Margaret Hamilton - Film Career

Film Career

Hamilton's unlikely career as a film actress was driven by the very qualities that placed her in stark contrast to the stereotypical Hollywood glamour girl. Her image was that of a New England spinster, extremely pragmatic and impatient with all manner of "tomfoolery". Hamilton's plain looks helped to bring steady work as a character actor. She made her screen debut in 1933 in Another Language. She went on to appear in These Three (1936), Saratoga, You Only Live Once, When's Your Birthday?, Nothing Sacred (all 1937), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and My Little Chickadee (1940). She strove to work as much as possible to support herself and her son; she never put herself under contract to any one studio and priced her services at $1000 a week.

Hamilton co-starred opposite Buster Keaton and Richard Cromwell, in a 1940s spoof of the long-running local melodrama The Drunkard, entitled The Villain Still Pursued Her. Later in the decade, she was in a now-forgotten film noir, entitled Bungalow 13 (1948), in which she again co-starred opposite Cromwell. Her crisp voice with rapid but clear enunciation was another trademark. She appeared regularly in supporting roles in films until the early 1950s, and sporadically thereafter. She appeared, uncredited, in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's People Will Talk (1951), playing the part of Sarah Pickett opposite Hume Cronyn's Dr. Elwell.

In 1960, producer/director William Castle cast Hamilton as a maid named Elaine Zacharides in his 13 Ghosts spookfest. Throughout the film she plays it straight when 12-year-old lead Charles Herbert's taunts her about being a witch, including one scene when she has a broom in her hand.