Playing it was no great shakes of acting—just a lot of screaming and yelling and waving my hands around,” Margaret Hamilton told People in 1977 of her turn as Miss Gulch, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. She was only 36 years old, but the role—a mere 12 minutes onscreen for which she was paid $18,000—came to define her career. “I’ve interviewed for a part, and everyone’s enthusiastic till somebody says, ‘Trouble is, the minute the audience sees her, they’ll think of the witch,’” said Hamilton, then 74.
But in more than 50 years on stage, radio and TV and in films, Hamilton, who died in 1985, proved her versatility in roles like Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music and Aunt Eller…
