For eight years, millions of viewers watched her twitch her nose and make the impossible look effortless.

She was charming.

Elegant.

Funny.

And so naturally magnetic that an entire generation came to associate her face with one of television’s most beloved characters.

But behind the bright smile and supernatural comedy was an actress who wanted something very different.

She wanted danger.

Drama.

Darkness.

And above all, she wanted to prove she was much more than the role that made her famous.

Born in Los Angeles in 1933, she seemed almost destined for the screen.

Her father was acclaimed actor Robert Montgomery, while her mother had performed on Broadway.

Acting was not some distant fantasy.

It was already part of the family.

As a girl, she reportedly told her father that she intended to become an actress when she grew up.

Years later, she admitted that his influence helped open doors.

But having a famous father could only get her so far.\

She still had to prove herself.

She studied in New York and trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before beginning a career that included television, Broadway, and film.

Her earliest TV appearances came on her father’s anthology series, Robert Montgomery Presents.

Then Broadway called.

Film followed.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, she appeared in shows including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, and The Loretta Young Show.

She was attractive enough to be marketed as a glamorous television beauty.

But she had ambitions beyond that.

Then, in 1964, came the role that changed everything.

The concept sounded almost ridiculous.

A beautiful suburban wife.

A mortal husband.

One small secret.

She was a witch.

The sitcom mixed domestic comedy with fantasy and became an immediate success.

Her character could perform magic with a twitch of her nose, but the real spell was the actress herself.

Audiences adored her.

Children imitated the twitch.

Adults tuned in every week.

And the woman playing Samantha Stephens became one of the most recognizable faces on American television.

The show was Bewitched.

It ran for eight seasons.

She received multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

And for millions of viewers, she became inseparable from Samantha.

That kind of success sounds like a dream.

For an actress, it can also become a trap.

When the series ended in 1972, she faced a familiar problem.

How do you convince audiences that the lovable witch they welcomed into their homes every week is capable of becoming someone completely different?

Her answer was simple.

Choose roles nobody expected.

Instead of chasing another light sitcom, she moved into dramatic television films.

In A Case of Rape in 1974, she played a woman confronting trauma and the brutal realities of the legal system.

It was worlds away from nose twitches and magical misunderstandings.

Then came The Legend of Lizzie Borden.

The sweet suburban television icon was suddenly portraying one of America’s most notorious accused killers.

The contrast was startling.

And effective.

Her transformation continued through a long series of made-for-television dramas, crime stories, and darker character pieces.

She became so successful in the format that some later described her as one of the original queens of the TV movie.

Her personal life was equally complicated.

She married several times.

Her early marriages ended in divorce.

Then, during the making of Johnny Cool, she met director and producer William Asher.

They married in 1963 and had three children.

Their partnership overlapped with the years that made her globally famous.

But that marriage eventually ended as well.

Later, while working on Mrs. Sundance, she met actor Robert Foxworth.

Their relationship endured for more than two decades.

They eventually married in 1993.

By then, her career had long since proved that Samantha Stephens was only one part of what she could do.

She continued working into the 1990s, taking on projects such as Black Widow Murders, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face, and Deadline for Murder.

Then came the diagnosis that changed everything.

She had been battling colon cancer.

For a time, she believed she had beaten it.

But while working on what would become one of her final projects, she became ill again.

By the time doctors discovered how far the disease had progressed, it had spread to her liver.

There would be no miracle this time.

She died at her Beverly Hills home on May 18, 1995, surrounded by her family.

She was 62.

The news shocked fans who still remembered her as the eternally youthful woman in a suburban kitchen, smiling just before another magical disaster.

But perhaps the most revealing thing about her career is that she never seemed satisfied with being remembered for only one role.

She once said that she liked taking parts that felt different from one another.

She wanted audiences to wonder what she would do next.

And she succeeded.

She began as the daughter of a famous actor.

She became a television phenomenon.

Then she deliberately dismantled the image that had made her famous and rebuilt herself through darker, more challenging roles.

And the woman who cast one of television’s most enduring spells was Elizabeth Montgomery.