Until I just considered it a few minutes ago, I never did realize that a favorite childhood sitcom- Bewitched was actually a satire that addressed the issues of prejudice. Samantha, a powerful witch with many talents, lives as a mortal & hides her identity from a society who could never understand or accept. You could say that she was in the broomcloset. Agnes Moorehead, who plays Endora, Samantha’s oddly single interfering mother who hates Samantha’s father played by a very fey Maurice Evans, & believes Sam shouldn’t disguise herself just because she might be rejected by society. Each episode was another zany example of the perils of not coming out. The show had possibly the gayest cast ever: Agnes Moorehead, Dick Sergeant (Darrin #2), Maurice Evans & of course Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur).The show’s lead- Elizabeth Montgomery was an avid activist for gay rights, often appearing in Pride parades.
Agnes Moorehead worked on Broadway, most famously as part of Orson Wells’ Mercury Theatre Group, where she played Lady Macbeth to Wells’ title role in the Scottish play. She worked in radio, originating the lead in Sorry, Wrong Number. Moorehead appeared in more than 60 films over 3 decades. She was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress 4 times (1942, 1944, 1948, & 1964).
It was an open secret in the Theatre World & in Hollywood that Moorehead had affairs with women, but she was consistently circumspect in commenting on her personal life: "a certain amount of aloofness on one’s part at times, because an actor can so easily be hurt by unfair criticism… an artist should . . . maintain glamour & a kind of mystery." Moorehead's position could have been motivated by the knowledge that openness as a lesbian would have had disastrous consequences for her career.
Her Bewitched co-star, the closeted Paul Lynde, was less reticent: "The whole world knows that Agnes was a lesbian…I mean classy, but one of the all-time Hollywood dykes. When one of her husbands was caught cheating, Agnes screamed at him that if he could have a mistress, so could she!"
Morehead's movie roles included the dyke-ish stereotypes: a WAC officer, a madam, & the superintendent of a women's prison, unmarried women, spinster aunts, nuns, governesses, & ladies' companions.
Morehead died of cancer in 1974 & ironically, she left her family's Ohio estate & farmlands, to Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, as well as some biblical studies books from her personal library.
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