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.”

Undeterred, Elizabeth attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan and convinced her father to book her on his TV show,