Remembering Alice Ghostley

Alice Ghostley was the loveable, auburn haired character actress with an ever present smile, and an adorably quirky personality. She often portrayed kind hearted characters with well meaning intentions, but whose efforts usually ended in disastrous results. Alice Ghostley has worked in television since the mid 1950's. She would often appear in roles where her character was considered to be just a tiny bit touched in the head or was comically detached from reality in some other way. She is probably most well remembered for her role as Esmeralda in television's Bewitched (1964-1972). You will recall that Esmeralda was Tabitha's nervous and severely over-stressed governess.

Alice Ghhostley's film career includes Hollywood classics and sentimental favorites like To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), The Graduate (1967), and my personal favorite, With Six You Get Eggroll (1968).

In later years, Alice Ghostley would go on to endear herself in the hearts of an entirely different generation. In the 1980's, she took her proven formula for success to Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's television series Designing Women (1986 - 1993). In Designing Women, Alice Ghostly starred as Bernice Clifton. Bernice Clifton was a close friend of Julia and Suzanne's mother, Perky Sugarbaker. Bernice's mental state could be described as being on egg short of a dozen, but the best descriptor of her mental status came from Perky Sugarbaker herself when she stated that Bernice had an "arterial flow problem above the neck" (by way of Julia as we rarely ever actually saw Perky Sugarbaker).

Indeed, Alice was a much loved staple of television sitcoms for many years. Alice Ghostley died in her home at Studio City, California on September 21^st 2007. She will live in our hearts forever. You can catch Alice Ghostley's work through Netflix in the following features:

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Watch Alice as she portrays aunt Stephanie om this film classic adaptation of Harper Lee's epic novel. You can actually watch this film in its entirety online.

With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) - Catch Alice's hilarious portrayal as a maid to Doris Day's character in this cute film. See if you can count the number of times she tells her boss "you now, tomorrow's my day off."

The Graduate (1967) - Here, Alice Ghostly has a small role uniting her with another Bewitched alum, Marion Lorne (Aunt Clara).