A message from the president of Miss Moorehead's fan club regaurding her death:

On April 30, 1974 the acting profession and the world lost one of its most beloved and talented ladies. Agnes Moorehead entered the acting profession, faced its trials, withstood the tribulations, and in spite of all the obstacles she emerged with a deep faith in God and humanity, high ideals, calm judgement, practical wisdom, and she maintained her respectiblity. She proved that you do not have to lower your standards to achieve your goals. Unlike so many of our politicians today, she was not afraid to stand by her convictions, she did not change nor waiver her ideals to suit those around her. She lived what she preached. Perhaps this is the reason young people admired her so much. There are very few people who are not aware of the greatness of Miss Moorehead as an actress, but so few are aware of her GREATNESS as a humanitarian. She was a person who cared about her fans and the world around her. She cared enough to encourage one member of her fan club to return to high school through adult education. She kindly encouraged another fan to go forward in his high school class. The true beauty of this great woman is borne out by the fact that she attained world wide fame in her chosen profession, but she never placed herself so high above her fellow man as to not be aware of his wants and needs. Memory is the one gift of God that death cannot destroy. Miss Moorehead left so many of us w/a beautiful memory of her. Her soul belongs to God, but her memory belongs to those of us who loved and admired her."

"The entertainment industry today is too interested in the money. And the love of money is the root of all evil."

"I love location work. I love seeing the freedom it gives to the camera. The scope of the camera is so wonderful, especially in Cinerama. I was on location in Kentucky and southern Illinois (SCH: Olney perhaps?) during the Cinerama production of How the West Was Won, and it was tremendously interesting. Another interesting location was when we made Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana."

"I fool around with colors and decorating, which I thoroughly enjoy. Also, I scribble a bit for my own particular pleasure. This scribbling might be something I want to do in a future show."

"I believe in playing a part and letting the audience play the rest of it. My attitude is: All right, I'll start the tears, but you do the crying." That's because I myself have to keep composed and know what I'm doing up on that stage. I can't constrict my voice, nor can I have my nose run, nor the tears go out and my mascara get messed up. But I can give an effect through which you become so involved that YOU cry, and you think that I'm doing it. That is the magic of the theater! How it happens, I cannot explain. But the exciting thing is to be able to characterize and get people to believe what you are characterizing."

"Suicide is one concept I do not understand. To want to kill someone else, for a second, yes, but to want to kill oneself, never."

"Acting is a terribly discouraging business, a sorrowful business, a critical business. You're up there, and the people can take the skin off you, bit by bit, and enjoy it. If you get anywhere in it, there's a strange kind of human tendency to tear you down...You have to keep on developing and maturing and being sincere in your work, and just go right on - whether audiences or critics are taking your scalp off or not."

"I think the major trouble with the entertainment world today (1971) is that it has become so permissive that it gets ugly, corrupt and dirty...It appeals to the lowest, most unattractive facets of human nature...I say refinement, manners and morals indicate a greater use of one's mental powers."

"It's seldom that you make real close friends in the theater. You have a lot of acquaintances and people whom you can say hello to and sit down and talk to, but no really close friends.....I find that when you are starring in a play, you have a certain responsibility to the cast. You have to keep that cast together, therefore, you can be friendly but you can't be overly so because then you don't have the respect and you don't have the authority."

"I've worked with the tops, and I think they are marvelous. I'm always excited at doing scenes with people who are very experienced and know what they are doing. It's the people who don't know what they're about and are self-indulgent who are very difficult to play with."

"God has a sign in his sky for us this very day, and guidance for us tonight, and manna for every need of our lives."

"I get along well with directors. They know they can trust me, that I'm cooperative and they don't have to worry about me, and that I will follow their line of thinking so that our thoughts merge pretty well. If there is any problem, it can be ironed out very quickly without any fuss or fury. I think temperment is all right in it's right place, which is within the work. I don't think temperment should be outside the work because that is a form of weakness that will deteriorate you. It's usually false anyway! Everyone has a certain temperment, the feel of the way you attack things, and I think that can be put into your work, put to work in a channel that will do you some good."

"I don't believe in bringing messages. People don't want to be preached to; they want to be entertained. If a film brings in a moral or social lesson in an incidental way or if a character gets his comeuppance, I think that is right."

"Naturally people remember my witch character because they see it all the time, but I never have tried to establish an image. I don't want an image of any one type character or personality. When people say to me, "Oh we just love you as the witch!" I say "Yes, on Thursday nights." The witch is a character I have built up and expanded and enjoyed playing. It's fun playing with Elizabeth and we are very fond of each other. The character I play brings order out of chaos. I don't know anybody who hasn't said at some time "Oh, I wish I didn't have to sweep the floor. I wish I didn't have to clean this or that. I wish I could snap my fingers and everything would be done!"

"My life has been ruled by my belief. I am a fundamentalist and believe in the efficacy of prayer. I believe that one should work for the glory of God and not for personal glory. I believe that great joy comes when one hungers after self improvement."

"I think anything you do for any audience is training ground. Radio was a tremendous training ground for many people, including me. It was extremely difficult because the characterizations you made, whether you were a lead or a supporting player, had to be in your voice and your thoughts. That's all you had to work with! In television you not only have a situation where the audience sees you, but a situation where the actor doesn't have to think as much. All the cards are put on the table, which I'm not particularly keen about doing. I don't believe in playing a whole game in front of an audience. I believe in playing part of it and in letting the audience play the rest."

"I have an adult son with whom I maintain a very good relationship, without either of us ever trying to force it to be something other than what we want it to be. In other words,I do not feel that a good mother is necessarily one who hovers over her child constantly. In my estimation, a good mother is someone who teaches her child "the way to go," and as the Bible tells us "when he is old he will not depart from it."

"Just because one may have an interesting personality so that he or she can walk around a stage and say the lines doesn't make one a good actor. It is presentation and experience that really make a good actor. Serious actors are constantly studying to expand or enlarge what talent they have or what personality they have."

"I never thought I was inhibited. I don't think my life has been inhibited in any way. I'm disciplined, and when one is disciplined in or out of the theater, he's free. My life has been very free. I know right and wrong, and I abide by the rules and regulations of my life. In my work I don't feel I am prevented from doing something because I couldn't do that particular thing in my own life."

"I think of theater as a place of instructive entertainment where you can sit and learn to laugh or cry. I'm not going to ever contribute to delinquency in my roles, either adult or juvenile delinquency; I think too much of the public."

"If something isn't a challenge why do it?"

"Have you seen some of these kids up on the Boulevard? They look like they're out of the pit! Children today don?now the fun of a toboggan party or a taffy pull, or a great sleigh ride with three or four progressive dinners where you stopped off at one house for soup, then you went to another house. And you?e laughing and singing and get out of the sleigh and have the entree or dessert at the last house.??"

"My farm's kitchen has beautiful storage space, everything you can possibly think of: all the cooking accessories, blenders, broilers, self cleaning stoves that make cooking easier."

"I hope I cast a spell on other people in the kitchen. I like to experiment. My mother?other came from Dublin and was an extremely fine cook, but we didn?earn; we just admired what she did. I give big brunches with great cheese souffles or a lobster or shellfish mousse, with a light sweet or fruit and cheese for dessert."

"It's marvelous to be called a lovely witch!"

"Albee isn't my dish of tea. I am not in sympathy with a play like 'Virginia Woolf.' It doesn't teach anything. It is neurotic, sordid."

"Every one, actors, musicians, painters, even plumbers and ditch diggers - do their best work when they have a full belly and are free of worry. It stands to reason that a person can't put forth his best effort if he's unhappy or if in the back of his mind there is gnawing worry about the butcher, baker, or reaction of his associates."

"I have chronic mike fright before, but never during a radio performance. Frankly, any performance is preceded by a wave of nausea, but I believe "mike fright" scares actors into being constantly on their toes. My worst error on the air was the time I said "I'll give the bull a pill" instead of "I'll give the bell a pull."

"I am deeply involved w/an acting school that has five faculty members and teaches classes in technique. We offer similiar instruction in the important things I had at the Academy: voice, speech, fencing, ballet, interpretive reading, pantomime, and performed scenes. Unfortunately, in a lot of acting workshops they just study a play and put it on, and their technical work is bad because they have not studied technique."

Orson Welles liked the way I played, and he believed in me. I was lucky. I was with him seventeen years! It was he who brought me here to Hollywood. I have him to thank for it. H ethought I could play anything. It didn't make any difference what part. If it was a strange part, he said "Give it to Agnes. She can play it." It was his confidence in the fact that I could play it, with his direction, that helped me very much in my career. I'm not saying it was all easy. I've had hard times, too. I've had starvation times so that I know what it means to be hungry and not be able to pay the rent."

"Imagination should never be limited. It should be free and open, so it can soar. One has physical limitations or voice limitations, but the creativity in a person should never be limited."

"I won't say dirty four letter words. Believe me, I just won't do it. It disgusts me, and I don't want to be around it. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to get into that kind of muck. I'm not interested in that kind of thing. I don't care if the whole world likes it. There are people who say to me "Oh, well, that's life Agnes." Well, it isn't my kind of life! I don't say or read things that will stultify my particular creativity, and that's what will do it. Every time it will do it. It will destroy you. It's just like a drug you know: "Let me see some more. Let me read some more, because it feels so good." Just like a drug it destroys."

"I think American audiences are very discerning. I find them very warm and eager to sit there and be entertained by someone who knows how to entertain them. You cannot look down on an audience. One presents his talent as humbly and modestly as possible and hopes the audience will be entertained by it. But there are many actors who think they are geniuses and that all they have to do is get up and say one line and people faint. Well, they are wrong!"

"The constant search and witness for God's truth - that is the most rewarding journey any of us can take in life."

"I believe in having the moral courage to say and do what one thinks is right. One can be semi-starved for truth. I believe this truth is the inner spring of vision and action. What is more honorable than having clear sight and the courage to maintain it? I believe such clarity is very rare."

"Many feel they have to live a role before they can begin to play it. Nonsense. You just have to be disciplined in your craft; sure of what you are trying to do. Acting is the art of persuading an audience that you are, for the time you are playing before it, what you say you are. Really! Does one have to have murdered to play a murderer?"

"A teacher who is not true to his or her own values, is not a teacher at all."

"I'm not in acting to make money. I reap the benefits from it, but I do it because I love it!"

"Nothing is as dull as constant reality."

"God really is there if you seek Him out wherever you may be."

"Neatness of person....of environment....of mind and body indicate to me, and, I feel to everyone else, a discipline that is absolutely vital in every area of life. After all, we are not meant to be undisciplined. Freedom is really a disciplined way to live; to live freely without disturbing the rights of others, for example."

"What is beauty? We all know how we have felt when we have seen someone with a magnificent face....a truly "beautiful" person. And, then, we have all felt the disillusioning disappointment when that person has shown a streak of ugliness within himself or herself; hate or stupidity or anything but the "beauty" we thought we had found there. And, then, we all know how it is to be with someone whose facial features might not, perhaps, be "ideally" beautiful in the sense of the word we commonly use; or someone beyond the first flush of youth. Yet, that person makes us want to stay with him or her. We feel warm and secure and confident; radiating, whether we know it or not, in that person's confidence in himself or herself."

"Parents don't want their children to read fairy tales because they're too violent, but then they want to tell them the facts of life at 10! I feel so sorry for children coming up today. Have you seen the ones on Sunset Blvd? They look like they're right out of the pit."

"I think I learned of the happiness of being w/people from my father. He was so warm and outgoing. He did not believe in just being a Sunday morning preacher tothe congregation. No, he went to their homes frequently and invited them to ours. Even as a little girl I shared in the social activities of my parents. No one else had ever been in show business. But when I told my father at an early age I intended to start dancing lessons and enter training to be an actress he said, "If this is what gives you happiness, go ahead. What you learn is sure to give happiness to others." He was a very understanding minister, especially for the times."

"Oh," the people who think it's old fashioned or simply not with the times when, if ever there was a time to look for God's word, this is it! I know it's supposed to be fashionable to ignore Scriptures; even try to ignore God. But, from my own personal testimony, I can state that witnessing for Him is a joy that is timeless; the only job, perhaps, that is truly Eternal."

"When I was a little girl I was always into something naughty."

"Actors have a magical difference from other people."

"But, oh yes there was (doubts that Bewitched would be successful)! I had some reservations about it. As a matter of fact, when they (the studio) first asked me to read the script I didn't think the show would sell. However, they made such an attractive offer that I accepted and when they came back and told me the show was sold, it surprised me very much. But then I am always surprised when anything is a big success. Can't tell you why. I just don't understand those sorts of things."

"An atheist does not seek God for the same reason a thief does not look for a policeman."

"An actor is a wandering minstrel, and must sell his talent to the whole country. Touring is a real eye opener because culture is not, as some think, only in New York City or on the West Coast. I always say you haven't played an audience until you've played Stillwater, Oklahoma."

"Of all the arts, acting is the most ephemeral."

"I believe Life with all it's pain and sorrows is a beautiful, precious gift and I believe I must strive to reproduce its beauty by holding fast to this ideal by doing my duty without regard to personal ambition."

"The theater is not merely a place of amusement. It is a living power and should be used for good and not evil. I believe it can be a great educational medium, teaching an audience many things that would otherwise be lost to them. It widens the sympathies and broadens the intellect and sweetens the heart."

"Of course I wanted to play the Stanwyck part in "Sorry Wrong Number". It had been written for me by Lucille Fletcher, and I must have done it on radio about 18 times. I went to Hal Wallis at Paramount when they were casting it to put my hat in the ring, but he said he owed Barbara a picture and that I could have a supporting role. I said no. I'm not bitter about it. I let the chips fall where they may and go on from there....(laugh) They played my recording constantly on the set."

"Should prostitution be made legal?": "NO. What??! I don't believe in prostitution, period! Even if it is the oldest profession in the world! Why would you want to legalize something like prostitution when we already have such a promiscuous, permissive society? We took away prohibition, and statistics show that today there's more alcoholism than ever before. I don't think labeling it a "no-no" ever means people will do it more; they'll do it whether it's legal or illegal, because self-discipline is sorely lacking today. Legalizing prostitution wouldn't make any difference these days anyway. The whole country is loose, so what's the difference? Sex today is totally out of hand. There's no law and order within the self anymore. The health factor? It's a little late for that isn't it? Look at the current statistics on venereal disease.....Now, I'm not a prude and I'm certainly not trying to stand on a pedestal and preach. But I think that if parents and society were stricter about sex we'd have far less problems. There's too much freedom today - so much freedom that people have become slaves to their own indulgences....I'm very funny about things like prostitution. When people say "Well, Agnes, it's the environment," I say "Now, look here. I just want to tell you something. I don't care about the environment. I don't care what everybody else is doing. I just look at whether it's right or wrong." You might legalize prostitution, but you're still going to have it the other way, because nobody wants to be seen in a House of Prostitution. So there you are. Well, actually, where are you.....?"

"You had to work to make the audience visualize you, which isn't easy to do. Many stage actors fall by the wayside because of their inability to make an audience 'see'."

"I've been at least 35 years on the road, if they get four pictures, they print the worst! Tell me, why do they do that? I don't know what the psychology of it is. I think I'm going to ask an analyst!"

"The Bible is the first thing I read every morning of my life, and the last thing at night. Most mornings now I have to leave the house at 5:30 for a six o'clock call at the TV studio. This means my Bible reading time comes at 4:45 a.m., but I would no more skip it than I would skip dressing. Again at night, when I've read the next day's script, I open the Bible. There I find rest for my weariness, strength for the job ahead, a pillar of fire to guide me through the night."