Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American film character actress best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939).

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. The Wicked Witch of the West was eventually ranked No. 4 in the American Film Institute's 2003 list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time, making her the top ranking female villain. In later years, Hamilton 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.

Spouse(s)

• Paul Meserve (m.1931–1938; divorced)

Children

• Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve (b. 1936)

Parent(s)

• Walter J. Hamilton,
• Jennie (née Adams) Hamilton

Relatives

• Neil Hamilton (distant cousin),
• Dorothy Hamilton Brush (sister)

Early life

Hamilton was born to Walter J. Hamilton, and his wife, Jennie (née Adams), in Cleveland, Ohio, and was the youngest of four children. She later attended Hathaway Brown School, while the school was located at 1945 East 93rd Street in Cleveland. Drawn to the theater at an early age, Hamilton made her stage debut in 1923. Hamilton also practiced her craft doing children's theater while she was a Junior League of Cleveland member. She later moved to Painesville, Ohio. Before she turned to acting exclusively, her parents insisted that she attend Wheelock College in Boston, which she did, later becoming a kindergarten teacher.

Film career

Hamilton's career as a film actress was driven by the very qualities that placed her in stark contrast to the stereotypical Hollywood glamour girl. Her image was that of a New England spinster, extremely pragmatic and impatient with all manner of "tomfoolery". Hamilton's looks helped to bring steady work as a character actor. She made her screen debut in 1933 in Another Language. 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), and My Little Chickadee (1940). 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 priced her services at $1,000 ($16,400 with inflation) a week.

Hamilton co-starred opposite Buster Keaton and Richard Cromwell, in a 1940s spoof of the long-running local melodrama The Drunkard, entitled The Villain Still Pursued Her. Later in the decade, she was in a little-known film noir, entitled Bungalow 13 (1948), in which she again co-starred opposite Cromwell. Her crisp voice with rapid but clear enunciation was another trademark. 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 where her character and Costello go toe-to-toe with voodoo dolls made of each other. 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 maid in his 13 Ghosts horror film, in which 12-year-old lead Charles Herbert taunts her about being a witch, including one scene in which she is holding a broom in her hand.

The Wizard of Oz

In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch, opposite Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, creating not only her most famous role, but one of the screen's most memorable villains. Hamilton was cast after Gale Sondergaard, who was first considered for the role, albeit as a more glamorous witch with a musical scene, declined the role when the decision was made that the witch should appear ugly.

She 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 now-classic film, and refused to have anything further to do with fire for the rest of the filming. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I will return to work on one condition — no more fireworks!" Garland visited Hamilton while the latter recuperated at home looking after her son. Studio executives cut some of Hamilton's more frightening scenes, worrying that they would frighten children too much. Later on in life, she would comment on the role of the witch in a light-hearted fashion. For an interview, she joked:

"I was in a 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?'" (Hamilton presented this as the punchline to the joke.) [DVD commentary track]

Hamilton's stand-in and stunt double for the Witch, Betty Danko, also suffered an on-set accident on February 11, 1939. It was Danko who made the fiery entrance to Munchkinland, not Hamilton. She was severely burned during the "Surrender Dorothy!" skywriting sequence at the Emerald City. Danko sat on a smoking pipe configured to look like the Witch's broomstick. The pipe exploded on the third take of the scene. She spent eleven days in the hospital and her legs were permanently scarred. A new stunt double, Aline Goodwin, was hired to finish the broomstick riding scene for Danko.

When asked about her experiences on the set of The Wizard of Oz, she said that her biggest fear was that her monstrous film role would give children the wrong idea of who she really was. In reality, Margaret Hamilton was very nice and cared deeply about children, frequently giving to charitable organizations. She often remarked about children coming up to her and asking her why she had been so mean to poor Dorothy. She appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1975, where she explained to children that she was only playing a role, and showed how putting on a costume "transformed" her into the witch. She also made personal appearances, and Hamilton described the children's usual reaction to her portrayal of the Witch:

"Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we're in an auditorium, I'll do it. And there's always a funny reaction, like Ye gods, they wish they hadn't asked. They're scared. They're really scared for a second. Even adolescents. I guess for a minute they get the feeling they got when they watched the picture. They like to hear it but they don't like to hear it. And then they go, 'Ohhhhhhhhhh...!' The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess...because when I talk like the Witch, and when I laugh, there is a hesitation and then they clap. They're clapping at hearing the sound again."

Hamilton played two credited roles in the famous film: Almira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West. Hamilton also appears as an unidentified flying witch during the tornado scene. Some argue this is actually intended to be the Wicked Witch of the East rather than her sister, and Hamilton's credited role, the Wicked Witch of the West; if so, this would be a third, uncredited role. Only co-star Frank Morgan played more roles in the film (five roles). Hamilton and Morgan never share any scenes in Oz. However, in By Your Leave (1934), she plays his housekeeper, and in Saratoga (1937), she has a colloquy with Morgan regarding a cosmetic product he invented (with side glances and eye rolls by Morgan as to its effect on her "beauty"). 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. Her son, interviewed for the 2005 DVD edition of the film, commented that Hamilton enjoyed the line so much, she sometimes used it in her real life. A few months after filming Oz, she appeared in in Babes in Arms as Jeff Steele's mother, Martha, a society do-gooder who made it her goal to send the gang of child actors, led by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland to a work farm. In 1945, she played the domineering sister of "Oz" co-star Jack Haley in George White's Scandals, comically trying to prevent him from marrying actress Joan Davis, even going so far as to throw a hatchet at her. Hamilton and Ray Bolger were cast members in the 1966 fantasy film The Daydreamer, a collection of stories by Hans Christian Andersen.

Radio, television and stage career

In the 1940s and 1950s, Hamilton had a long-running role on the radio series Ethel and Albert (a.k.a. The Couple Next Door) in which she played the lovable, scattered Aunt Eva (name later changed to Aunt Effie). 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' 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 suffragette 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. In the story line, she is depicted as a long lost friend of series character Daisy Cooper, played by Spring Byington. Series lead character Slim Sherman (John Smith) is skeptical of the suffragettes, and he and Sheriff Mort Corey concoct a tale that the women should head to Cheyenne, where their services are more needed than in Laramie.

Having started off on the stage back in the early 1930s, she began to work extensively in the theater after leaving Los Angeles and 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) and was the tender Aunt Eller in the 1968 Lincoln Center revival of Oklahoma!. Hamilton also 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, singing the song "Liaisons" for the national tour co-starring with Jean Simmons as her daughter Desiree.

Even with her extensive film career, Margaret 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 who schemed to prevent her daughter from marrying the heroine's son. In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on another CBS soap opera The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, Katie. In the early 1970s, she joined the cast of another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns, on which she played Miss Peterson, Chris Hughes' secretary. She had a small role in the made-for-TV film The Night Strangler (1973), and appeared as a befuddled neighbor on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters who is a friend of the very similar Mary Wickes. 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 reprised her role as the Wicked Witch in an episode of Sesame Street, but, as a result of complaints from parents of terrified children, the episode has not been seen since 1976. She appeared as herself in an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and continued acting regularly until 1982. Her last roles were two guest appearances as veteran journalist Thea Taft (in 1979 and 1982, respectively) on Lou Grant.

Throughout the 1970s, Hamilton lived in New York City's Gramercy Park neighborhood and appeared on local (and some national) public-service announcements (PSAs) for organizations promoting the welfare of pets. Her most visible appearances during this period were as general store owner Cora, in a national series of television commercials for Maxwell House coffee.

Hamilton produced the stage productions An Evening with the Bourgeoisie, The Three Sisters, and House Party.

Personal life

Hamilton remained lifelong friends with Wizard of Oz castmate Ray Bolger. She married Paul Boynton Meserve on June 13, 1931, and made her debut on the New York stage the following year. While her acting career developed, her marriage began failing; the couple divorced in 1938. They had one son, Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve (born 1936), whom she raised on her own. She had three grandchildren, Christopher, Scott, and Margaret. Hamilton never remarried.

Final years and death

Hamilton's early experience as a teacher fueled a lifelong interest in educational issues. Hamilton served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education between 1948 to 1951, and was a Sunday school teacher during the 1950s. She lived in Manhattan for most of her adult life. She later moved to Millbrook, New York. She died in her sleep following a heart attack on May 16, 1985, in Salisbury, Connecticut. She was cremated at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery. Her ashes were scattered in Amenia, New York.