Happy birthday to Margaret Hamilton!

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 10:53am

Yes, this is on the main board. Yes, she played the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

She was also Madame Armfeldt in the national tour of "A Little Night Music."

A very different Maggie ...

Margaret Hamilton sings Liaisons

[bwayboy22]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 12:02pm

Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for sharing!

[Almira]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 12:05pm

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!


Lovely woman. And one of the GREAT character actors.


Margaret Hamilton on Mister Rogers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kpcPD8bks

Updated On: 12/9/13 at 12:05 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 1:43pm

[PattyO'Furniture]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 5:43pm

What a lovely lady, and thank you for posting!
Dear Margaret

[Kristie-K2]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 6:29pm

They had a wonderful tribute to her on TCM...She was Great

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 6:50pm

Here's a nice picture of her from a 1979 summer stock production of SHOW BOAT.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 8:11pm

best12, the national tour ended with a three-week engagement at the theater where I worked in Fort Lauderdale. Jean Simmons (lovely as Desiree) and Hermione Gingold were slated to open the London production a few weeks later.

So the tour abandoned Miss Hamilton in snowy Boston and brought in Gingold to play the last three weeks to reacquaint herself with the role.

Opening night, a lengthy telegram appeared on the board backstage: it was from the snowbound Miss Hamilton, wishing everyone a brilliant engagement and including a special note of good wishes to Gingold.

Very much a classy move by the Wicked Witch of the West, if you ask me.

(I had loved Gingold in movies, but in those days before everyone was individually miked, one really couldn't understand a word she said or sang on stage. I wish I could have seen Hamilton in the role.)

Updated On: 12/9/13 at 08:11 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 9:57pm

I've always loved the clip of her in her later years telling the story about getting the news that MGM wanted her for a role in The Wizard of Oz.


The Witch?

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/9/13 at 10:26pm

When I spoke with her son a few years ago, he said she absolutely loved playing Madame Armfeldt. In a career filled with maids and witches and hags and busybody neighbors ... she finally got to play the "glamorous" part, the "princess," the "prize." It took her a lifetime to get there, but it was a true career highlight for her.