Agnes Moorehead
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Clinton, Massachusetts, USA
At age three Agnes Moorehead first appeared onstage, and at 11 she made her professional debut in the ballet and chorus of the St. Louis Opera. As a teenager she regularly sang on local radio. She earned a Ph.D. in literature and studied theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She began playing small roles on Broadway in 1928; shortly thereafter she shifted her focus to radio acting, becoming a regular on the radio shows March of Time, Cavalcade of America, and a soap opera series. She toured in vaudeville from 1933-36 with Phil Baker. In 1940 she joined Orson Welles's Mercury Theater Company, giving a great boost to her career. Moorehead debuted onscreen as Kane's mother in Welles' film Citizen Kane (1941). Her second film was Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination; ultimately she was nominated for an Oscars five times, never winning. In films, she tended to play authoritarian, neurotic, puritanical, or soured women, but also played a wide range of other roles, and was last onscreen in 1972. In the '50s she toured the U.S. with a stellar cast giving dramatic readings of Shaw's Don Juan in Hell. In 1954 she began touring in The Fabulous Redhead, a one-woman show she eventually took to over 200 cities across the world. She was also active on TV; later audiences remember her best as the witch Endora, Elizabeth Montgomery's mother, in the '60s TV sitcom Bewitched. Moorehead's last professional engagement was in the Broadway musical Gigi. She died of lung cancer in 1974. She was married to actors John Griffith Lee (1930-52) and Robert Gist (1953-58).
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Frankenstein: The True Story |
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— | 1973 |
77% | Charlotte's Web |
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— | 1973 |
No Score Yet | Dear, Dead Delilah |
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— | 1972 |
55% | What's the Matter with Helen? |
|
— | 1971 |
No Score Yet | The Ballad of Andy Crocker |
|
— | 1969 |
No Score Yet | Alice Through the Looking-Glass |
|
— | 1966 |
No Score Yet | The Singing Nun |
|
— | 1966 |
82% | Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte |
|
— | 1964 |
40% | Who's Minding the Store? |
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— | 1963 |
86% | How the West Was Won |
|
— | 1963 |
No Score Yet | Bachelor in Paradise |
|
— | 1961 |
No Score Yet | Twenty Plus Two |
|
— | 1961 |
86% | Pollyanna |
|
— | 1960 |
20% | The Bat |
|
— | 1959 |
10% | Raintree County |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | The Story of Mankind |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | Jeanne Eagels |
|
— | 1957 |
88% | The True Story of Jesse James |
|
— | 1957 |
33% | The Opposite Sex |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | Pardners |
|
— | 1956 |
40% | The Revolt of Mamie Stover |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | The Swan |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | Meet Me in Las Vegas |
|
— | 1956 |
No Score Yet | The Conqueror |
|
— | 1956 |
90% | All That Heaven Allows |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | The Left Hand of God |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Untamed |
|
— | 1955 |
88% | Magnificent Obsession |
|
— | 1954 |
No Score Yet | Those Redheads from Seattle |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | The Story of Three Loves |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | Main Street to Broadway |
|
— | 1953 |
No Score Yet | The Blue Veil |
|
— | 1951 |
71% | 14 Hours |
|
— | 1951 |
82% | Show Boat |
|
— | 1951 |
No Score Yet | Adventures of Captain Fabian |
|
— | 1951 |
No Score Yet | Black Jack |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | Caged |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | Captain Black Jack |
|
— | 1950 |
No Score Yet | The Great Sinner |
|
— | 1949 |
89% | The Stratton Story |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | Station West |
|
— | 1948 |
91% | Johnny Belinda |
|
— | 1948 |
No Score Yet | The Woman in White |
|
— | 1948 |
71% | Summer Holiday |
|
— | 1948 |
90% | Dark Passage |
|
— | 1947 |
No Score Yet | Lost Moment |
|
— | 1947 |
No Score Yet | Her Highness and The Bellboy |
|
— | 1945 |
No Score Yet | Our Vines Have Tender Grapes |
|
— | 1945 |
No Score Yet | Keep Your Powder Dry |
|
— | 1945 |
No Score Yet | Tomorrow the World! |
|
— | 1944 |
83% | Since You Went Away |
|
— | 1944 |
100% | Jane Eyre |
|
— | 1944 |
100% | The Seventh Cross |
|
— | 1944 |
No Score Yet | Mrs. Parkington |
|
— | 1944 |
No Score Yet | Dragon Seed |
|
— | 1944 |
73% | Journey Into Fear |
|
— | 1943 |
No Score Yet | The Big Street |
|
— | 1942 |
89% | The Magnificent Ambersons |
|
— | 1942 |
99% | Citizen Kane |
|
— | 1941 |
No Score Yet | Masters of Mayhem |
|
— | 1939 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
Bewitched
1964-1972
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Marcus Welby, M.D.
1969-1976
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Night Gallery
1970-1973
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Wild Wild West
1965-1969
|
|
|
82% |
The Twilight Zone
1959-1964
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|
No Score Yet |
Rawhide
1959-1965
|
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Quotes from Agnes Moorehead's Characters
Countess Fosco: | I detest violence, so clumsy. |
Cornelia Van Gorder: | It's rather a clever way to hide stolen money. In the open, at it were - and so respectable. But don't try it; no matter how clever you are, you can't hide murder. Well that's it Dale, that's the end. |
Cornelia Van Gorder: | Oh Warner, where have you been? |
Warner: | Well Madame, [noticing the commotion] has there been an accident? |
Warner: | Well Madame, has there been an accident? |
Cornelia Van Gorder: | There's been a murder. |
Lt. Anderson: | There'll be a man patrolling the grounds all night, Miss Van Gorder. |
Cornelia Van Gorder: | Oh, thank you. |
Dr. Malcolm Wells: | and nobody inside, Andy? |
Lt. Anderson: | Why should there be? |
Dr. Malcolm Wells: | Well, how do you know but what the "Bat" is hiding somewhere inside the house? |
Lt. Anderson: | I'm quite sure he isn't in the house, Doctor. Not now. |
Dr. Malcolm Wells: | You know it's a pity you leased this house, Miss Van Gorder. |
Cornelia Van Gorder: | Why a pity? |
Dr. Malcolm Wells: | Well my dear lady, I don't want to alarm you but... |
Cornelia Van Gorder: | Oh, well after tonight nothing will alarm me. |
Dr. Malcolm Wells: | Yes I understand. It must have been terrifying. So many unexplainable things have happened here. There's something about the place. Your servants must have sensed it when they - walked out on you. An apprehension of disaster. |
Velma: | So you're finally showin' the right side of your face. Well, I seen it all along. That's some kinda drug you been givin' her. Isn't it? It's what's been making her act like she's been. Well, Ah'm goin' into town and Ah'm tellin them what you been up to. |
Mrs. Snow: | And that doctor, all he gives you is pills. Just pills and bills, just pills and bills, that's all! |
Mrs. Snow: | What is everybody sniffing about? My goodness, a bunch of ninnies. Think a person couldn't get well. |
Pollyanna: | The Ladies Aids had sent me with this. |
Mrs. Snow: | What is it? |
Pollyanna: | Calf's foot jelly. |
Mrs. Snow: | Calf's foot jelly. Oh, and I had my heart set on lamb's broth, today. |
Pollyanna: | You mean chicken, don't you? |
Mrs. Snow: | What's that? |
Pollyanna: | Well, they told me you always wanted chicken when you were brought jelly. |
Mrs. Snow: | Stop that noise in there! Haven't you any respect for a dying woman?! |