Exit Esmerelda

Today marked the last day on this sphere for a brilliantly talented and underrated actor, Alice Ghostley. Her trademark smile and goofy facial expressions are instantly familiar to most generations for a reason. She had a career spanning 50 years with an astounding 93 screen appearances.
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Ghostley made her debut back in 1954 in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952" with another little-known actress named Eartha Kitt.
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She is best know to those of us who grew up in the 1970s and '80s as Esmerelda the goofy and lovable witch from "Bewitched," Mrs. Murdock the shop teacher in "Grease," and Bernice Clifton in "Designing Women."
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She also starred in "The Graduate" and was nominated for a tony in 1965 for her performance in “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.”
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Other major notable and somewhat random appearances: "CHiPs," "Evening Shade," "Punky Brewster," "Good Times," "The Golden Girls," "Chico and the Man," "Love American Style," "Hogan's Heroes" and "Dharma and Greg," just to name a handful.
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Coming from an era where women in acting typically were not appreciated for physical comedy, with exceptions like Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, Ghostley had an instantly recognizable face that always seemed to stay a little below the radar, being the non-leading lady type. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is amazed by her remarkable career and contributions to American film and television.
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Here's what the New York Times reported.


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