Margaret Hamilton - Radio and Television Career

Radio and Television Career

In the 1940s and 1950s, Hamilton had a long-running role on the radio series Ethel and Albert (a.k.a. "The Couple Next Door") in which she played the lovable, scattered Aunt Eva (name later changed to Aunt Effie). During the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton appeared regularly on television. She did a stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday Night CBS-TV program. She played Morticia Addams' mother, "Hester Frump", in three episodes of The Addams Family (1965–1966). (Hamilton had been offered the role of Grandmama but turned it down.)

In 1962, Hamilton played Leora Scofield, a suffragette who arrives in Laramie, Wyoming, to bolster feminist causes in a territory where women had already obtained the right to vote, in the episode "Beyond Justice" of NBC's Laramie western series. In the story line, she is depicted as a long lost friend of series character Daisy Cooper, played by Spring Byington. Series lead character Slim Sherman (John Smith) is skeptical of the suffragettes, and he and Sheriff Mort Corey concoct a tale that the women should head to Cheyenne, where their services are more needed than in Laramie. This episode also has another plot in which a corrupt territorial politician is shot by his equally dishonest lawyer.

In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on the CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, "Katie". In the early 1970s, she joined the cast of another CBS soap opera, As the World Turns, playing "Miss Peterson". She had a small role in the made-for-TV film, The Night Strangler (1973), and appeared as a befuddled neighbor on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. In the Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976), she portrayed Lynde's housekeeper, reprising the Wicked Witch role as well as introducing Lynde to the rock group KISS. She reprised her role as the Wicked Witch in an episode of Sesame Street, but after complaints from parents of terrified children, it has not been seen since 1976. She appeared as herself in an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and continued acting regularly until 1982. Her last roles were two guest appearances as a veteran journalist named Thea Taft (in 1979 and 1982, respectively) on Lou Grant.

Throughout the 1970s, Hamilton lived in New York City's Gramercy Park neighborhood and appeared on local (and some national) public service announcements (PSAs) for organizations promoting the welfare of pets. Her most visible appearances during this period were as general store owner Cora, in a national series of television commercials for Maxwell House coffee.