Margaret Hamilton Movies and TV Shows: The Complete Filmography

Quick answer: Margaret Hamilton Movies and TV Shows (1902-1985) appeared in well over 100 film and television productions across a career of more than 50 years. She is best known as Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Her other credits include My Little Chickadee, The Ox-Bow Incident, Brewster McCloud, The Anderson Tapes, and TV guest spots on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Lou Grant.

One caution before the list. People often search for this name and land on the wrong woman. The actress covered here is not the computer scientist of the same name who led software engineering for NASA’s Apollo missions. They are two different people, and we sort that out in the FAQs below.

Who Was Margaret Hamilton the Actress?

Margaret Brainard Hamilton was born on December 12, 1902, in Cleveland, Ohio. Before acting became her profession, she worked as a kindergarten teacher. She moved to the stage in the early 1930s, then came to Hollywood, where she made her film debut in Another Language (1933).

She was never a conventional leading lady, and she didn’t try to be. Studios used her as a character actress: the stern neighbor, the gossip, the landlady, the disapproving schoolmarm. She was so good at it that she worked steadily for decades. The curious part is that the woman who frightened generations of children onscreen was known offstage for being warm and patient with them.

Margaret Hamilton in The Wizard of Oz

Short answer: She played two roles, the bitter neighbor Miss Almira Gulch in Kansas and the Wicked Witch of the West in Oz.

Directed by Victor Fleming and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, the film came out in 1939. Hamilton’s screen time is modest, but the performance is so sharp that the witch became a template for screen villains. The cackle, the pointed hat, and the green skin are all hers in the public imagination.

Her role also came with real danger. During filming of the witch’s exit from Munchkinland, a pyrotechnic effect went wrong and she was burned on her face and hand. She spent weeks recovering. The makeup was copper-based, which made removal painful, and she reportedly lived on a liquid diet while the green paint was on her skin. When she returned, she is said to have set one condition: no more work near fire. The studio agreed. Source:rogerebert.

Margaret Hamilton Movies: A Filmography Worth Knowing

Her credits span comedies, westerns, dramas, thrillers and family films. The table below covers the most notable titles rather than every bit part.

The best of them

• The Wizard of Oz (1939): Her defining performance and the one every other role is measured against.
• My Little Chickadee (1940): Worth watching for her comic timing alongside two of Hollywood’s biggest names.
• The Ox-Bow Incident (1943): A serious western about mob justice. It shows she could do far more than play villains.
• Brewster McCloud (1970): A strange, funny Altman film in which she gets a memorable part late in her career.
• The Red Pony (1949): Quieter and more rural, and a good example of her range.

Margaret Hamilton TV Shows and Television Appearances

Short answer: Yes, she worked heavily in television, especially from the 1950s through the 1970s, mostly as a guest star and talk-show guest.

Television gave her a second career. Younger audiences met her through reruns of The Wizard of Oz, which became a yearly event on TV, and producers wanted her for the same reason viewers recognized her.

Notable TV credits and appearances include:

• Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Her best-remembered television moment. In a 1975 appearance, she put on the witch costume and makeup in front of Fred Rogers and talked with children about how a scary character is a performance. It is widely cited as a gentle, reassuring piece of children’s TV.
• The Partridge Family: A guest appearance during the show’s early-1970s run.
• Sigmund and the Sea Monsters: A guest turn in the Saturday-morning series.
• Lou Grant: A dramatic guest role in the late 1970s.
• Here’s Boomer: A guest spot on the family series about a wandering dog.
• Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976): She appeared in a nod to her witch persona.
• Talk shows: She turned up on The Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where audiences loved asking her about Oz.

Episode details for some of these guest roles vary between sources. For exact dates, check IMDb or the American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog before citing a specific one.

Her Later Career

Hamilton never retired in any real sense. She did theater, commercials, voice work, and television well into her seventies. She also lent her witch persona to later projects, including a voice role in the animated sequel Journey Back to Oz (credited as Aunt Em), though most sources list her 1970s TV guest spots as her final screen work.

Margaret Hamilton’s Most Famous Roles, Ranked by Influence

1. Wicked Witch of the West: Cultural reach beyond measure, from Halloween costumes to the long afterlife of Wicked.
2. Miss Gulch: Often overlooked. The Kansas role is what makes the witch work, because the villainy begins there.
3. Ma Grier in The Ox-Bow Incident: Evidence that her dramatic ability was real.
4. Herself on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Arguably the most humane thing she ever did on camera.

What Margaret Hamilton Teaches Us About Character Acting

Our read on her career: Hamilton shows how a supporting performer can outlast stars. She rarely carried a film, yet she is arguably more famous today than many of her leading contemporaries. She understood that a villain frightens most when she is believable, and she then spent decades making sure children knew it was an act.

6. Custom FAQ Section

Frequently Asked Questions About Margaret Hamilton

Is the actress Margaret Hamilton the same person as the NASA Margaret Hamilton?

No. The actress (1902-1985) is known for The Wizard of Oz. The NASA Margaret Hamilton, born in 1936, is a computer scientist who led the software engineering team for the Apollo space program. They share a name, but there is no known connection between them.

What was Margaret Hamilton’s cause of death?

Margaret Hamilton, the actress, died of a heart attack. Most biographical sources agree on this.

When and where did Margaret Hamilton die?

She died on May 16, 1985, in Salisbury, Connecticut, at age 82.

What was Margaret Hamilton famous for as an actress?

She is best known as the Wicked Witch of the West and Miss Gulch in The Wizard of Oz (1939), alongside Judy Garland. She was also a prolific character actress in dozens of other films and television shows.

How was Margaret Hamilton burned on The Wizard of Oz?

During filming of the Munchkinland exit scene in 1938, a pyrotechnic effect injured her face and hand. She needed time to recover before returning to set. The toxic copper-based green makeup made the incident more painful.

Who was Margaret Hamilton’s husband?

She married Paul Meserve in 1931. They had one son, Hamilton Meserve, and the marriage ended in divorce in the late 1930s.

What was Margaret Hamilton’s net worth?

There is no reliable, verified figure for her net worth. Beware sites that quote a precise number without sourcing, since those estimates are usually unreliable.

Was Margaret Hamilton in Gremlins?

No. Her filmography doesn’t include Gremlins (1984). The confusion probably comes from the film’s themes of mischief and fantasy, or from general associations with Hollywood horror-comedy. Always check the cast list before assuming a credit.

What was Margaret Hamilton’s last film?

Sources vary on this because of her many small TV and voice credits. Her last well-known feature roles came in the early 1970s, including The Anderson Tapes (1971), after which she worked mainly in television.

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