Agnes Moorehead

Agnes Robertson Moorehead was born on December 6, 1900,{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Agnes-Moorehead|title=Agnes Moorehead {{!}} American actress|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=October 21, 2017|language=en}} in Clinton, Massachusetts, the daughter of former singer Mary (née McCauley), who was 17 when she was born, and Presbyterian clergyman John Henderson Moorehead. Moorehead later claimed that she was born in 1906 to appear younger for acting parts.{{Cite web |last=Chad |date=2019-10-25 |title=Agnes Moorehead |url=https://walkoffame.com/agnes-moorehead/ |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=Hollywood Walk of Fame |language=en-US}} She recalled that she made her first public performance at the age of three, when she recited the Lord's Prayer in her father's church. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and her ambition to become an actress grew "very strong". Her mother indulged her active imagination, often asking, "Who are you today, Agnes?" while Moorehead and her younger sister Peggy (born Margaret Ann) engaged in mimicry. This involved coming to the dinner table and imitating their father's parishioners; they were further encouraged by his amused reactions.Kear, Lynn. Agnes Moorehead: a Bio-Bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1992. {{ISBN|9780313281556}}.

As a young woman, Moorehead joined the chorus of the St. Louis Municipal Opera Company, known as "The Muny". In addition to her interest in acting, she developed a lifelong interest in religion; in later years, actors such as Dick Sargent recalled Moorehead's arriving on the set with "the Bible in one hand and the script in the other".

Moorehead earned a bachelor's degree in 1923, majoring in biology at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. While there, she also appeared in college stage plays. She received an honorary doctorate in literature from Muskingum in 1947,{{cite news |editor-last=Rathbun |editor-first=Joe |title=Muskingum to Honor Actress |date=May 31, 1947 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/293009118/ |newspaper=The Time Recorder |publisher=W. O. Littick |location=Zanesville, Ohio |volume=63 |issue=130 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} and served for a year on its board of trustees.{{cite news |editor-last=Harsh |editor-first=Bud |title=Four Elected As Muskingum Trustees |date=October 9, 1972 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/294110911/ |newspaper=The Times Recorder |publisher=Jack W. Powell |location=Zanesville, Ohio |volume=109 |issue=248 |page=7-A |via=Newspapers.com}} When her family moved to Reedsburg, Wisconsin,{{cite web |url=http://www.reedsburgwi.gov/index.asp?SEC=F4929A3E-5508-478A-9599-29714D684216&Type=B_BASICl |title=Reedsburg's Notable Citizens |publisher=City of Reedsburg, Wisconsin |access-date=May 23, 2014}} she taught public school for five years in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, while she also earned a master's degree in English and public speaking at the University of Wisconsin (now the University of Wisconsin-Madison).[https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/archives/la-me-agnes-moorehead-19740501-story.html L. A. Times website, Agnes Moorehead, Character Actress of Movies and TV, Dies, article by Ted Thackrey Jr dated May 1, 1974] She then pursued postgraduate studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which she graduated with honors in 1929. Moorehead also received an honorary doctoral degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.{{Cite web |url=https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/carbondale-murphysboro-airport-one-of-the-busiest-in-illinois/article_577a735d-ede1-5826-bd1f-298b89bf18b7.html |title=Carbondale-Murphysboro airport one of the busiest in Illinois|last=Callais|first=Krystle|website=WPSD Local 6|date=February 9, 2015 |language=en|access-date=April 26, 2020}}

Moorehead's early acting career was unsteady, and although she was able to find stage work, she was often unemployed. She later recalled going four days without food, and said that it had taught her "the value of a dollar".{{Cite web |title=Agnes Moorehead |url=https://timenote.info/en/Agnes-Moorehead |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=timenote.info |language=en}} She found work in radio and was soon in demand, often working on several programs in a single day. She believed that it offered her excellent training and allowed her to develop her voice to create a variety of characterizations. Moorehead met actress Helen Hayes, who encouraged her to enter films, but her first attempts were met with failure. When she was rejected as not being "the right type", Moorehead returned to radio.

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| caption1 = Moorehead in the trailer for Citizen Kane (1940)

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By 1937, Moorehead had joined Orson Welles' Mercury Players, as one of his principal performers along with Joseph Cotten. (In an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show on February 19, 1973, she revealed that, in 1922, she had by chance met Welles (15 years her junior) when he was a mere seven years old at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.)Moorehead, Agnes. The Dick Cavett Show, youtube.com, ABC Television Network, February 19, 1973, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jobppR1MPs. She performed in his The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio adaptations, and had a regular role opposite Welles in the serial The Shadow as Margo Lane. In 1939, Welles moved the Mercury Theatre to Hollywood, where he started working for RKO Pictures. Several of his radio performers joined him, and Moorehead made her film debut as the mother of his own character, Charles Foster Kane, in Citizen Kane (1941), considered by most film critics one of the best films ever made. Moorehead was featured in Welles' second film, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and received the New York Film Critics Award{{Cite web |title=Awards – New York Film Critics Circle |url=https://www.nyfcc.com/awards/ |access-date=2024-09-06 |language=en-US}} and an Academy Award nomination{{Cite web |date=2014-10-04 |title=The 15th Academy Awards {{!}} 1943 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1943 |access-date=2024-09-06 |website=www.oscars.org |language=en}} for her performance. She also appeared in Journey Into Fear (1943), a Mercury film production.

Moorehead received positive reviews for her performance in Mrs. Parkington (1944), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress{{Cite web |title=Mrs. Parkington |url=https://goldenglobes.com/film/mrs-parkington/ |access-date=2024-09-06 |website=Golden Globes |language=en-US}} and an Academy Award nomination.{{Cite web |date=2014-10-04 |title=The 17th Academy Awards {{!}} 1945 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1945 |access-date=2024-09-06 |website=www.oscars.org |language=en}} Moorehead played another strong role in The Big Street (1942) with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, and then appeared in two films that failed to find an audience, Government Girl (1943) with Olivia de Havilland and The Youngest Profession (1944) with adolescent Virginia Weidler.

File:Dark-Passage-Moorehead-Bogart.jpg

By the mid-1940s, Moorehead became a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player, negotiating a $6,000-a-week contract, which also allowed her to perform on radio, an unusual clause at the time. Moorehead explained that MGM usually refused to allow their actors to appear on radio, as "the actors didn't have the knowledge or the taste or the judgment to appear on the right sort of show." In 1943–1944, Moorehead portrayed "matronly housekeeper Mrs. Mullet", who was constantly offering her "candied opinion", in the Mutual Broadcasting System's The Adventures of Leonidas Witherall; she inaugurated the role on CBS Radio.Cox, Jim, Radio Crime Fighters, 2002, p. 18, McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina, {{ISBN|0-7864-1390-5}}

Throughout her career, Moorehead skillfully portrayed puritanical matrons, neurotic spinsters, possessive mothers, and comical secretaries. She had supporting roles in The Youngest Profession (1943), Since You Went Away (1944), and the crime drama Dark Passage (1947), starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. She then played Aggie McDonald in the 1948 film, Johnny Belinda. She played Parthy Hawks, wife of Cap'n Andy and mother of Magnolia, in MGM's hit 1951 remake of Show Boat. Moorehead was in Broadway productions of Don Juan in Hell in 1951–1952, and Lord Pengo in 1962–1963.

In her first radio role, Moorehead appeared as a replacement for Dorothy Denvir's role as Min Gump in The Gumps. During the 1940s and 1950s, Moorehead was one of the most in-demand actresses for radio dramas, especially on the CBS show Suspense. During the 946-episode run of Suspense, Moorehead was cast in more episodes than any other actor or actress. She was often introduced on the show as the "first lady of Suspense". Moorehead's most successful appearance on Suspense was in the play Sorry, Wrong Number, written by Lucille Fletcher, broadcast on May 18, 1943. Moorehead played a selfish, neurotic woman who overhears a murder being plotted via crossed phone wires and eventually realizes she is the intended victim. She recreated the performance six times for Suspense and several times on other radio shows, always using her original, dog-eared script. The May 25, 1943 airing was made part of the National Sound Registry by the Library of Congress in 2014. In 1952, she recorded an album of the drama, and performed scenes from the story in her one-woman show in the 1950s. Barbara Stanwyck played the role in the 1948 film version.

In 1941, Moorehead played Maggie in the short-lived Bringing Up Father program on the Blue Network.{{cite book |last=Dunning |first=John |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22Bringing+Up+Father,+comedy%22&pg=PA120 |section=Bringing Up Father |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3 |page=120 |edition=Revised |accessdate=2025-01-05}} From 1942 to 1949, Moorehead played the role of the mayor's housekeeper in the radio version of Mayor of the Town.Dunning, op. cit., [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22Mayor+of+the+Town+comedy-drama%22&pg=PA443 "Mayor of the Town" p. 443] She also starred in The Amazing Mrs. Danberry, a situation comedy on CBS in 1946. Moorehead's title character was described as "the lively widow of a department store owner who has a tongue as sharp as a hatpin and a heart as warm as summer."Dunning, op. cit., [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22The+Amazing+Mrs.+Danberry+situa%22&pg=PA24 "The Amazing Mrs. Danberry" p. 24] Moorehead had the honor of being the first female co-host of the Oscars in 1948 at the 21st Academy Awards ceremony, which was broadcast exclusively on radio.

Moorehead played one of her last roles on January 6, 1974, as Mrs. Ada Canby in the ironically titled "The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill", the inaugural episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater.List of CBS Radio Mystery Theater episodes (1974 season) File:Agnes Moorehead in The Bat.jpg (1959)]]

In the 1950s, Moorehead continued to work in films and appeared on stage across the country. Her stage roles included a national tour of Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, co-starring Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton, and Cedric Hardwicke, and the pre-Broadway engagements of the new musical The Pink Jungle. She had a supporting role in the big-budget Howard Hughes film The Conqueror (1956), starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward, a film she later regretted appearing in. She starred in The Bat (1959) with Vincent Price. She appeared as the hypochondriac Mrs. Snow in Disney's hit film Pollyanna (1960). She starred with Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Mary Astor, and Joseph Cotten in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) as the maid Velma, a role for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.{{Cite web |date=2014-10-05 |title=The 37th Academy Awards {{!}} 1965 |url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1965 |access-date=2024-09-06 |website=www.oscars.org |language=en}}

In 1959, Moorehead guest-starred on many series, including The Rebel and Alcoa Theatre. Her role in the radio play Sorry, Wrong Number inspired writers of the CBS television series The Twilight Zone to script an episode with Moorehead in mind.Richard J. Hand, Terror on the Air!: Horror Radio in America, 1931–1952. McFarland, 2006. {{ISBN|0-7864-2367-6}} In "The Invaders" (broadcast January 27, 1961), Moorehead played a woman whose isolated farm is plagued by mysterious intruders. Moorehead found the script odd, because it had only one line of dialogue, at the very end. Her character gasped in terror once or twice, but never spoke. In Sorry, Wrong Number, Moorehead offered a famed, bravura performance using only her voice.

Moorehead also had guest roles on Channing, Custer, Rawhide in "Incident at Poco Tiempo" as Sister Frances, and The Rifleman. On February 10, 1967, she portrayed Miss Emma Valentine in "The Night of the Vicious Valentine" on The Wild Wild West, a performance for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

File:Agnes Moorehead Dick York Elizabeth Montgomery Bewitched 1964.JPG castmates Dick York and Elizabeth Montgomery]]

In 1964, Moorehead accepted the role of Endora, Samantha's (Elizabeth Montgomery) mortal-loathing, quick-witted witch mother in the situation comedy Bewitched. She later commented that she had not expected it to succeed and that she ultimately felt trapped by its success, but she had negotiated to appear in only eight of every 12 episodes made, thus allowing her sufficient time to pursue other projects. She also felt that the television writing was often below standard and dismissed many of the Bewitched scripts as "hack" in a 1965 interview for TV Guide."Agnes Moorehead's recipe for TV success: The Strength of an Amazon..." TV Guide. July 17–23, 1965 The role brought her a level of recognition that she had not received before as Bewitched was in the top-10 programs for the first few years it aired.

Moorehead received six Emmy Award nominations for her work on the series, but was quick to remind interviewers that she had enjoyed a long and distinguished career, commenting to the New York Daily News in 1965, "I've been in movies and played theatre from coast to coast, so I was quite well known before 'Bewitched,' and I don't particularly want to be identified as the witch."{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/37726376/|title=An Actress Speaks Out|last=Okon|first=May|newspaper=Daily News|location=New York|date=July 18, 1965|page=4|accessdate=January 24, 2024}} Despite her ambivalence, she remained with Bewitched until its run ended in 1972. Prior to her death in 1974, she said she had enjoyed playing the role enough, but it was not challenging and the show itself was "not breathtaking", although her flamboyant and colorful character appealed to children. She expressed a fondness for the show's star, Elizabeth Montgomery, and said she had enjoyed working with her. Co-star Dick Sargent, who in 1969 replaced the ill Dick York as Samantha's husband Darrin Stephens, had a more difficult relationship with Moorehead, describing her as "a tough old bird."{{Cite book |last=Kear |first=Lynn |title=Agnes Moorehead: A Bio-Bibliography |year=1992 |publisher=Greenwood Press, Connecticut |isbn=0-313-28155-6 |page=12}}

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In fall 1964, Moorehead participated in a 5-minute commercial spot featuring casts of both Bonanza and Bewitched, announcing the new 1965 Chevrolet line. Moorehead was featured with Dan Blocker extolling the virtues of the new '65 Chevy II.

In the 1970s, Moorehead's life was increasingly affected by declining health. In 1970, Moorehead appeared as a dying woman who haunts her own house in the early Night Gallery episode "Certain Shadows on the Wall".[https://tv.apple.com/gb/episode/the-house-certain-shadows-on-the-wall/umc.cmc.40dz55o79hcevzp85mgrt8rxx?showId=umc.cmc.57p5i1krtt5wd4u6qp5hsgxaq Apple TV website, Night Gallery: Certain Shadows on the Wall] She co-starred with Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds in the horror film What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) and had the lead role in the low-budget ax murderer film Dear Dead Delilah (1972) with Will Geer, her last starring role. She also reprised her role in Don Juan in Hell on Broadway and on tour, with an all-star cast that featured Edward Mulhare, Ricardo Montalbán, and Paul Henreid.

Moorehead supplied the voice of the friendly "Goose" in Hanna-Barbera's 1973 adaptation of E. B. White's children's book Charlotte's Web.

For the 1973 Broadway adaptation of Gigi, Moorehead portrayed Aunt Alicia and performed various songs, including "The Contract" for the original cast recording. She fell ill during the production, resulting in Arlene Francis having to replace her. Moorehead died shortly afterward.

In January 1974, three months before her death, two episodes featuring Moorehead (including the series' premiere episode) aired on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, the popular radio show produced and directed by Himan Brown.

In 1930, Moorehead married actor John Griffith Lee;[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/274125341 National Library of Australia website, Agnes Moorehead seeks divorce, article printed in New South Wales Daily Mirror, Wed 17 May 1950, Page 3] they divorced a year after fostering a boy named Sean Lee in 1952. She married actor Robert Gist in 1954, and they divorced in 1958.[https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/moorehead-agnes-1900-1974 Encyclopedia.com website, Agnes Moorehead]

Moorehead's sexuality had been the subject of much speculation and dispute.{{cite book|last1=Harbin|first1=Billy J., Kim Marra, and Robert A. Schanke|title=The Gay & Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era|date=2005|publisher=University of Michigan Press|location=Ann Arbor|isbn=0472098586|page=286|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeaFlyP8-CwC&pg=PA286 |access-date=October 16, 2015}} A number of articles that appeared in periodicals in the alternative press have identified her as a lesbian.{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Patricia|chapter=The Queer Career of Agnes Moorehead|title=Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian, and Queer Essays on Popular Culture|editor1-last=Creekmur|editor1-first=Corey K.|editor2-last=Doty|editor2-first=Alexander|date=1995|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham|isbn=0822315416|page=111|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOKX0_QfdpgC&q=moorehead|access-date=October 16, 2015}} Paul Lynde, Moorehead's co-star on Bewitched, stated: "Well, the whole world knows Agnes was a lesbian - I mean classy as hell, but one of the all-time Hollywood dykes".{{cite book|last=White|first=Patricia|title=Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability|year=1999|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington IN|isbn=0-253-33641-4|page=140|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gPxwl7uSYfYC&q=moorehead}} Journalist Boze Hadleigh reported an incident, also sourced to Lynde, in which, when she caught one of her husbands cheating on her, "Agnes screamed at him that if he could have a mistress, so could she."{{cite book|last=Hadleigh|first=Boze|title=Hollywood Lesbians|year=1994|publisher=Barricade Books|location=Fort Lee NJ|isbn=978-1569800140|page=179}} In a 1973 interview with Hadleigh, when afforded the opportunity to either confirm or, once and for all, put to rest the rumors regarding her sexual orientation, Moorehead "wryly" opts to do neither:

{{blockquote|BH: Just one more question. Numerous Hollywood actresses - Garbo, Gish, Dietrich, Jean Arthur, um, Kay Francis, Stanwyck, Bankhead, Del Rio, Janet Gaynor, etc., etc. - have enjoyed lesbian or bi relationships. Have you ever...?
AM: Yes, you'd love to put me in their excellent company! Even if I don't belong in the same category. [Smiles wryly]
BH: You don't?
AM: Those ladies were more beautiful than me.Hadleigh. [https://archive.org/details/hollywoodlesbian0000hadl/page/192/mode/2up?q=%22yes+you%27d+love+to+put+me%22 op. cit., p. 192.]}}

Moorehead's close friend Debbie Reynolds stated categorically that Moorehead was not a lesbian. Reynolds's autobiography mentions the rumor and states it was started "maliciously" by one of Moorehead's husbands during their divorce.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} Moorehead's longtime friend and producer Paul Gregory concurs in the assessment. Quint Benedetti, Moorehead's longtime employee who was homosexual, also stated that Moorehead was not a lesbian and attributed the story to Paul Lynde's frequent gossiping and rumor-mongering.Tranberg, p. 320

Moorehead rarely spoke publicly about her political beliefs, but she supported both Franklin Delano Roosevelt (she portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt multiple times over the course of her career), and close friend Ronald Reagan for his 1966 run for governor of California.Tranberg, p. 293

Moorehead was one of many people to have developed cancer after exposure to radioactive fallout from atmospheric atomic bomb tests{{cite book |last=Pilar |first=Wayne |date=1987 |title=John Wayne: My Life with the Duke |url=https://archive.org/details/johnwaynemylifew0000wayn |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill |page=103 |isbn=0-07-068662-9}} while making The Conqueror (1956) with John Wayne in Iron City, Utah. Several production members, as well as Wayne himself, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendáriz (who died by suicide while suffering from cancer), and the film's director Dick Powell, later died from cancer and cancer-related illnesses.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fuBLAAAAIBAJ&pg=6730,3665046|title=Cancer deaths of film stars linked to fallout|date=August 7, 1979|work=The Free Lance-Star|page=7|access-date=January 13, 2013}} The cast and crew totalled 220 people. By the end of 1980, as ascertained by People, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer, and 46 had died of the disease.{{cite web|url=https://people.com/archive/the-children-of-john-wayne-susan-hayward-and-dick-powell-fear-that-fallout-killed-their-parents-vol-14-no-19/|title=The Children of John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Dick Powell Fear That Fallout Killed Their Parents|work=People|access-date=October 17, 2018}}{{cite book |last=Uytdewilligen |first=Ryan |date=2021 |title=Killing John Wayne - The Making of the Conqueror |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=69E4EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA173 |location= |publisher=Lyons Press |page=173 |isbn=9781493063314}}{{cite book |last=Schaefli |first=Roland |date=2021 |title=John Wayne Was Here - The Film Locations and Favorite Places of an American Icon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lPoyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |publisher=McFarland, Incorporated |page=109 |isbn=9781476641270}}

Moorehead died at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, on April 30, 1974, due to uterine cancer at the age of 73.{{Cite news|title=What's Your Problem?; Bewitching cast all but gone now|date=June 4, 2020|work=The Adelaide Advertiser|page=47|quote=Alice Ghostley (Esmerelda, sixth series onwards) died on September 21, 2007, aged 84. Maurice Evans (Maurice) died on March 12, 1989, aged 87. Agnes Moorehead (Endora) died of uterine cancer on April 30, 1974, aged 73. David White (Larry Tate) died of a heart attack on November 27, 1990, aged 74. Dick York (Darrin, first five series) died of emphysema on February 20, 1992, aged 63. Dick Sargent (Darrin, sixth series onwards) died of prostate cancer on July 8, 1994, aged 64. Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha) died of bowel cancer on May 18, 1995, aged 62.|id={{ProQuest|2408944535}}}}

Moorehead is entombed in a crypt at Dayton Memorial Park in Dayton, Ohio.{{cite news |last1=Robinson |first1=Amelia |title=5 geeky facts you may not know about Dayton |url=https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/geeky-facts-you-may-not-know-about-dayton/zCpXssy9ZCO7cHostw7RzL/ |access-date=3 December 2022 |work=dayton-daily-news |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190909174346/https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/geeky-facts-you-may-not-know-about-dayton/zCpXssy9ZCO7cHostw7RzL/ |archive-date=9 September 2019 |language=English}} In 1994, she was posthumously inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.{{cite web|url=http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement|title=St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees|publisher=St. Louis Walk of Fame|access-date=April 25, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031162946/http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement |archive-date=October 31, 2012 |url-status=dead}}

Moorehead bequeathed $25,000 to Muskingum College, with instructions to fund one or more "Agnes Moorehead Scholarships". She also left half of her manuscripts to Muskingum with the other half going to the University of Wisconsin. Her family's Ohio farm went to John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, along with her collection of Bibles and biblical scholarship materials.{{cite news|title=Agnes Moorhead leaves estate worth $400,000|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19740626&id=OoIuAAAAIBAJ&pg=5823,2596490|access-date=September 20, 2015|agency=UPI|publisher=The Montreal Gazette|date=June 26, 1974|page=50}}{{cite journal|title=Agnes Moorhead legacy comes home|journal=MUSKINGUM – the Magazine for Alumni and Friends|date=Spring 2004|volume=94|issue=2|page=16|url=http://www.muskingum.edu/home/alumni/downloads/04aSprMag.pdf|access-date=September 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121229/http://www.muskingum.edu/home/alumni/downloads/04aSprMag.pdf|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}

Her mother Mary received all of Moorehead's clothing and jewelry, and Moorehead made provisions to support Mary for the rest of her life. The Beverly Hills home was left to her attorney Franklin Rohner, along with the furnishings and personal property within. Small bequests were made for friends and domestic staff along with some charitable contributions. In her will, she made no provision for her foster son Sean Lee. In fact, she had fostered Sean only until his 18th birthday, and her will stated that she had "no children, natural or adopted, living or deceased".Tranberg, pp. 318–19

Moorehead began appearing on stage during her training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She appeared in seven productions as a student. She continued acting in the theater throughout her career until just a few months before her death.Tranberg, pp. 413–6

Moorehead appeared on hundreds of individual broadcasts across a radio career that spanned from 1926 to her final two appearances, on CBS Radio Mystery Theater in 1974.Tranberg. pp 396–413

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Lynn Kear, Agnes Moorehead: a Bio-Bibliography. (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1992). {{ISBN|0-313-28155-6}}
• Charles Tranberg, I Love the Illusion: The Life And Career of Agnes Moorehead (Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media, 2005) {{ISBN|1-59393-029-1}}

• {{cite book |last= Alistair |first= Rupert |title= The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age |chapter= Agnes Moorehead |pages= 185–187 |date= 2018 |edition= First |type= softcover |publisher= Independently published |location= Great Britain |isbn = 978-1-7200-3837-5}}
• {{cite book |last= Sherk |first= Warren |title= Agnes Moorehead: A Very Private Person |date= 1976 |edition= First |type= hardcover |publisher= Dorrance |location= Philadelphia, PA |isbn=978-0-8059-2317-9}}

{{Commons category|Agnes Moorehead}}

• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|0001547}}
• {{Tcmdb name}}
• {{Find a Grave|1409}}
• [http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0161an Guide to over 100,000 Moorehead documents spanning 1923–1974] at the Wisconsin Historical Society
• [http://archives.nypl.org/the/21679 Georgia Johnstone papers regarding Agnes Moorehead, 1930–1974], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• [http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/tranberg_interview.htm Interview with biographer Charles Tranberg from Harpies Bizarre]
• Listen to – [http://jack_benny.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-15T13_41_01-08_00 Suspense 1951-02-15 Agnes Moorehead – The Death Parade] with new introduction.
• Listen to – [https://archive.org/download/otr_cbsradiomysterytheater/CBSRMT740106-000132-TheOldOnesAreHardtoKill.mp3 The CBS Radio Mystery Theater 1974-01-06 The Old Ones Are Hard To Kill starring Agnes Moorehead.]
• [http://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM3769 Agnes Moorehead] as a child circa 1904 (Wisconsin Historical Society)
• [http://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM4091 Agnes Moorehead] as a child wearing white dress 1903 (Wisconsin Historical Society)

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|title = Awards for Agnes Moorehead

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{{EmmyAward DramaSupportingActress 1959–1975}}

{{GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1943-1960}}

{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress}}

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Category:1900 births

Category:1974 deaths

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from Greater Los Angeles

Category:Actresses from Massachusetts

Category:Actresses from St. Louis

Category:American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni

Category:American Presbyterians

Category:American film actresses

Category:American radio actresses

Category:American stage actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:American voice actresses

Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners

Category:Bewitched

Category:California Republicans

Category:Deaths from cancer in Minnesota

Category:Deaths from uterine cancer in the United States

Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players

Category:Muskingum University alumni

Category:Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award winners

Category:People from Clinton, Massachusetts

Category:People from Reedsburg, Wisconsin

Category:People from Zanesville, Ohio

Category:Western (genre) television actors