Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 958
By This is the grave of Alice Ghostley.
Born in Eve, Missouri in 1923, Ghostley grew up in Henryetta, Oklahoma. The family was well-off enough that she could go to the University of Oklahoma when that still wasn’t that common from women in the area. But she wanted to act and so dropped out of college.
Ghostley was on Broadway with New Faces of 1952, a big hit that was then made into a film of the same name in 1954 and that she also appeared in. She then spent the rest of her life on the margins of Hollywood, getting a few film roles and a whole lot of small TV roles, that repository of the working actor getting work, however small the roles might be. All respect for those many actors. What she really became known for was getting small but recurring roles on sitcoms. That includes Bewitched, where she played the maid and fellow witch Esmeralda, and Mayberry R.F.D., where she played the character used to replace Aunt Bee. She was a guest star in a gazillion shows, including Good Times, One Day at a Time, and Maude. Her last regular role was in Designing Women, where she played the friend of the mother. She received her only Emmy nomination for that role. Ghostley received a couple of Tony nominations over the years too. She also appeared in small roles in a lot of movies, including some of the real greats such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Graduate, as well as many less than greats such as Grease and the Burt Reynolds vehicle Gator.
Ghostley died in 2007 after a stroke and cancer. She was 84 years old.
Let’s watch some of her work:
Alice Ghostley is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
If you would like this post to visit other actors who appeared in Bewitched, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Elizabeth Montgomery is in Los Angeles and Agnes Moorehead is in Dayton, Ohio. Previous posts in this series are archived here.