LIFETIME SEARCH FOR LOVE!
The Bewitched star endured three turbulent marriages, but never gave up on finding Mr Right
For eight seasons Elizabeth Montgomery enchanted TV viewers as the charming and beautiful witch next door who tried to lead the ordinary life of a suburban housewife. But as hard as she tried, Bewitched’s Samantha Stephens could almost never resist bringing the fantastic to life with a twitch of her nose.
Samantha’s witchy ways often created problems for her mortal husband, Darrin Stephens, but love always prevailed. Belief in the power of love was something that Elizabeth, who endured three divorces, shared with her small-screen alter ego.
“Bewitched was a love story,” the star’s biographer Herbie J Pilato reveals. “She could have anything she wanted, but she loved a regular guy.”
Born after the death of her sister Martha, Elizabeth grew up sheltered by her mother Elizabeth Allen, a stage actress, and father Robert Montgomery, a former 1930s matinee idol. “They were very wealthy,” says Herbie, author of Twitch Upon A Star:
The Bewitched Life And Career of Elizabeth Montgomery and The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery: A Guide To Her Magical Performances. “Robert was very strict with her. He would not let her do things like – strangely – go to the movies.” Their difficult father-daughter relationship would haunt Elizabeth for much of her life.
“They didn’t get along very well,” Elizabeth’s widower, actor Robert Foxworth, admits, noting that his wife’s father took it personally when she starred in 1975’s acclaimed drama The Legend Of Lizzie Borden. “When he saw the glee [in her eye] as she took an axe to her father, he caught something there and said, ‘Well, you finally got me!’”
HOLLYWOOD CALLS
As a young woman, Elizabeth dropped out of New York’s exclusive Spence School to study acting, but her high-society upbringing led her to marry Fred Cammann in 1954.
“He was a high roller and the perfect guy for Elizabeth in Robert’s eyes,” insists biographer Herbie. However, the union only lasted a year.
“She thought her career demanded that she head back to Hollywood,” recalled Fred, “and I didn’t see how
I could fit in out there.”
She met her second husband, Oscarwinning actor Gig Young, on a film set in 1956 and married him later that year.
“He was an older actor around her father’s age,” says Herbie, who says her father Robert was furious. But Gig was an alcoholic and the six-year union was not a happy one. “She divorced him because he was abusive,” he continues.
Elizabeth tried again to find domestic bliss with her third husband, William Asher, a TV producer and director 12 years her senior. When they wed in 1963, Elizabeth vowed to quit acting to become a mother. “But I felt that she was too good,” said William. “So I came up with the idea that we could work on something together.”
That led to Bewitched, a sitcom that would allow Elizabeth to work and raise a family. “The early years of their marriage were happy,” Herbie adds of the couple, who became parents to William, 56, Robert, 55, and Rebecca, 51.
Erin Murphy, who played her onscreen daughter Tabitha, became an unofficial part of the family.
“I totally looked up to her like a mum,” she said of her time on the hit show.
But like so many couples who work together, Elizabeth and William’s relationship became strained.
“Bill made her a star but by the time the show ended, she had become a stronger, more independent woman,” Herbie adds, comparing her to other celebrities like Cher or Mary Tyler Moore, who eventually sought independence from the husbands who guided their early careers.
FINDING TRUE LOVE
Elizabeth and William also both made mistakes that contributed to the end of Bewitched in 1972 and their marriage the following year.
“Bill told me it was his fault. He had an affair,” dishes the author.
Elizabeth may have sought revenge when she became romantically involved with Bewitched director Richard Michaels, one of her husband’s proteges. “Bill was very upset,” he says.
But while Elizabeth swore off marriage, she didn’t give up on love. Robert Foxworth, who met her on the set of 1974’s TV movie Mrs Sundance, describes it as love at first sight. “She walked into a rehearsal hall and it was just immediate,” he tells.
Elizabeth was thunderstruck, too – although she would live with Robert for almost 20 years before she’d finally marry him in 1993.
“He was the first one who was younger than her and she loved that he had never seen an episode of Bewitched,” says Herbie.
In those last two decades, Elizabeth found the life she wanted.
“She was a real homebody,” recalls Robert. “She liked to work in the garden, and the kids were a huge part of her life.”
When she was diagnosed with cancer at age 62 in 1995, Elizabeth kept it quiet. “It was quick, about seven weeks from diagnosis to her death,” adds Robert. “She didn’t want people crying over her.”
Surprised fans mourned the loss of the TV star, but Robert says that family was Elizabeth’s greatest legacy. “She would be so happy with her children today,” he says. “To see them and her grandchildren would have made her proud.”
‘She loved that he had never seen an episode of Bewitched’