ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY A MAGICAL LIFE

THE BELOVED STAR OF BEWITCHED ENDURED MANY STRUGGLES, BUT NEVER GAVE UP ON HER DREAM

- Hilary Hattenbach, Katie Bruno

With a twitch of her nose, Elizabeth Montgomery cast a spell on viewers as the sly sorceress, Samantha Stephens, on Bewitched. Off screen, she was equally enchanting. “Elizabeth was the least arrogant star I’ve ever met,” recalls Herbie J Pilato, author of Twitch Upon a Star and executive producer of the new documentary Elizabeth Mont­gomery: A Bewitched Life. “She channeled that down-to-earthiness into Samantha, and we all loved her.”

Nobody seemed immune to Elizabeth’s charms except perhaps the one person whose approval she desperately craved. “Her father, Robert Montgomery, was a movie star, and her mom, Broadway actress Elizabeth Allen, gave up her career to be his wife,” explains Pilato. “Robert never wanted his daughter to be an actress.”