Suzie Lee's stuff checks out. She IS real. You can go online and find stuff about her family and her career in the 1960s. It all matches her claims.

I loved reading Susie Lee's anecdotes, but I think she was/is naive about who is or isn't gay in H'wood. Not surprising since she's from another era and perhaps her parents didn't discuss this in front of her.

They show Moorehead's thriller 'The Bat' frequently on Wolfman Mac and even he is surprised at how unexpectedly alluring Agnes appears in a nightgown.

No less a critic than Kenneth Tynan said that her performance in "The Magnificent Ambersons" was the best ever recorded on film by an English speaking actress.

At the other end of the scale "Bewitched" would be totally forgotten today without her.

She was loyal to Oson Welles until the day she died, which is another interesting aspect of the "Bewitched" casting. Welles hated few actors more than Maurice Evans, who played her husband on the show.

Yes R62, she supported most Bush...on her collarbone! HA!

R50, the author of the book came HERE to defend himself when it came out -- the DL ripped him a new one for not outing her.

Remember her from the Twilight Zone, she played an old woman in a deserted farmhouse attacked by space invaders. Just her and the 2 creepy little guys, and she never speaks a word. Just fear and panic. That's one of the TZ episodes that stuck with me.

{quote] In the Magnificent Ambersons she's not like anybody else I'd ever seen in the movies - just incredible - like watching a live wire.

I agree. Watching her makes you want to jump out of your skin. Can you imagine how intense if must have been on a real movie screen?

They've just now, on Jan 31, 2012, gotten around to releasing The Magnificent Ambersons on Region 1 DVD. I can't believe there's not a Criterion edition of it. I hope there will be eventually. The VHS edition had bonus features containing some footage that didn't make the final cut, including Joseph Cotton visiting Fanny in the "nice boarding house" she moved into.

Orson Welles had a dream for decades of getting the original cast back together and making a sequel, especially since all the principal actors were alive through the 1960s. I think they were all willing to do it too, he just could never get the financing.

Poor Agnes, she was killed by an atomic bomb you know ...

Forget a sequel, I'd be satisfied with his original ending.

At least part of the original ending involved the story advancing 20 years into the future, and IIRC in the Eugene and Fanny at the boarding house clip, Welles had artificially aged the actors. His dream was to re-film the original unused ending using the original actors who had aged naturally. At least that’s the way I remember having read it.

[quote] She carried a Bible at all times when she was on the set of Bewitched, and she read the children Bible stories from a children's storybook.

It is nice that she was kind to the children on the set. Most folks aren't at all and a good example of that would be Julie Bowen of "Modern Family."

[quote] Most folks aren't at all and a good example of that would be Julie Bowen of "Modern Family."

The kids on the set of "Modern Family carry bibles with them as well, mostly to ward of Julie Bowen.

That would have been lovely, R83.

BTW, is the Amberson mansion still on a lot somewhere?

[quote] BTW, is the Amberson mansion still on a lot somewhere?

No, it was on the RKO Encino Ranch backlot, and that lot is long gone.

She idolized Charles Laughton (who toured with her in the supersuccessful "Don Juan in Hell"), so she must have been a very complicated person.

The glorious Agnes on "Password".

Thanks R89. LOVED IT.

Agnes : I think I ll go over to Spain and have a long session with Orson Welles

That doesnt sound very lesbian to me LOL

Once she was lined up to be an award presenter at the Emmy's - but they didn't give her any dialogue to speak! Her co-presenter (I forget who it was) became embarassed by her enforced silence and, as he was reading off the list of nominees, he stopped and asked if she'd like to read one of them.

Without skipping a beat, she said: "No, I think it's your turn."

What a woman!

The best Endora moments - starting with her reading her favorite magazine: Harpies Bazaar!

Great clip R92

Agnes had to do quite of bit of `stuntwork`on Bewitched what with all the flying in harnesses or being perched on rooftops, ledges, etc etc.... She must have been quite athletic .

Aggie is the mystery guest on the 70s color syndicated version of "What's My Line?"

She and Arlene Francis had been members of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater together back in the 30s...

I love her in "Pollyanna".

One of my local channels just showed Agnes and Vincent Price in The Bat. It was baaaaddddd.

I didn't learn till many years after the "Bewitched"series ended why the show's writers named her mother-in-law character "Endora."

She was the very definition of "jolie laide"

She was indeed a shrew lots of times, it probably suited her looks.

She had a great run in the 50s through - did she ever get a week off? - turning up in lots of things - I like her as the ritzy countess in The Opposite Sex, that remake of The Women - and she is in European movies like The Tempest in '58, Night of the Quarter Moon in '59, as the blonde brothel madam in The Revolt of Mamie Stover, with Jane Russell - thats a kitsch classic, in '56; and also in films like The Swan, Raintree County, Showboat, and a good Elizabeth I in the hilariously awful The Story of Mankind in '57.

Pity too she signed up for The Conqueror - as Wayne's mother, perhaps the atomic radiation that killed almost everyone on that film got her too.

[quote] She was the very definition of "jolie laide"

Yes she was, R98.

So why was she named Endora, R97?

R96, I haven’t seen that movie in years, but did you notice the guy got his throat slashed but there was no blood anywhere when they picked him up to move him? And at the end when the police (or detective) picked up the phone to call the station, it was mysteriously working? A big plot point earlier was that the phone was dead. Yes it is bad, and I’m sure there are many more blunders like that but those are the two big ones I noticed.

Her dress from Don Juan in Hell was sold a few years ago on eBay. It was supposedly tiny. I don’t remember how much it went for. I think some of her other dresses went in the same auction. I wonder who got the money.

For R101

Her name comes from the Bible.

Agnes Moorhead had a girlfriend in the late 70s that was a children's writer who died in a plane crash.

And Marlene Dietrich was also involved with the woman-in-question.

[quote] Agnes Moorhead had a girlfriend in the late 70s

Quite a feat since Agnes dies in 1974!

Hmm, that's interesting R102. That would explain why Endora was darker in nature and certainly more conniving than most of the other witches on Bewitched. She did not suffer the mortal world gladly, and it showed.

Endora could be so wonderfully wicked when she wanted to be. When Darrin had been turned into a chimp by Aunt Clara, Endora said to him "Don't pout, David. Mother Endora will comb you. You want to be a pretty chimp, don't you?"

Found a cool youtube clip of Agnes mooreheads House.

Agnes on "Whats My line"

She had a really long tongue R104.

Agnes Moorehead was a lesbian. It was well known in the "circle".

She was a lez. Paul Lynde wrote how she was all X-rated on Liz Montgomery. She'd call her Lez Montgomery and then say, "Let do some scissorinig." Then Liz would correct her and she'd do an Endorra spell.

The Liz would be "You're not really a witch." And Aggie would say, "If you'd scissor with me, you'd see how witchy I can be."

Two of my favorite performances of hers are ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS where she is Jane Wyman's friend. She takes the typical best friend role and gives it depth and humor.

The other is in JEANNE EAGELS. She is imperious as Eagels' acting coach and I love her voice in that one.

hey chutney austin.

your schtick is tired.

Did Agnes "know" Ginette Spanier? This woman banged ALL of them -- from Dietrich to Lena Horne:

more details please r114.

You can forward your questions about Agnes' sexuality to Debbie Reynolds, who claims to be visited by Moorehead's ghost. Perhaps Agnes herself can clear up this confusion from the great beyond.

both debbie and carrie are keeping debbie's secrets well, don't you think?

I just came across this site and MY GOD Agnes has been gone since 1974. The ones who believe that she was a lesbian or comment on her looks and talent...I say, "Leave her the fuck alone and let this woman rest in peace!! If she was a lesbian, "Who the fuck cares?!" Find someone else to bash. I have loved Agnes since the days of Bewitched and discovered her career before Endora. Agnes was beautiful and NOT a dog! And what's the matter with her praying or carrying a bible on the set. She had her own beauty and definitely had class. Today she would have been 112 yrs old (her own mother lived to be 106 yrs old) So please let this woman...a wonderful actress rest in peace. I will always love Aggie!

R80 here to report that the release of The Magnificent Ambersons on DVD contained nothing but the film itself. I think the VHS had the "unreleased scenes" on it.

[quote] "Bewitched" would be totally forgotten today without her.

Most likely true, R76! Her and Paul Lynde, who only did something like 10 episodes but made such an impression that it seems like many more.

Oh and R118, grow a hide if you're going to post here. And spare me your righteous indignation when you don't when her real birthdate was. I'm a casual Aggie fan and I know it. It's not today.

A very young Agnes.

She was excellent as the warden in "Caged", with Eleanor Parker.

She was absolutely incredible.

Wearing a handmade Flags of the Nations sweater, Agnes Moorehead reads 'The Green Years' in her bedroom

[quote] Montgomery said she knew that Moorehead was a lesbian.

Well, I dispute that. Montgomery didn't deny Agnes was gay, but what she did say about it is she didn't know either way. Elizabeth said they were friendly but not true friends, Agnes always wanted some distance. Elizabeth also said that Agnes would've known that she would've been supportive if Agnes said she was a lesbian, but that Agnes never said she was.

Lots of older people deny being gay because they "didn't do it" or did it only once or twice. Doesn't mean they weren't gay.

What is important is that Agnes Moorehead had that incredible energy...when someone see her in a movie, they immediately get that, she was such a good actress and an interesting one, not a boring one.

Below there is Agnes Moorehead with Debbie Reynolds

Director Douglas Sirk imparts some of his vast culture to the main stars of 'All That Heaven Allows', Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman and Agnes Moorehead

"What is important is that Agnes Moorehead..."

What's important about any actor/actress dead or alive is that are gay or maybe gay or probably gay. This is the Datalounge.

I believe that Morehaed was lesbian, but she didn't, couldn't acknowledge it. And that's okay, but for the fact that repression has it's repercussions.

I think it was brilliant casting her, a woman known for her voice on radio, in a part where she never speaks. I'm speaking of course about the Twilight Zone's The Invaders

I just reread the 1973 Boze Hadleigh interview and it’s very revealing in an indirect way, especially toward the end. For one thing, R8, she was not dismissive and/or negative toward other gays in the industry, nor her costars. He asks her if she knows Rock Hudson is gay and how she knows and she nods and says “An informant. Our profession is full of wanted and unwanted informants. He’s a good actor.” He asks her what she thinks of Hollywood lesbians and she replies “Most of them are nice people and not promiscuous – like the men.” Her objection is to sexual promiscuity, as she emphasizes later, not homosexuality in general.

After a few questions about lesbians and sex in general, he asks her if she’s loved many women and she says “Well, I have loved women. Of course.” It’s when he tries to get her to be specific that she gets dodgy. He asks her if she’s willing to talk off the record and offers to turn off the tape recorder. She tells him to leave it on and says “You apparently have your own informants. I don’t know what you’ve heard and I don’t want to hear, and some of it may even be true.” He then directly asks “Would the truth hurt you professionally, now?” and she replies “Now? Probably not. But I don’t want anyone misinterpreting what was beautiful and even spiritual.”

Very shortly after that, he notes that she’ll probably be a part of future biographies since she appeared in so many famous movies with big stars and big directors, and here is what she says: “If I make a statement to you now, it will be used and misinterpreted, and one way or another will represent me, if it’s controversial or shocking enough, in who knows how many future books (about other stars) … I won’t let that happen to my life. Certainly not to my own private life … in a book about someone else!”

Whether you believe the Boze Hadleigh interviews are legit or not, there you have it, folks. For what it’s worth.

Love her. Goddess. Equal to Brits Maggie Smith imho.

She was never in a film she didn't improve!

To Endora Little Boy: "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

Endora: "Cum se cum sa."

[quote] "Cum se cum sa."

Seriously?

She was excellent in 'The Magnificent Ambersons' as well. Excellent!

R129 That TZ was on MeTV last night.

She was beautiful in her younger days.

Of course she wasn't a lesbian. She never once was in Portugal.

R89 - that's such terrific footage demonstrating how polished she was. No stammering, no nervous tics, just very comfortable in front of the camera and being on the spot.

Agnes Moorehead with a...catty friend of hers.

She looks great on Password @ R89. Bare arms at 66 years old, and she pulled it off. I love how she rears back and gives the guy an "Endora" look the second time he paws her. It happens very quickly. She seems visibly relieved to get the woman over on her side and that guy away from her. He had a lot of nerve.

Endora! A cult figure.

Lezziest lez who ever lezzed.

.

Agnes Moorehead would be disgusted by Datalounge misogyny, and she would zap you motherfuckers.

New book about Agnes coming in July. It's scholarly and probably won't have much personal info. It's expensive -- $55.

So what about the lesbian rumors? Was she a lesbian indeed? She denied it...

Agnes Moorehead with...

Per r146's post - in the index:

Moorehead, Agnes - lesbian reputation of, 33, 79, 196, 284-285.

Sounds like it's covered.

What about her daughter, Montana?

[quote] No, she wasn't a lesbian.

But she was, Blanche, she was!

She was friends with Paul Lynde and he said she was a lesbian.

The reality is that Moorehead was incredibly complicated, and no one really knew her. But it seems likely that she was closeted and struggled with being a lesbian.

I loved it when Darrin's mother said to Endora: 'You're always...here.'

LOVED her on Bewitched, but as Velma Cruthers in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte...the scene where she confronts Olivia DeHavilland...

"I'm going into town, and I'm gonna tell them what youuuuuuu've beeeeeeen up tooooooo..."

Then Olivia cracks her one & sends her reeling down the entire staircase, to her death.

It was a moment of incredible screaming camp.

She is so charming on those Password clips. Amazing actress in everything she did.

I love when Amy Sedaris "does" her (when Agnes was playing more "common" women):

One of my favorite parts of Citizen Kane is Moorhead's scene, when she's Charles Foser Kane's mother and is packing his backs in Colorado to send him away forever with Walter Parks Thatcher. The way she conveys her deep grief at being parted from her only child, yet her assurance that this is the best thing for him, is incredible--and her final line, "That's why he's going to be brought up where you can't get at him," is so chilling. It's a little masterpiece of a scene--everything you'd ever want to know about her relation with her son (overindulgent, too close) and with her husband (distrustful, since he's been unable to provide properly for their family) is all there in just a few seconds.

Wow, R130. Thanks for that. That sounds like the most elegant, classy way to indeed confirm gay rumors while not admitting to anything. Incredible. If I was apathetic about her before, I really like her now, based on those responses alone.

That sounds more like something a gay male would think up, R6.

Lesbian or not, she was a classy & refined lady & a very versatile & accomplished actress. Not many around that can fit those two descriptions today.

I need to know if you have ever seen Agnes star in any movies(i don't mean supporting role). I really liked her in 'Bat'. It's a pity that she didn't star in more movies. Did she? Please, tell me!

The Bat is a classic. Although i had guessed almost from the start who was the 'Bat', that didn't make the movie less interesting. I found the relationship between Cornelia(Agnes Moorehead) and Lizzie (Lenite Lane) really unique and i liked the humor of this horror film as well. It's one of the movies that have an alternative to offer, it doesn't matter so much the identity of the killer. All is not misleading passion, glamour, femme fatales and hunks. Agnes Moorehead was really awesome and gripping in this and the movie was not boring in the least.

Don't have the patience to read all 161 posts (you people are insane), but I've listened to 2 different versions of her turn in the radio play "Sorry Wrong Number", and both were superb.

Agnes'gorgeous home was not across from the Arnaz home but across the street and up the block. It was originally Sigmund Romberg's villa. The next door neighbor was Ira Gershwin. In the early 1960s the singer Joni James her musical genius husband and manager Tony Acquaviva moved to Beverly Hills from New York City and, waiting for their home, sublet Villa Agneese for what they thought would be a short time but stretched many years (they finally did move into their own gorgeous home up at the block on Roxbury and Beverly Canyon Road). With Agnes' home came her devoted staff. The Acquavivas were very comfortable there and quickly became part of Hollywood's A set even though, as Joni later said, they didn't know there was an A set. They were traditional Italian people devoted to family, friends, church and music, and never were invested in a glamorous life, and that appealed to people in Beverly Hills. Joni's Italian dinner dances, for which she cooked days ahead, became prized invitations.

She is magnificent!

In Dark Passage, she plays a jealous meddler who frames Humphrey Bogart. Her final scene is pretty amazing. Her work in Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte is amazing, too, but her accent in that film is a bit off. Still, she was pretty amazing.

Who the hell is or was Joni James?

Joni James was a fairly minor singer who had a couple of big hits in the early 1950s (that very bleak period for American pop music).

[quote]She called her mansion, in Beverly Hills, Villa Agnesse

To close friends it was known as "Aggie's Mansion o' Muff."

Earlier today, TCM showed "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes" in which Aggie plays a stoical but kind-hearted farm wife in a Norwegian American community in Wisconsin (her character is married to Edward G. Robinson's equally kind-hearted farmer, together they are parents to winsome little Margaret O'Brien).

The movie is a bit on the treacly side, but it has some truly touching moments and all the performances are absolutely wonderful. Agnes has the least showy role, but she makes the most of it and really anchors the movie.

Miss. Moorehead came from a very religious background (Methodist?) so one finds it hard to believe she was a lesbian.

The lady wasn't too thrilled about playing the witch "Endora" either. She got talked into it after reading the original scrip and rejecting the thing only because AM assumed Bewitched would flop and that would be that.

If you knew her or were a fan it was taken for granted you did *not* bring up Bewitched to Agnes Moorehead. IIRC the lady wanted the world to know she was a serious actress and preferred not to be remembered as a witch from a television show.

Then again given how gay the cast of Bewitched was (Dick Sargent, Paul Lynde, Maurice Evans to name a few), who knows....

She quoted the bible on stage. She was very popular among the stars, always invited, had a very well attended Christmas party every year as a payback.

[quote]Miss. Moorehead came from a very religious background (Methodist?) so one finds it hard to believe she was a lesbian.

Are you joking?

What one was trying to say is given the rather strong religious convictions one has heard about AM find it hard to credit. Yes, there are tons of religious hypocrites out there but something about AM simply strikes me as she wasn't not one of them.

Oh please. It was well-known in Hollywood that AM, Stanwyck and so many others were lesbians.

R171/R173: Gays and lesbians are born, not made. Her religious convictions might have caused her to hide her lesbianism, but you seem to think her religious convictions would have prevented her from choosing to be a lesbian (or "choosing the lesbian lifestyle," as the idiot right-wingers would put it). That's not how it works.

The question still remains. Did Agnes ever had sex with a woman?

*have

Is there a link to hear Agnes' Wrong Number radio play?

@R17

Unless that "extra" you kept seeing was African-American or of a darker race anyway he wasn't likely doing much of anything to or with DS.

Dick Sargent by all accounts preferred darker men. His first lover (the one who was still alive during Bewitched) and his final Albert who was with him when he died were both AA.

She never sucked my cock.

@R178

Of course there are *links* to AG doing "Sorry Wrong Number" on radio. Ain't you never heard of Youtube? *LOL*

"The Gayest Show On Earth"

Add to the previous list one of the twins who played Tabitha is a lesbian and apparently the actor who did Abner Kravitz is rumored has well.

If you add AG that list becomes very crowded.

She should have played in more mystery movies. She was excellent in 'The Bat'.

In her younger pics, her eyes look bizarre.

Einstein at r184

R184 That photo show a very pretty young woman. I am a gay but, but I can still call out a lovely woman when I see one.

Agnes Moorehead was a "Golden Gem" of an actress from Hollywood's "Golden Age."

R.I.P. Miss Moorehead. Actresses of your calibre don't exist any longer.

Her last role was in the stage version of the musical GIGI, co-starring Alfred Drake and Maria Karnilova.

I saw it pre-Broadway in 1973, and she was wonderful. (When the show opened on Broadway. Clive Barnes writing for the Times called Moorehead 'perfect'). Although suffering with cancer, she stayed with the show until January 23, 1974, when she was replaced with Arlene Francis. The show closed on February 10, 1974, and Miss Moorehead died on April 30, 1974

GIGI, with Alfred Drake

That lesbian rumor about Agnes and Debbie Reynolds was fueled by Eddie Fisher in his memoir, in which he implied that Debbie had lesbian tendencies and used her friendship with Moorehead as an example.

R183, is she reaching for a dildo?

Do you think she's dialing with a pencil?

She did have great bones, and no pressing need of any others orbiting her face.

People tend to forget that Moorehead won an Emmy for a guest shot on the Wild, Wild West. The episode, the Night of the Vicious Valentine, satirized the computer dating phenomenon of the 1960s. Moorehead played a matchmaker, actually more of pimp, who used her girls to marry -- then murder -- very rich men to gain the men's fortunes. Her performance was a toned down version of what she played on Bewitched, stylish but with only a modicum of camp

In 1965, Moorehead was considered the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for HUSH, HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE. But Hollywood was having one of its periodic bouts of Euro-philia and gave the Oscar to Lila Kedrova (who?) for ZORBA THE GREEK

I saw that Wild Wild West episode fairly recently. Agnes's character was not happy when spurned by Jim West. Going a different route than normal, Conrad spent a good part of the episode tied up and throughout the episode had a number of camera shots lingering on his face or ass. Has there ever been another show that objectified the lead actor as much?

Strange that he lost contact with the son she adopted

Agnes Moorehead was a very attractive young woman.

She admits to 1000

An award for this? For fuck's sake.

Agnes with Debbie. Were they very good friends? Nice!

It makes me sick to read so many slanderous comments about such an accomplished talented person such as Miss Moorehead. Her talent, intelligence, grace, accomplishments, and better looks than many of you can boast to certainly out weighs any uncertified malicious claims you apparently get your kicks from. Someone's political, religious, or sexual orientations, though if do not believe her to be gay, should not make a difference, she is a person who deserves the to be credited for her talent and accomplishments. Bravo, bravo, bravo to the late great Agnes Moorehead.

Anybody remember Agnes in Vertigo? She's in that weird flashback scene with Carlotta. The focus is on her face and it's deliciously creepy!

Crypers are you all 80 years old or just write like you are?

She was a wonderful actress, true.

But her speech at r89's clip. Dear god, that high brow speech affectation (she was raised in fly over country ) that many actors embraced during her time is always a reliable indicator that a barrel full of internal demons were at play.

The Opposite Sex with Dolores Gray.

Does anyone wish she had appeared in silent movies?

[quote]She was a brilliant actress. I've seen her films and listened to her radio shows, and my guilty pleasure is "The Conqueror" where she's the mother of Genghis Khan, played by John Wayne.

Oh, me too, r54. She was a great actress and I hope she got a lot of money for that outrageously campy - and truly bad - movie that may have contributed to her fatal cancer.

Here's a short clip of Moorehead as Genghis's mom.

Her hysteria scene in Ambersons is brilliant.

In What's the Matter With Helen she plays an Aimee Semple McPherson type

Years ago I used to confuse her with Judith Anderson...

[quote[]My God, the woman did everything:

My GOD!

One of my favorite things about Endora was hr complex relationship with the otyher characters.

For example, she flirted with Darren's father Frank, but as a result didn't like his mother Phyllis. (Phyllis thought Endora was strange and wore too much makeup). But I can't remember that she ever played spells on either of them.

She did not care at all for Larry Tate, and was always extremely chilly to him. He never noticed and instead thought she adored him.

She was kind towards Aunt Clara but was mostly exasperated by her.

She was extremely respectful to Aunts Enchantra and Hagatha.

Her Twilight Zone episode was basically a silent movie, r206.

Been there done that, r208.