Agnes Moorehead is best remembered for being “the mother-in-law from Hell” on “Bewitched.” She had a great background as an actress, working with Orson Welles and the Mercury Players, and later appearing with Charles Laughton in his theater production of “Don Juan in Hell.” Yet, she was never a warm, loveable character. She was devoutly religious, having been the daughter of a Presbyterian minister.
She established a friendship with “Bewitched” co-star, Dick York, and she was upset when he left the show because of back problems. She shouted, “I don’t like change” when she had her first reading with Dick Sergeant. There were strange stories about her life. She once had an adopted son, who ran away from home at age 14 and was never seen again.
Her “Bewitched” co-star Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur) once labeled her as a lesbian, but other friends denied it was so. In her other films, she played prickly characters, not likely to win the sympathy of the public. Even her first role as the mother in “Citizen Kane”, the audience sees her when she is giving up her son to be raised by a banker. Supposedly, it was done to get the boy away from a drunken, abusive father, but there is still an air of creepiness about her cold demeanor in giving her son away.
Although she was well-received as Endora, she did not get any loveable roles. In her famous Twilight Zone appearance, she was a lonely country woman, who was invaded by tiny spacemen. She beat them to death, and then the audience discovered she was killing American astronauts. Hardly an endearing role. After her death in 1974, someone noticed that on the wall near her star on the Hollywood walk of fame, someone had written, “Agnes is God.” When the story was mentioned to Orson Welles, his response was, “She always thought she was.”