Alice Ghostley

[DrWhoCompanion]

Alice Ghostley, acted in TV sitcoms

WON 1965 TONY FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

By Stuart Lavietes

New York Times

San Jose Mercury News

Article Launched:09/25/2007 01:49:15 AM PDT

Alice Ghostley, a Tony Award-winning actress who became known to television viewers for her roles as dizzy sidekicks on "Bewitched" and "Designing Women," died Friday at her home in Studio City. Her age was usually given as 81.

The cause was cancer, said a longtime friend, the actress Kaye Ballard, who said she was actually about two years older.

Ms. Ghostley made more than 90 television appearances in a career that spanned six decades. She was a regular on the situation comedy "Bewitched" from 1966 through 1972, playing Esmeralda, a shy, bumbling witch whose spells never worked, who caused unintentional havoc whenever she sneezed and who turned invisible when she became nervous.

From 1986 through 1993, she played a more-than-usually wacky neighbor, Bernice Clifton, on the hit show "Designing Women." In one episode, plastic surgery gone awry gives her a pig's nose, which she wears with aplomb, then with mounting embarrassment until it is repaired. She also appeared in "Evening Shade," "Love, American Style" and "Mayberry R.F.D."

While essentially a comic actress, she won a Tony for best supporting actress in 1965 for her performance in a drama, "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window," by Lorraine Hansberry, author of "A Raisin in the Sun." Ghostley played the conventional sister of the show's star, Rita Moreno.

Ms. Ghostley also received a Tony nomination in 1963 for her performance in "The Beauty Part."

Alice Margaret Ghostley was born in Eve, Mo. She first attracted notice in "New Faces of 1952," one in a series of Broadway revues staged by the producer Leonard Sillman; that edition helped start the careers of Paul Lynde, Eartha Kitt and Carol Lawrence. Ms. Ghostley's big moment was her rendering of the song "The Boston Beguine."

She is survived by her sister, Gladys. Her husband, the actor Felice Orlandi, died in 2003.

Ms. Ghostley appeared in 30 films, including "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Graduate."