Designing Women & Bewitched Star Alice Ghostley Dies

The Associated Press has reported that Alice Ghostley, the actress known best for her quirky characters on some of television's most popular sitcoms such as "Bewitched" and "Designing Women," has died at the age of 81. Following a long battle with colon cancer and several strokes, Ms. Ghostley passed away at her home in Studio City yesterday, Friday, September 21.

During her long and successful career, Alice played a number of memorable characters including Esmeralda on the popular sitcom, "Bewitched." However, for those children of the 80s like myself, most probably remember her as Bernice Clifton on "Designing Women." As the somewhat off-balance friend of the Sugarbakers who never quite knew where she was at the moment, she was apt to sing "Black Man! Black Man!" whenever Anthony Bouvier, the character portrayed by actor Meshach Taylor, walked into the room. In 1992, Alice was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of Bernice.

Throughout her television career, it wasn't so much a question of where you saw her as where you didn't. Making a name for herself as a spunky character actress, Ghostley guest starred on a multitude of television series including "Good Times," "Maude," "The Golden Girls" and even "Punky Brewster." Of course, no mention of Ms. Ghostley should be without mention of her role in the film version of "Grease" as Mrs. Murdock.

To those who scoff at Hollywood's current obsession with perfection, perhaps Ghostley's determination is a lesson to us all. Knowing that she would never become a sex symbol starlet within Hollywood, she used her self-described "long nose" and "crooked teeth" to carve out a niche for herself which garnered her more work than most working actresses today.

Whether one knew her by the name of Alice Ghostley or not, there's a good chance that most knew of her and had at least a few laughs as the result of her work.

She is survived by her sister, Gladys.