Agnes Moorehead (1900-1974)

The actress whom Orson Welles said could play anything.

�Acting is a difficult and sometimes a discouraging, sorrowful profession. It�s also the most ephemeral of the arts. A painter can preserve his work, but an actor cannot. Even motion pictures come and go.� (interview with Ronald L. Bowers)

Magnificent with Joseph Cotten in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).

�Of course I wanted to play the Stanwyck part in Sorry, Wrong Number. It had been written for me by Lucille Fletcher, and I must have done it on radio about 18 times. I went to Hal Wallis at Paramount when they were casting it to put my hat in the ring, but he said he owed Barbara a picture and that I could have a supporting role. I said no. I�m not bitter about it, I let the chips fall where they may and go on from there.... They played my recording constantly on the set.� (interview with Ronald L. Bowers)

Cousin Lily in Summer Holiday (1948).

[On Method acting] �The Method school thinks the emotion is the art. It isn�t. All emotion isn�t sublime. The theater isn�t reality. If you want reality, go the morgue. The theater is human behavior that is effective and interesting.�

Soon to receive comeuppance from Humphrey Bogart in Dark Passage (1947).

�Materialism has brought about confusion and decadence. The youth of today have their eyes open to what harm has been done by measuring a man by the size of his bank account, and I feel sorry that so few of them know where to turn because they have lost respect for those closest to them.�

The malevolent Countess Fosco in The Woman in White (1948).

[On transitioning from radio to television] �I never thought anything about it. There are lots of times that you can�t make the change from the stage to the pictures, or from the pictures to the stage.... The only thing that I feel is the difference is the fact of the medium being either small or large. But as far as emotional values are concerned, there�s no difference at all. The playing isn�t different.� (1971 radio interview with Chuck Schaden)

 Dispensing tough love to Eleanor Parker in Caged (1950).

[On her most challenging role] �They�re all challenging. I don�t know a role that isn�t challenging.... If it isn�t a challenge, why do it?� (1971 radio interview with Chuck Schaden)

Sam and Endora bewitch a TV generation.

�I�ve been in movies and played theater from coast to coast, so I was quite well known before Bewitched, and I don�t particularly want to be identified as a witch.� (1974 New York Times interview)

My favorite Agnes Moorehead films: Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Journey into Fear (1943), Dark Passage (1947), Caged (1950), Magnificent Obsession (1954), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)