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 1930s. She performed in over fifty radio programs during radio's “Golden Age” in the 1930s and 1940s, 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.
