I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead (50 page)

West and his colleague,
Artemus Gordon, manage to
stop Emma Valentine from
fulfilling her plan, but they don’t
capture her and she leaves
behind a note. “Roses are red,
violets are blue, crime does pay,
and I’ll show you.” While the
epilog makes it clear that Emma
Valentine is eventually captured
by the authorities, it is a shame
that she wasn’t allowed to get
away because she would have
been a wonderful recurring
villainess for West and Gordon
to confront every season or so.

Capping 1966 was an award
which left Agnes truly honored
— receiving the Human Relations
Award from B’nai B’rith for
her “personal and dedicated
commitment to enhancing

For years Agnes had been wanting to work again with the man she
considered the most brilliant and unappreciated director in the industry —
Orson Welles. Time and again in interviews Agnes, throughout her career,
would make her views about Orson known in the media — and perhaps
through them to Orson himself. “I feel it is a disgrace, the way Hollywood
and the press let him down, even turned against him. He’s an authentic
genius — and there are only one or two of those born in each era. He has
many quirks, I admit it, but that is what makes him the talent he is. Those
quirks give him fantastic imagination. When you take that away from an
actor, you’ve taken the thing that really makes him go . . . makes him different.”

But Welles did most of his films in Europe and lived in Spain — making
it difficult for the two to see each other. When he did come to Hollywood,
it was to make some quick cash to finance his own projects by appearing as
an actor in increasingly inferior films for other directors or guest shots on
variety shows; Orson appeared two or three times per year on
The Dean
Martin Show
and was a regular guest on the talk show circuit. The work was
very quick and Orson was often in and out of town — with little socializing.
Agnes would occasionally show up in the audience of a show that he was
appearing on just to get a glimpse of her old friend. According to Quint
Benedetti, Welles seemed to be avoiding Agnes. Benedetti states that on
several occasions when Agnes would read in the paper that Orson was in
town, she would have Quint call him to invite him over for lunch or
dinner, but that Welles “kept making excuses” to avoid seeing her. He
speculates that perhaps Welles felt that over the years Agnes had allowed
herself to “go commercial” by doing things like
Bewitched
, instead of more
artistic work that he knew she was so capable of doing. After all, this was
the same actress he considered the best in the world. But, somehow, if that
is the case, it doesn’t explain why Welles would fail Agnes for increasingly
turning to more commercial projects when he, himself, had done the same
— unless in Orson’s case he felt that he
had
to do it to finance his own more
ambitious artistic projects while Agnes had no excuses. Furthermore, it’s
not like Welles would not ever want to work with Agnes again. In the early
60’s, Orson was announced by producer Dino De Laurentiis as the director
of his ambitious film
The Bible
and Welles had approached Agnes about
playing Sarah, but somehow Orson and De Laurentiis had a falling out and
he never directed the film. (John Huston later did, but without Agnes.)
Among Orson’s never realized film projects was to update
The Magnificent
Ambersons
thirty years later with the original cast, Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten,
Anne Baxter and Agnes, reprising their original roles; once Tim Holt died
in 1973, and then Agnes, the following year, this idea was naturally
abandoned. It’s a pity it was never done.

But there was one member of the Welles family who surely didn’t want
to distance herself from Agnes — Orson’s 12-year-old daughter, Beatrice,
who wrote to Agnes on April 25, 1967:

Dear Mrs. Moorehead,
I am Beatrice, Orson Welles’s daughter and I have seen you in
Bewitched
and I thought you were wonderful. I see it every Sunday night, and I just
read the letter you sent to Daddy, you say in the letter that you are going
to London and then probably to Spain, I do wish you would come to Spain
so I could meet you — all my friends have seen you in television and they
like you very much (just you wait and see, when I will tell them that you
may come to Spain they will go hysterical). Daddy at the moment is in Paris
working very very hard and he comes and goes so he really doesn’t see me a
lot neither Mummy. I am at home alone because Mummy went to take
some driving lessons and I could not go because I am going to study at six
thirty, I am sorry now it is six twenty so I have to say goodbye.

Agnes was honored by her peers in the industry in 1967 with two Emmy
nominations. She was nominated for Best Actress in a single dramatic
performance for her role as Emma Valentine on
The Wild, Wild West
and,
most interestingly, for Outstanding Continued Performance by an actress
in a leading role in a comedy series for
Bewitched
. This was most interesting
because this put Agnes in direct competition with Elizabeth Montgomery
in the same category. The previous year Agnes had been nominated for
Bewitched
in the supporting category — but for some reason for the 66–67
season the Academy decided to put her in the best actress category. In the
years to come, Agnes would be Emmy nominated four more times for
Bewitched
, but always in the supporting category. Nominated along with
Agnes and Elizabeth were Lucille Ball for
The Lucy Show
and Marlo
Thomas for
That Girl
. It is really no surprise though that neither Agnes nor
Elizabeth emerged victorious (Lucy won) because they no doubt cancelled
each other out. Elizabeth, in fact, would be nominated five times for an
Emmy for
Bewitched
and lost each time. Sometimes the choices made by
the television academy were maddening. In both 1969 and 1970 Elizabeth
lost to Hope Lange for the much inferior
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.
Agnes
was equally unlucky with
Bewitched
. The years she probably had her best
shot of winning the Emmy for playing Endora were 1966, when she lost to
the recently-deceased Alice Pearce, and 1968, when she lost to fellow
Bewitched
actress Marion Lorne who also had recently passed away. There
can be no doubt that in a sentimental town like Hollywood the fact that
both actresses had recently died influenced the voting — despite the
consistently wonderful performances by both Pearce and Lorne. According
to Quint Benedetti, never winning the Emmy for
Bewitched
did disappoint
Agnes, but it was nothing she would openly admit.

Montgomery, along with Robert Culp, who announced the category of Best
Supporting Actress in a Drama series. Agnes’ competition was Ruth
Warwick for
Peyton Place
and Lucille Benson for
Cavalcade.
The award
went to Agnes — her first and only Emmy. “She was very proud of that —
she loved playing that character — Mrs. Valentine,” said Quint Benedetti.
She made a short speech of acceptance and thanks, as well as “surprise,”
before the beaming Montgomery. Telegrams and letters of congratulations
came in by the dozens including one from Joan Crawford:

Agnes dear,
Congratulations on winning the Emmy for
Night of the Vicious Valentine
.
I’m so happy for you. You were so beautiful on the Emmy awards show and
your acceptance speech was so gracious. You added such elegance to the
whole evening. Bless you, and my love to you.
Joan

She also heard from her
old
Mayor of the Town
co-star Conrad Binyon —
serving in the United States
Air Force — writing to tell
her, “it was simply a beautiful
experience for me to see
you awarded your Emmy. I
just loved it when you said,
“I don’t believe it!“ Well, I
believed it and so did all the
others who were pulling for
’The Fabulous Redhead.’”

Winning the Emmy was
one of the highlights of
Agnes’ career and certainly
the highlight of 1967.
Overall, it was a relatively
easy year. Her major work
was on
Bewitched
and an
occasional performance of
her one-woman show. In
between she was enjoying
her home and the newfound
wealth and popularity she

had gained through
Bewitched
— especially among children who recognized
her as Endora. On one occasion while visiting her mother in Reedsburg,
Wisconsin, she and Mollie went to the Presbyterian Church that her father
had once preached in for a Sunday service. In the pew ahead of her was a
family consisting of a mother, father and a very restless little boy. As many
children do when in church the little boy began to look around and finally
he turned and came face to face with Aggie seated directly behind him. The
boy’s eyes opened wide and he tugged on his mother’s sleeve, “Mommy,
Mommy — it’s that witch!”

In her spare time she was also taking lessons in sign language from a
private instructor. Her eventual goal was to incorporate it into her onewoman shows and present special programs to schools for the deaf and
mute. “I’m learning sign language when I can . . . I think it is marvelous
what the people can do. I’ve seen them (deaf people) put on plays . . . it
would be really exciting to be a part of this.” But, perfectionist that she was,
she knew that sign language had to be “expertly done” and she wouldn’t do
it unless she was proficient at it — unfortunately she never did utilize this
into her one-woman shows.

All in all, the last few years had been quite satisfactory especially on a
career level. The next few years would be more challenging on both the
home and career fronts. As the 60’s were coming to a close it seemed that
children and their parents were often clashing on morals, beliefs and styles
— and Agnes wasn’t immune. Career-wise, she would continue to be part
of a popular show but one which would soon be shaken when its leading
man would suddenly depart mid-season. The times were a-changing, but
Agnes wasn’t, and she would, often quite outspokenly in the years ahead,
lash out loudly against what she saw as declining morals and attitudes and
a lack of faith which was tearing the country apart. As she was reaching her
own late 60’s, this lioness would have plenty to roar about.

Paul Gregory believed that Agnes was ill-equipped at being a mother. Her
career came first and everything else, including Sean, was secondary. Quint
Benedetti says that Agnes could be “over indulgent” with Sean maternally,
but strict in other areas — such as what clothing he should wear, the length
of his hair and who his friends should be. Benedetti and Debbie Reynolds
both agree that Agnes didn’t allow Sean to “be himself ” and, as a
consequence, the boy became very “strong-willed” as he and Agnes were
often on a collision course. But she could be very protective of the boy, even
when tough love may have been the best course. Benedetti recalls that when
they were on the road with the one-woman show that Agnes received a call
from her maid, Freddie. Freddie told Agnes that her safety-deposit box,
stored in her safe at her home in Beverly Hills, had been broken into.
Freddie wondered if she should call the police. “No,” Agnes responded. “It
was Sean who did it.” Benedetti believes that Agnes had a hard time
demonstrating her affection not only toward Sean, but toward people in
general. “I wouldn’t say she was hard, but she was always very much in
control of herself.”