Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American actress, vaudevillian and educator, whose fifty-year career in entertainment spanned theater, film, radio and television. She often played villains and is best known to modern audiences for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz.
A former kindergarten teacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton appeared in films and made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an animal rights activist and her lifelong commitment to public education.
Her role as the Wicked Witch of the West is ranked by the American Film Institute as Hollywood's fourth-greatest villain of all time and the all-time greatest female villain.
Hamilton was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of W.J. Hamilton and Jennie Adams, and practiced her craft doing children's theater while she was a Junior League of Cleveland member. She attended Hathaway Brown School.
Hamilton began her acting career at the Cleveland Play House as an ensemble member in a production of The Brothers Karamazov, while studying acting and Pantomime under Maria Ouspenskaya. Her first major role at the Play House was as the First Witch in a production of Macbeth. She would go on to play numerous comedic roles, including circus performer Charlotta Ivanovna in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, and the sultry Miss Prosperine Garnett in Candida. She was praised in the press for her range as both a comedian and a serious actress.
In December 1929, she starred in a musical vaudeville act titled Heartrending and Humorous Songs of 1840, 1890, and 1929. Before she turned to acting exclusively, her parents insisted she attend Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts, which she did, later becoming a kindergarten teacher.
Hamilton made her screen debut as Helen Hallam in the MGM film adaptation Another Language (1933) starring Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery, having previously originated the role of Helen Hallam on Broadway. She went on to appear in These Three (1936), Saratoga, You Only Live Once, When's Your Birthday?, Nothing Sacred (all 1937), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Mae West's My Little Chickadee (with W. C. Fields, 1940), and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, with Harold Lloyd, 1947. She strove to work as much as possible to support herself and her son. She never put herself under contract to any one studio and was paid $1,000 a week ($22,400 in today's money).
Hamilton co-starred opposite Buster Keaton and Richard Cromwell in a 1940s spoof of the long-running local melodrama The Drunkard, titled The Villain Still Pursued Her.
Later in the decade, she played the part of Mrs. Theresa Appleby, co-starring with Tom Conway and Richard Cromwell in a little-known and now partially lost film noir, titled Bungalow 13 (1948). She continued appearing in supporting film roles until the early 1950s and sporadically thereafter.
Hamilton played a heavily made-up witch opposite Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Comin' Round the Mountain. Hamilton's character goes toe-to-toe with Costello's; each with voodoo dolls representing each other. She appeared uncredited in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's People Will Talk (1951) as Sarah Pickett. In 1960, producer/director William Castle cast Hamilton as a housekeeper in his 13 Ghosts horror film, in which 12-year-old lead Charles Herbert's character taunts her about being a witch, including the final scene, in which she is holding a broom in her hand.
On stage and screen, she was known for her rapid fire deadpan delivery, Midwestern accent, and her dark contralto singing voice. Despite standing at only five feet tall, Hamilton's commanding stage presence led to a successful career playing villains, with fans often being surprised by her slight stature.
In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, her most famous role. Hamilton was cast after Gale Sondergaard, who was first considered for the role, albeit as a more glamorous witch with a musical scene, declined the role when the decision was made that the witch should appear ugly.
On December 23, 1938, Hamilton suffered an on-set accident. During a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland, the trap door's drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit, causing her to receive a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand. She had to recuperate for six weeks after the accident, before returning to the set to complete her work on the film. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I will return to work on one condition—no more fireworks!" Garland visited Hamilton while the latter recuperated at home, looking after Hamilton's son.
Studio executives cut some of Hamilton's more frightening scenes, worrying they would scare children too much. Later in life, she would comment on the role of the witch in a light-hearted fashion. During one interview, she joked:
I was in need of money at the time, I had done about six pictures for MGM at the time, and my agent called. I said, 'Yes?' and he said 'Maggie, they want you to play a part on the Wizard.' I said to myself, 'Oh, boy, The Wizard of Oz! That has been my favorite book since I was four.' And I asked him what part, and he said, 'The Witch', and I said, 'The Witch?!' and he said, 'What else?'
On February 11, 1939, Hamilton's stand-in and stunt double, Betty Danko, also suffered an on-set accident. Instead of Hamilton, Danko made the fiery entrance to Munchkinland. During the "Surrender Dorothy!" skywriting sequence at the Emerald City, Danko sat on a smoking pipe configured to look like the Witch's broomstick. The pipe exploded on the third take of the scene. She spent 11 days in the hospital and her legs were permanently scarred. The studio hired a replacement stunt double, Aline Goodwin, to finish the scene.
When asked about her experiences with her role in The Wizard of Oz, Hamilton said she was afraid that it would give children a wrong idea of who she really was, since she actually cared deeply about children, frequently giving to charitable organizations. She often remarked about children coming up to her and asking her why she had been so mean to Dorothy. She appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1975 where she explained to children she was only playing a role and showed how putting on a costume "transformed" her into the witch. She also made personal appearances, and Hamilton described the children's usual reaction to her portrayal of the Witch:
Almost always they want me to laugh like the Witch. And sometimes when I go to schools, if we're in an auditorium, I'll do it. And there's always a funny reaction, like 'Ye gods, they wish they hadn't asked.' They're scared. They're really scared for a second. Even adolescents. I guess for a minute they get the feeling they got when they watched the picture. They like to hear it but they 'don't' like to hear it. And then they go, 'Ooooooh ... !' The picture made a terrible impression of some kind on them, sometimes a ghastly impression, but most of them got over it, I guess ... because when I talk like the Witch, and when I laugh, there is a hesitation and then they clap. They're clapping at hearing the sound again.