Sixties City - Bill Harry's Sixties - articles from the creator of iconic 60s music paper Mersey Beat

Elizabeth was born in Los Angeles on 15th April 1933. Both her parents were actors. Her father Robert featured in more than 50 films and was nominated for Oscars for ‘Night Must Fall’ and ‘Here Comes Mr Jordan.’ She attended private schools in New York and made her first television appearance in ‘Top Secret’. Her father was also on the show and Elizabeth then appeared regularly on ‘The Robert Montgomery Show.’
During her twenties she appeared on numerous shows and series, including ‘Kraft Television Theatre’, ‘Studio One’, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ and ‘Wagon Train’. For her first Broadway play ‘Late Love’ she received the Theatre World Award and in 1955 featured in the film ‘The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell.’ She narrowly missed being cast opposite Marlon Brando in ‘On The Waterfront.’

Elizabeth was originally married to Frederick Cammann, a New York socialite, but the marriage barely lasted a year. She was 21 when she married the Harvard-educated stage manager of her father’s show. The break-up came because it was alleged that he refused to move to the West Coast with her when she sought a career in Hollywood. Her second marriage was to actor Gig Young, who appeared in 'Kid Galahad.’ She visited him on the set each day and would often talk to Elvis. When Young saw this he flew into a rage and created a scene on the set. Another time he nearly hit her, but Elvis prevented him.

With Young creating rows with Elizabeth on a regular basis, Elvis said, “I was getting so fed up with this guy that I felt like it wasn’t worth finishing the picture, but I did. I would often hear Gig giving Elizabeth some verbal abuse, but I didn’t interfere. I just hope that one day she will come to her senses … personally, I never want to work with Gig Young again.”
During the Sixties Elizabeth was active in numerous major shows, including ‘Burke’s Law’, ‘Rawhide’, ‘77 Sunset Strip’ and ‘The Twilight Zone.’ In the latter she had the role of the last woman on Earth while ‘The Untouchables’ brought her the first of nine Emmy nominations. Her 1963 films included ‘Johnny Cool’, and ‘Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed.’

Gig Young was engaged to Elaine Strich when he first met Elizabeth in 1956 during her appearance in ‘Siege’, an episode of the TV series ‘Warner Bros Present’, which Young hosted. The two married on 28th December that year. The six year marriage produced no children because Young had had a vasectomy at the age of 25 due to health problems. Young was a chronic alcoholic and the marriage was turbulent. After six years Elizabeth went to Mexico where she was able to arrange a swift divorce and then married director William Asher, whom she’d met during the making of ‘Johnny Cool.’

It was in 1964, with husband producer William Asher, that she made her debut as a young witch, Samantha Stevens, married to a mortal in ‘Bewitched,’ a popular television series that lasted until 1972. Elizabeth was asked to continue and film a ninth series, but declined. This was possibly due to the fact that, although she and Asher had three children, she fell in love with director Richard Michaels and moved in with him. She’d been having a 12-month clandestine affair with Michaels, a director on the ‘Bewitched’ series, before revealing it, although they broke up after two years.
During her run in ‘Bewitched’ she was awarded four Golden Globes and five Emmys. Elizabeth subsequently appeared in more than two dozen TV movies, receiving Emmy nominations for ‘A Case Of Rape’, ‘The Legend of Lizzie Borden’ and ‘The Awakening Land.’
Her fourth marriage was to actor Robert Foxworth, who she met while filming ‘Mrs Sundance.’ Due to what had happened with her previous marriages, Elizabeth was reluctant to re-marry and the couple lived together for 20 years. They were eventually married on 28th January 1993. In 1995 Elizabeth was diagnosed with colon cancer and died several weeks later on May 18th 1995. She was 62 years old.


Sixties City presents a wide-ranging series of articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic 60s music paper Mersey Beat