CHARACTER ACTORS PART 10: AGNES MOOREHEAD.

Here are some reasons why I love her:

The Shadow (Radio Show 1937-1938) w/ Orson Welles

The Mercury Theater of the Air (1938) w. Orson Welles

Citizen Kane (1941) w/ Orson Welles)

Suspense: "Sorry, Wrong Number" (Radio Show 1942)

Jane Eyre (1944) w/ Orson Welles

Dragon Seed (1944) w/ Katharine Hepburn

The Bat (1959) w/ Vincent Price

The Twilight Zone: "The Invaders" (TV Show 1961)

Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964) w/ Bette Davis

Bewitched (TV Show 1964-1972) w/ Elizabeth Montgomery

What's the Matter With Helen? (1971) w/ Shelley Winters

Night Gallery: "Certain Shadows on the Wall" (TV Show 1970)

Night Gallery: "Satisfaction Guaranteed" (TV Show 1971)

Charlotte's Web (1973) Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) w/ Michael Sarrazin

In the trailer for "Citizen Kane", Orson called her one of the best actresses going. She was held in the highest regard in four industries: theater, film, television and radio. She was a key member of Orson Welles' groundbreaking theater group "The Mercury Theater" and she followed Orson to radio where she played the lovely Margot Lane on "The Shadow" as well as appearing on Orson's "Mercury Theater of the Air"; you know, the radio show that was responsible for the panic "War of the Worlds" broadcast. Her first film happened to be what many call the best film ever made: Citizen Kane. In it, Agnes plays Charles Foster Kane's icy mother; staring out the window as she gives up her son the snow mirrors her own chilly coldness. . .but Agnes still manages to inject a kernel of sadness and humanity which a lesser actress never would've put there on the screen. On radio, Agnes Moorehead starred in one of the most rerun episodes of all time as the hysterical bedridden woman in Suspense's "Sorry, Wrong Number". Take my word for it; skip the overlong and vastly inferior movie starring Barbara Stanwyck -- Agnes' radio performance is the one to experience. Then Agnes went to television and did a reverse of her radio performance when she performed on one of the most famous Twilight Zone's ever ("The Invaders") without speaking a word!!! Tragically, the casting of Agnes Moorehead in that mega-bomb "The Conqueror" (featuring John Wayne as Genghis Khan for goshsakes) signed her death warrent. The film was shot in the desert where recent nuclear bomb tests had been made. Worse still, skads of radioactive dirt were shipped to the studio sets so scenes shot on the movie lot would match! This naturally resulted in a large percentage of the cast and crew (including Wayne, Moorehead, Susan Hayward, Thomas Gomez, Pedro Armendariz and director Dick Powell) contracting cancer and dying from it. But most of us will always think of Agnes as the delightfully devious Endora on "Bewitched" as she unendingly torments Darren (whichever one). Agnes Moorehead had the acting chops to handle every role but she still maintained a down-to-earth sense of fun. And that's why I love her.