Early Careers of Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, and Other Stars

You haven’t seen the Bewitched cast until you’ve seen the Bewitched cast young, in the days before they came together to star in the 1964 to 1972 television series. As fans — and probably everybody else — are well aware, the show is about a mortal advertising executive named Darrin Stephens (Dick York), who marries a beautiful woman, Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery), who turns out to be an actual witch. After the initial shock, he realizes that he loves her so much he can live with it as long as they go for normalcy — easier said than done when all of her relatives are filled with magic as well and tend to pop in and out at will. On top of that, when kids arrive, they happen to take after their mother.

In this look at the Bewitched cast young, through dozens of images we get to explore the early days of Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, Agnes Moorehead (already a veteran actress by the time she began playing Samantha’s mother, Endora) and Dick Sargent, who would step in to replace York as Darrin late in the show’s run.

Let’s twitch noses and get going.

Actress Elizabeth Montgomery poses for a portrait at her home in Los Angeles, California in 1966

NAME: Elizabeth Montgomery

CHARACTERS: Samantha Stephens and her brunette twin sister Serena

BORN: April 15, 1933

BEFORE Bewitched: The daughter of actor Robert Montgomery, she would get her start on his 1950s anthology series Robert Montgomery Presents, and in 1956 debuted on Broadway in Late Love, winning a Theater World Award. There were also several movies, the most successful of which was Johnny Cool, where her director was William Asher, who she would eventually marry and he would serve in many ways as creator as well as director and producer of Bewitched.

AFTER Bewitched: Although there was a genuine fear of typecasting when the show ended in 1972, Elizabeth Montgomery threw herself into diverse TV movies, early ones including A Case of Rape (1974), The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975), Between the Darkness and the Dawn (1985) and onward until Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan (1995).

PERSONAL: She was married to Frederick Gellatin Cammann from 1954 to 1955, Gig Young from 1956 to 1963, William Asher from 1963 to 1973 and longtime companion Robert Foxworth from 1993 until her death.

DIED: May 18, 1995, age 62 from colon cancer.

Robert Q. Lewis sitting with actress Elizabeth Montgomery. at the El Morocco Nightclub, 154 East 54th Street, New York City in 1950.

Elizabeth Montgomery, circa 1952.

Robert Montgomery dines with his daughter, actress Elizabeth Montgomery at the Stork Club in New York City, circa 1955.

Full length portrait of Elizabeth Montgomery wearing a print pattern dress with a split skirt with her right leg exposed, as she stands on a pedestal with a city diorama below, in a studio portrait, circa 1960.

Elizabeth Montgomery wearing a white fur coat in a studio portrait, against a light background, circa 1960.

In a lot of ways, the 1963 movie Johnny Cool (the trailer for which is obviously above) would change the life of Elizabeth Montgomery.

Elizabeth Montgomery posing in straw hat for a publicity photo circa 1962.

Actor Dick York as Darrin Stephens hold a pair of furry creatures up to his ears in an episode of Bewitched in the mid 1960s.

NAME: Dick York

BORN: September 4, 1928

CHARACTER: Darrin Stephens, appearing in the first 156 out of 170 episodes, but left the show after its fifth season due to declining health issues.

BEFORE Bewitched: Worked in radio at age 15, started in a large number of instructional films and appeared on Broadway in shows like Bus Stop and Tea and Sympathy. Between 1955’s My Sister Eileen and 1960’s Inherit the Wind, he appeared in seven films, seriously injuring his back during the making of 1959’s They Came to Cordura, an injury that would plague him for the rest of his life. There would also be dozens of television guest star appearances staring with 1953’s Omnibus and going right up until 1963’s The Virginian, which aired the season before Bewitched‘s debut.

AFTER Bewitched: Forced to leave the series due to growing escalation of his back pain and his addiction to pain medications, following the series he only appeared on episodes of Simon & Simon (1983) and Fantasy Island (1984).

PERSONAL: He was married to Joan Alt from 1951 until the time of his death and was the father of five.

DIED: Dick York passed away on February 20, 1992 at age 63 from emphysema.

Actor Dick York in his first credited cinematic role as ‘Ted Wreck Loomis’ and Actress Lucy Marlow as ‘Helen’ in a publicity shot from the movie My Sister Eileen, 1955.

In 1957’s Operation Mad Ball, Dick York’s costars include Jack Lemmon, James Darren, William Leslie, William Hickey and L.Q. Jones.

Dick York in the 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone, “The Purple Testament.”

Dick York’s second appearance on Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone was the “A Penny for Your Thoughts,” where he is temporarily able to read the minds of others.

NAME: Agnes Moorehead

BORN: December 6, 1900

CHARACTER ON Bewitched: Endora

BEFORE Bewitched: She performed on stage while in college, but really found her calling in radio and became a part of Orson Welles’ famed Mercury Players, which would lead to Hollywood productions, including Welles’ first film, Citizen Kane. Moorehead appeared in many classics, a total of about 60 movies before Bewitched. There would also be a couple of dozen TV appearances, including, like York, an appearance on The Twilight Zone, in her case an episode called “The Invaders.” On top of all of that, there were a dozen stage shows between 1918’s Courage and 1963’s High Spirits. She won two Golden Globes and a Primetime Emmy, and was nominated for four Academy Awards.

AFTER Bewitched: Moorehead starred in four TV movies, the stage play Gigi, the film Dear Dead Delilah (1972) and voiced the character of The Goose in Charlotte’s Web (1973).

PERSONAL: She was married to John Griffith Lee from 1930 to 1952 and Robert Gist from 1954 to 1958.

DIED: April 30, 1974 at age 73 of cancer.

Writer, producer and director Orson Welles talking with Agnes Moorehead on a theatre stage with members of the Mercury Theatre, 1938.

Young Charles Foster Kane (Buddy Swan) shakes hands with Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris) as his parents (Harry Shannon and Agnes Moorehead) watch in 1941’s Citizen Kane.

A poster for Orson Welles’ 1942 drama film The Magnificent Ambersons, starring Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, and Agnes Moorehead.

Actors Humphrey Bogart and Agnes Moorehead on the set of Dark Passage, 1947.

Agnes Moorehead and Dick Powell who presented Academy Awards and Jean Simmons who accepted the British Awards, pose with the Academy Awards of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences “Oscar” statuettes presented Saturday evening (March 20, 1948) at the Shrine auditorium in Los Angeles before an audience of over 6200 persons who jammed the auditorium to witness the gala affair.

Jimmy Stewart and Agnes Moorehead in the 1949 film The Stratton Story about baseball star Monty Straton.

Agnes Moorehead in The Twilight Zone, 1961.

Agnes Moorehead, holding a rifle, with barefoot Bette Davis in a