Agnes Moorehead Lounge

Although she would later tell a "hollywood fib" about it, postdating her birth by six years, Agnes Robertson Moorhead was actually born in Boston on December 6, 1900. Her father, John Henderson Moorhead, was a Presbyterian minister of Irish ancestry, Agnes later recalling her first public performance, at the age of three, as reciting "The Lord's Prayer" in her father's church.

Her ambition to become an actress was undeniable from the very beginning. Her mother frequently indulged her daughter's imagination by asking "who are you today, Agnes?," as she and her sister, would often imitate parishioners, at the dinner table, with her father's amused reactions encouraging her.

The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she became part of the chorus of St. Louis' Municipal Opera Company, and graduated from Central High School in 1918. The next year, her father was transferred to Reedsburg to take the pastorate at the Presbyterian church here. Agnes maintained a lifelong interest in religion; Dick Sargent would later recall Moorehead arriving on the "Bewitched" set with "the Bible in one hand and the script in the other."

She attended and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio (which had been founded by an uncle), where she majored in Biology, yet continued to perform in school plays and the glee club. With her family now in Reedsburg, she then did postgraduate work at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, earning a Master's Degree in English and Public Speaking, while teaching English and Speech at the public school at Soldiers Grove.

Ms. Moorehead saved enough money to pursue her dream of post-graduate studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, and supported herself by teaching at the progressive Dalton School. She graduated with honors from AADA in 1929, and obtained small parts in several stage plays, including "Marco Millions," "Courage," "Scarier Pages," "Soldiers and Women," "Candlelight," and "All the King's Horses."

Although she was able to find some paid stage work in vaudeville and even on Broadway during the '30's, she was often unemployed and hungry. She later recalled going four days without food, and said that it had taught her "the value of a dollar." She first seemed to find her high calling in radio, where her talents were honed, and increasingly in demand, often finding her working on several programs in a single day, prompting her to develop a variety of vocal characterizations.

Around this time, Agnes met actress Helen Hayes, who encouraged her to pursue film work, which initially proved unsuccessful. Told that she was "not the right type," Moorehead returned to radio. As the Depression took hold, she married John Griffith Lee on June 6, 1930, a young actor she had met at AADA. They adopted one child together, son Sean, in a marriage which lasted until their divorce in 1952. She married Robert Gist in 1954, and divorced in 1958.

Her radio work attracted the attention of Orson Welles, and by 1937, Agnes was a member of his Mercury Theatre Group. She appeared in his radio production "Julius Caesar," had a regular role in the serial "the Shadow," and was one of the players in his infamous "War of the Worlds" production. In 1939, Welles secured a contract with RKO Studios, and moved the Mercury Theatre Group, with several of his radio performers, to Hollywood.

Ms. Moorehead made her film debut with the role of Kane's mother in "Citizen Kane" in 1941. She also appeared in Welles' films "The Magnificent Ambersons" in 1942, and "Journey into Fear" in 1943. She soon received a New York Film Critics Award, and garnered an Academy Award nomination for her work. By the mid-40's, Moorehead had secured a $6,000/week contract with MGM, which included a provision allowing her to perform on radio, an unusual allowance at the time.

From then on, Agnes Moorehead was a staple of Hollywood films, a character actress of the first degree, appearing in more films than probably any other actress, yet still consistantly active in radio and theatre. She was naturally in great demand when television was born, and appeared in dozens upon dozens of productions made for the small screen.

But it was in 1964 that Agnes Moorehead became a true cultural icon, when she accepted the role of "Endora," the witch mother-in-law in ABC's television situation comedy "Bewitched," endearing her to millions of fans worldwide. She later commented that she had not expected the show to be a success, and had negotiated her contract to appear in only eight of every twelve episodes, allowing her to pursue other projects. In spite of her considering the scriptwriting to be at a "hack" level, she relished the role with all good humor, and remained with the show through 171 episodes until its run ended in 1972, earning five Emmy award nominations for her work in it. Ironically, the only Emmy she actually won was for a 1967 featured appearance in "The Wild, Wild, West," a tongue-in-cheek western spy-spoof action series starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin.

During her career, Ms. Moorehead also won three Laurel Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, one New York Film Critic Circle Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award "Oscar" for her film roles no less than four times. In all, she appeared in untold hundreds of films and TV productions, besides her extensive radio and theatre work. For many years, she was also in great demand on network TV game shows, not just out of respect for her distinguished career, but also for her educated quick wit, unique personality, and delightful sense of humor.

She was invited to, and graciously attended, the ribbon cutting for the new Reedsburg City Hall building in the early '70's, and was photographed addressing the crowd in attendance.

Agnes Moorehead died of uterine cancer on April 30, 1974, just two years after "Bewitched" ended production. It is widely suspected that her cancer was a result of her working in the movie "The Conqueror," released in 1956, which was filmed in 1954 near a government nuclear test site in Utah, cancer also having taken the lives of the film's leading stars, John Wayne and Susan Hayward, as well as an unusual number of others who had worked on the film. Although a long-time resident of Beverly Hills, Ms. Moorehead was interred in Dayton, Ohio. Her mother, Molly, continued to live in Reedsburg until her own passing in the 1970's, and is storied to have been discretely visited there regularly by "Aggie's" good friends Debbie Reynolds and Cesar Romero for a number of years.

The Agnes Moorehead Lounge honors the memory of this fine and gifted lady, who was without question, one of the hardest working actresses in show business, featuring memorabilia and pictures from Ms. Moorehead's extraordinary career. Exhibits include an elegant creme-colored, heavy satin, rhinestone-decorated dress that is certified as having belonged to her, a typed and signed letter on her personal stationary, a mint-condition 45 rpm record single with cover of her classic radio masterpiece "Sorry, Wrong Number," official movie stills, theatre programs, and many other pictures, articles, and collectibles. And everything here is free to see!