Biography for Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton as Almira Gulch
& Wicked Witch of the West
Perhaps the most famous movie of all time! Our story opens, in black and white, on a farm in Kansas. Young Dorothy Gale tries to tell her Uncle Henry and Auntie Em that Almira Gulch had tried to take her dog Toto away when he accidentally wandered into her yard, but her peers were too busy to listen and merely told her to find a place where she wouldn't get into trouble. Dorothy wondered if such a place existed. Miss Gulch came by the house with a court order to take Toto, and she did, but he escaped so he and Dorothy ran away. They meet Professor Marvel, who's also a fortune teller (or so he says) he reports Auntie Em is sick so Dorothy raced home, but then a tornado had hit! Dorothy awakened in the house being carried off by the twister.
Pretty soon they landed. She then steps outside into a world of Technicolor and begins her journey to get home.
Biography for Margaret Hamilton
Date of birth
9 December 1902,
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Date of death
16 May 1985,
Salisbury, Connecticut, USA.
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Trade mark
Often signed her autographs with the notation of WWW (Wicked Witch of the West).
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Trivia
Played the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
Spokesperson for Maxwell House coffee in several TV commercials in the 70s.
It is ironic that her performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz, The (1939) was so scary to little boys and girls, since Miss Hamilton's first job was as a kindergarten teacher. She loved and doted upon children all her life.
Until the day she died, Miss Hamilton had children recognizing her and coming up to her to ask why she was so mean to Dorothy.
Gave her most noted recollection of her role in The Wizard of Oz (1939) by writing the Preface to the book "The Making of The Wizard of Oz" by Aljean Harmetz.
She was cremated and her ashes spread on her Dutchess County, New York estate.
Lived in a Gramercy Park building in New York City that was also occupied by James Cagney and now boasts Jimmy Fallon as one of its tenants.
While playing the The Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz, The (1939), she was severely burned during her disappearance from Munchkinland and was off the film for more than a month.
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
The screen's immortal Wicked Witch, whose cackling laugh rings in our collective memory, Hamilton only won the plum role in The Wizard of Oz (1939) after Gale Sondergaard bowed out of the production! She enjoyed a lengthy show-business career that included Broadway, summer stock, community theater, radio, and TV in addition to her dozens of movie appearances. A small woman with sharp features, she portrayed many nosy spinsters and malicious gossips. Although she toiled in small parts as well as large ones, Hamilton never gave a bad performance. A former schoolteacher, she remained passionately interested in education and served on school boards and in children's therapy groups. In later years she was a familiar face on TV as "Cora," promoting Maxwell House coffee in a long-running series of commercials. She also provided the voice of Aunt Em in the animated Journey Back to Oz (1974).
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Links:
Letters from Frank (1979) (TV) .... Grandma Miller
Making of 'The Wizard of Oz', The (1979) (TV) .... Herself
"Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" (1973) TV Series .... Miss Eddels (1973-1975)
Night Strangler, The (1973) (TV) .... Professor Hester Crabwell
Journey Back to Oz (1971) (voice) .... Aunt Em
Anderson Tapes, The (1971) .... Miss Kaler
Brewster McCloud (1970) .... Daphne Heap, Houston Socialite
"As the World Turns" (1956) TV Series .... Miss Peterson #2 (1970)
Angel in My Pocket (1969) .... Rhoda
Rosie! (1968) .... Mae
Daydreamer, The (1966) .... Mrs. Klopplebobbler
World of Abbott and Costello, The (1965) .... (clips from The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap)
"That Was the Week That Was" (1964) TV Series .... Herself
Paradise Alley (1961)
... aka Stars in the Back Yard (1961)
13 Ghosts (1960) .... Elaine Zacharides
... aka Thirteen Ghosts (1960)
"Valiant Lady" (1953) TV Series
Comin' Round the Mountain (1951) .... Aunt Huddy
People Will Talk (1951) .... Miss Sarah Piggett
Great Plane Robbery, The (1950) .... Mrs. Judd
Wabash Avenue (1950) .... Tillie Hutch
Riding High (1950) .... Edna
Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, The (1949) (uncredited) .... Mrs. Elvira O'Toole
Sun Comes Up, The (1949) .... Mrs. Golightly
Red Pony, The (1949) .... Teacher
Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven (1948) .... Ruby Cheever
... aka Girl from Texas, The (1948) (UK)
Bungalow 13 (1948) .... Mrs. Appleby
State of the Union (1948) .... Norah
... aka World and His Wife, The (1948) (UK)
Dishonored Lady (1947) .... Mrs. Geiger
Driftwood (1947) .... Essie Keenan
Sin of Harold Diddlebock, The (1947) .... Flora
... aka Mad Wednesday (1950) (USA: reissue title)
Faithful in My Fashion (1946) .... Miss Applegate
Janie Gets Married (1946) .... Mrs. Angles
George White's Scandals (1945) .... Clarabell
Guest in the House (1944) .... Hilda, the Maid
City Without Men (1943) .... Dora
... aka Prison Farm (1943) (USA: reissue title)
Johnny Come Lately (1943) .... Myrtle Ferguson
... aka Johnny Vagabond (1943) (UK)
Ox-Bow Incident, The (1943) (uncredited) .... Mrs. Larch, Judge Tyler's Housekeeper
... aka Strange Incident (1943) (UK)
Meet the Stewarts (1942) .... Willametta
Journey for Margaret (1942) (uncredited)
Affairs of Martha, The (1942) .... Guinevere, Jacell's Maid
... aka Once Upon a Thursday (1942) (UK)
Twin Beds (1942) .... Norah
Play Girl (1941) .... Josie, Grace's Maid
Invisible Woman, The (1940) .... Mrs. Jackson
I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now (1940) .... Mrs. Thriffie
Villain Still Pursued Her, The (1940) .... Mrs. Wilson
Gay Vagabond, The (1940) .... Agatha Badger
My Little Chickadee (1940) .... Mrs. Gideon
Angels Wash Their Faces, The (1939) .... Miss Hannaberry
Main Street Lawyer (1939) .... Lucy
... aka When Gangland Strikes (1939) (UK)
Babes in Arms (1939) .... Martha Steele
Wizard of Oz, The (1939) .... Miss Almira Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West
Mother Carey's Chickens (1938) .... Mrs. Fuller
Four's a Crowd (1938) .... Amy
... aka All Rights Reserved (1938) (USA)
Stablemates (1938) .... Beulah Flanders
Breaking the Ice (1938) .... Mrs. Small
Slight Case of Murder, A (1938) .... Mrs. Cagie
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The (1938) .... Mrs. Harper
I'll Take Romance (1937) .... Margot
Laughing at Trouble (1937) .... Lizzie Beadle
... aka Laughing at Death (1937)
Mountain Justice (1937) .... Phoebe Lamb
Nothing Sacred (1937) .... Drug Store Lady
You Only Live Once (1937) .... Hester
Good Old Soak, The (1937) .... Minnie
Saratoga (1937) (uncredited) .... Maizie, Woman on Train
When's Your Birthday? (1937) .... Mossy
Chatterbox (1936) .... Emily Tipton
Moon's Our Home, The (1936) .... Mitty Simpson
Witness Chair, The (1936) .... Miss Grace Franklin, the Bookkeeper
These Three (1936) .... Agatha
Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The (1936)
Farmer Takes a Wife, The (1935) .... Lucy Gurget
Way Down East (1935) .... Martha Perkins
Hat, Coat, and Glove (1934) .... Madame DuBarry
Broadway Bill (1934) .... Edna
... aka Strictly Confidential (1934) (UK)
By Your Leave (1934) .... Whiffen, the Smith's Maid
There's Always Tomorrow (1934) .... Ella
... aka Too Late for Love (1934)
Another Language (1933) .... Helen Hallam
