Elizabeth Montgomery's Real Name: Elizabeth Montgomery

Quick answer: The actress is known professionally as Elizabeth Montgomery. Encyclopedia.com dates her birth to April 15, 1933, in Los Angeles, California, and her death to May 18, 1995, in Beverly Hills, California. A Los Angeles Times obituary published May 19, 1995, independently says she died Thursday morning at home in Beverly Hills, which matches that May 18 date, and records a conflict over her age: her family said she was 57, while several film anthologies listed her birth year as 1933 (Encyclopedia.com; Los Angeles Times).

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Elizabeth Montgomery. A fuller middle name appears in some reference and fan listings, but it is not independently documented by the sources cited here, so this page titles the public name. Encyclopedia.com says she was the daughter of the actor Robert Montgomery and the actress Elizabeth Allen, attended the Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles and the Spence School in New York City, and studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. The Times independently identifies those parents and says her first television work came in 1951 as a summer repertory player on her father's Robert Montgomery Presents.

Career highlights

Encyclopedia.com lists Bewitched on ABC from 1964 to 1972 as her series credit, along with later television films including A Case of Rape (1974) and The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975). The Times independently says Bewitched ran eight years and that she later became one of the best-known actors in made-for-TV movies, citing Mrs. Sundance and The Legend of Lizzie Borden. It says she earned an Emmy nomination, one of nine in her career, for A Case of Rape, broadcast in 1974. Encyclopedia.com also lists later television work including The Awakening Land (1978) and Deadline for Murder (1995).

Death

Encyclopedia.com says she died of colon cancer on May 18, 1995, in Beverly Hills, California. The Times, in a May 19, 1995, obituary, independently says she died Thursday morning after a long struggle with cancer, at home in Beverly Hills, with her husband, the actor Robert Foxworth, and her three children from a previous marriage present. The paper reports the family's statement that she was 57 and the conflicting anthology birth year of 1933. This page records that conflict rather than treating one age as settled.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched are looking for this American actress, the daughter of Robert Montgomery, not other performers with the same first and last name.