Alice Ghostley

Alice Margaret Ghostley was born on August 14, 1923, at a train station in Eve, Missouri, to Edna Muriel (née Rooney) and Harry Francis Ghostley, a telegraph operator. She grew up in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and Henryetta, Oklahoma, and attended the University of Oklahoma before leaving to pursue a career in theater. She worked as an actress and singer across stage, film, and television until her death on September 21, 2007, in Studio City, California, from colon cancer and a series of strokes. She had been married to Italian-American actor Felice Orlandi from 1953 until his death in 2003.

Ghostley's Broadway career spanned from 1952 to 1977. She made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952, reprising her work in the 1954 film adaptation. Her featured number in that production was "The Boston Beguine," a comic song about romance in Boston, which she also recorded as an RCA Victor 45-rpm single; the flip side featured New Faces co-star Eartha Kitt performing "Monotonous." She went on to appear in the musical Shangri-La and starred in the revue A Thurber Carnival. In 1963, she received a Tony nomination for her work in the Broadway comedy The Beauty Part. She appeared in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1968 and earned the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1965 for her role in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.

On television, Ghostley appeared as Joy, one of the ugly stepsisters, in the 1957 musical television production of Cinderella, based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein score, which starred Julie Andrews in the title role. The other stepsister was played by Kaye Ballard. Ghostley guest-starred on Car 54, Where Are You?, the NBC police comedy with Joe E. Ross and Fred Gwynne, where she sang the comic torch song "Irving" in the musical episode "Christmas at the 53rd." She was also a recurring presence in Jackie Gleason's "American Scene Magazine" variety hours during the 1960s, appearing in the sketch "Arthur and Agnes."

Ghostley became a semiregular on Bewitched in September 1969, following the death of actress Marion Lorne, who had played Aunt Clara. Her character, Esmeralda, a shy and magically inept witch who served as a maid and babysitter to the Stephens household, appeared in 15 episodes between 1969 and 1972. Concurrently, she joined the cast of Mayberry R.F.D. as Cousin Alice, a role she held from 1970 to 1971 across 14 episodes, after Frances Bavier's character was written out of the series. Following the cancellation of Bewitched in 1972, she joined The Julie Andrews Hour as a semiregular, appearing in a recurring segment alongside Andrews as apartment roommates; the series ran for 24 episodes before ABC cancelled it in 1973. She also appeared in the NBC series Nichols from 1971 to 1972. Between 1986 and 1993, Ghostley portrayed Bernice Clifton, an eccentric friend to the Sugarbaker family, on Designing Women, a role for which she received an Emmy nomination in 1992. She later played Irna Wallingsford in six episodes of Evening Shade and held a recurring role as Ida Mae Brindle on Small Wonder from 1985 to 1989. Her many guest appearances included episodes of Hogan's Heroes, Good Times, Maude, One Day at a Time, The Odd Couple, What's Happening!!, and The Golden Girls, among others.

In film, Ghostley played Stephanie Crawford, the neighborhood gossip, in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). She appeared in Gator as a partner in crime who brings her cats along on a burglary, and played shop teacher Mrs. Murdock in the film adaptation of Grease. In 1985, she had a supporting role in the Nancy Allen comedy Not for Publication, and she later played Grandmama in the direct-to-video film Addams Family Reunion.