Margaret Hamilton

Trivia: While Hamilton was a teacher back in Cleveland, one of her students was young Jim Backus. Her biography on her official Web site does not mention her son or her four prior marriages. She died in Salisbury, Connecticut from a heart attack. The two have been estranged for many years. Hamilton was married briefly in the 30s and had one son, whom she raised on her own. Holm is the mother of Ted Nelson, the co-creator of hypertext. She continued acting regularly until her final role in 1979. In April 2004, on her 87th birthday, she married the 41 year old opera singer Frank Basile.

During the 1960s and 1970s she appeared in television, and had a substantial role in the made for television film The Night Strangler (1973). She remains active for social causes as a spokesperson for UNICEF, and for occasional professional engagements. For example, Hamilton starred in a now-forgotten noir flick of 1948 from one of the "poverty row" studios, entitled Bungalow 13, which co-starred Richard Cromwell. Celeste Holm has received many honors in her lifetime: she was appointed to the National Arts Council by then-President Ronald Reagan, knighted by King Olav of Norway, and inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1992. She appeared regularly in supporting roles in films until the early 1950s, and sporadically thereafter. In the 1970s and 1980s, Holm returned more fully to screen acting, with roles in films such as Three Men and a Baby and in television series (often as a guest star) such as Columbo and Falcon Crest. Hamilton had to recuperate in a hospital and at home for six weeks time after the accident before returning to the set to complete her work on the now-classic film. The most successful of these was in the 1956 musical, High Society, in which she duetted with Frank Sinatra.

During the shoot, Hamilton suffered severe burns when the trap-door elevator she was riding on the soundstage malfunctioned during her "fiery disappearance" from Munchkin Land. After her famous performance in All About Eve, however, Holm realized she preferred working in live theater than on movie sets, and took on very few filmed roles over the following decade. Hamilton's effective and frightening portrayal eventually secured her the role over the originally cast, but more glamourous, Gale Sondergaard. After starring in the Broadway production of Bloomer Girl, 20th Century Fox signed Holm to a movie contract in 1946, and in her first two years as a film actress Holm cemented herself immediately as a formidable performer, especially when winning her Academy Award and Golden Globe for best supporting actress in Gentleman's Agreement. In 1939, she played in the role of the Wicked Witch opposite Judy Garland 's Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and created not only her most famous role, but one of the screen's most memorable villains. Her first professional theatrical role was in a production of Hamlet starring Leslie Howard, and Holm quickly rose to prominence with her portrayal of Ado Annie in the first Broadway production of Oklahoma!. She appeared in such films as These Three (1936), Saratoga and Nothing Sacred (both 1937) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938). Born in New York City, Holm studied acting at the University of Chicago before becoming a stage actress in the late 1930s.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Hamilton was a school teacher who turned to acting, making her screen debut in 1933 in Zoo in Budapest. She is perhaps best remembered for her Oscar-winning role in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), as well as for her Oscar-nominated performance in All About Eve (1950). Margaret Hamilton (December 9, 1902 - May 16, 1985) was an American film actress. Celeste Holm (born April 29, 1917) is an American stage, movie, and television actress.