Agnes Robertson Moorehead was born on December 6, 1901, in Clinton, Massachusetts, and spent most of her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduation from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, in 1923, she taught at Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin for five years while earning a Master's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin. She then enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and graduated in 1929.

After playing a few roles on Broadway, she became a radio actress in the early 1930's. She performed in over fifty radio programs during radio's "Golden Age" in the 1930's and 1940's, including The Shadow, Mayor of the Town, Cavalcade of America, Mercury Theatre of the Air, and Ceiling Unlimited. In 1943 for Suspense Theatre, she performed the leading role in "Sorry, Wrong Number"; she later earned a gold record for the commercial recording of this role.

In 1940 she went to Hollywood with Orson Welles for the role of Charles Foster Kane's mother in the film Citizen Kane. Eventually in her film career she played more than seventy roles, earning five Academy Award nominations for supporting roles in The Magnificent Ambersons (RKO, 1942), Mrs. Parkinson (MGM, 1944), All that Heaven Allows (U, 1955), Johnny Belinda (WB, 1948), and Hush, Hush...Sweet Charlotte (Fox, 1965). Miss Moorehead's television career was likewise long and varied, but perhaps she is best remembered for her part in the series Bewitched, 1963-1971. She was nominated five times for an Emmy for this show, but won an Emmy in 1967 for a guest appearance on the series Wild, Wild West. She also appeared on The Red Skelton Show, The Shirley Temple Show, Burke's Law, Bonanza, Marcus Welby, M.D., and many others.

She considered one of the highlights of her career to be the 1952 tour of Don Juan in Hell with Charles Laughton, Charles Boyer, and Cedric Hardwicke. Staged by Charles Laughton, Don Juan was very successful in both the United States and Great Britain. It was revived several times, in 1972 with Miss Moorehead, Ricardo Montalban, Edward Mulhare, and Paul Henreid.

In addition to her film and TV careers, she also organized and taught at her own drama school in California. She lectured and performed at colleges, universities, and organizations all over the country in her one-woman show, titled Come Closer, I'll Give You an Earful and The Fabulous Redhead.

She was married twice, first to Jack Lee (1930-1952), second to Robert Gist (1953-1954), and she raised a foster son, Sean. She died on April 30, 1974, at the Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota.

The Agnes Moorehead Papers, 1923-1974, include material, mainly scripts, on her work as an actress. They are organized in the categories Radio, Motion Pictures, Television, and Theatre. There are also 104 scrapbooks, whose contents overlap the materials in the other series and include all Moorehead's correspondence (including greeting cards for all occasions), clippings, programs, photographs, and miscellany, 1928-1973. In addition, the collection includes files of materials submitted to Moorehead for her review but rejected by her, and miscellany. This collection extensively documents Moorehead's exceptional career, in which she was continuously employed as an actress, often in several media simultaneously, for forty-five years.

The Radio materials, 1936-1959, include scripts for episodes on such series as Mayor of the Town, Mercury Theatre of the Air, Campbell Playhouse, Theater Guild of the Air, Bringing Up Father, and Reg'lar Fellas. There is a particularly large number of scripts for those series in which Moorehead either starred or was a regularly featured player, including Four Corners, USA, Cavalcade of America, Suspense Theater, Ceiling Unlimited, and Orson Welles Almanac. The script for "Sorry, Wrong Number" is arranged with others from Suspense Theater, on which it originally was presented.

The Motion Picture materials include scripts of produced and unproduced films, Screen Actors Guild materials, and Fan Club Files. The scripts of produced films include those for which Moorehead received Academy Award nominations. These include All That Heaven Allows, Hush, Hush...Sweet Charlotte, Johnny Belinda, Mrs. Parkington, and The Magnificent Ambersons. Several other well-known titles are also included; among them are The Caine Mutiny, Dark Passage, Harlow, The Magnificent Obsession, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Tammy Tell Me True, and Show Boat. Consult the contents list for a complete alphabetical listing. Moorehead also kept records from the Screen Actors Guild, 1945-1949, which are arranged in three folders. Three other folders concern fan clubs; two relate only to Moorehead and one concerns stars James Stewart, Jane Wyman, and John Wayne.

The bulk of her Television files, 1954-1974, include scripts from the pilot and the series Bewitched, 1963-1971, in which she was one of the three main characters; her contract allowed her to appear in no more than eight out of twelve episodes, leaving her free for other activities. Moorehead also appeared in such series as ABC Movie of the Week, Bonanza, Burke's Law, The Jonathan Winters Show, Marcus Welby, M.D., Night Gallery, The Red Skelton Show, Shirley Temple's Storybook, and Wild, Wild West. Boxes 51-53 contain scripts Moorehead rejected, including two folders concerning the series I Dream of Jeannie.

Included in the Theater materials, 1944-1973, are scripts arranged in two groups--those in which Moorehead appeared and those she rejected. She appeared in The Pink Jungle (1959); Prescription: Murder (1962), by which the television series Columbo may have been partially inspired; The Rivalry (1957) about the Lincoln-Douglas debates; High Spirits (Dallas, 1965), a musical version of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit; and Lord Pengo (1962). Cactus Flower was one script she rejected. Six folders of materials concern her one-woman show in which she did readings from famous literary works; the scripts also include her transitional lines. This show was variously called The Fabulous Redhead, Come Closer, I'll Give You An Earful, and The Agnes Moorehead Show. There are also scripts and publicity materials on her three road tours of Don Juan in Hell, 1951 through 1972.

In box 59 are Materials Submitted to Moorehead for Review. These include novels and short stories, some of which were intended for use in her one-woman show. Only two titles are dated, 1958, 1967. Arrangement is alphabetical by title.

Boxes 60-62 contain Miscellany, arranged in an alphabetical subject file. It includes her acting notes from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Harvard University classes, and files on various lectures Moorehead gave on such topics as acting, film, the theater, and the production of Don Juan in Hell.

The 104 Scrapbooks, 1928-1973, are unusual because in them Moorehead preserved her correspondence (including Christmas and other greeting cards), clippings, programs, photographs, memorabilia, and other documents concerning her career. Her secretary, Mrs. Georgia Johnstone, carefully arranged these documents into these scrapbooks. The scrapbooks are roughly chronological in arrangement and should be used in conjunction with the other series in this collection. Six scrapbooks are arranged around specific productions: Don Juan in Hell (2 volumes), Citizen Kane, Mrs. Parkington, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Journey Into Fear. Moorehead perhaps considered these to have been her most important roles at the time the scrapbooks were compiled; she may have changed her opinion later in her career since she was often quoted as saying her favorite role was the one she was currently doing. The correspondence in these scrapbooks concerns discussions of her roles; arrangements for tours and personal appearances; fan mail from children and adults; Christmas cards; and congratulatory telegrams from others in the entertainment industry. There is recurrent correspondence from Norman Corwin, Paul Gregory, Himan Brown, Aaron Spelling, Helen Hayes, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Mary McCarthy and other directors, producers, writers, and actors of less prominence. The correspondence reflects the wide variety of social relationships that Moorehead maintained in the entertainment industry throughout her career.

Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio was bequeathed the personal library of Agnes Moorehead. It will also receive some duplicate materials separated from this manuscript collection, including scripts, plaques, awards, tape recordings, and photographs.