Aunt Clara on ‘Bewitched’: 12 Magical Facts About Actress Marion Lorne

Aunt Clara on Bewitched is, without question, one of the most beloved relatives of Elizabeth Montgomery’s Samantha Stephens on that enchanting ‘60s sitcom, brought endearingly to life by actress Marion Lorne. Confused, befuddled and always casting the wrong spell, she was nonetheless endearing and — surprisingly — only appeared in 27 of the show’s 254 episodes, though it felt like so much more.

She was born Marion Lorne MacDougall on August 12, 1883 in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, the daughter of doctor William Lorne MacDougall and Jane Louise (who went by Jennie). Recognizing early on that she had an interest in acting, she studied at New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

As she related to the Detroit Free Press in 1953, “I coaxed my family into letting me attend the American Academy of Dramatic Art. They let me go because they didn’t think I’d really go on the stage. My father was sure I’d give it up any day.”

Learn much more about the life and career of Marion Lorne below.

1. Marion Lorne’s career began on the East Coast

Upon her graduation from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Marion Lorne joined the Hunter B. Radford Stock Company in Hartford Connecticut, and as a leading woman there, she took on no less than 125 roles.

Noted The Courier-Journal in 1953, “She arrived on Broadway in Molnar’s The Devil, playing one of the little models. It was in New York that she married Walter Hackett, a well-known newspaperman and the writer of The White Sister as well as some other stage hits of the era.”

2. She and her husband went on a 30-year honeymoon

When Lorne and American-British playwright Walter C. Hackett married in 1911, they decided to travel to England for their honeymoon. “There,” reported The Courier-Journal, “Marion Lorne became a hit on the stage, starring in several plays written for her by her husband. The Whitehall Theater was virtually built to house the Hackett-Lorne productions. The combination opened the theater in 1929.”

In 1938, The Evening Dispatch elaborated, “The new Mrs. Hackett planned to settle down to quiet domestic life, but she soon found that she couldn’t bear to be away from the stage, so she took up her career again. Since then, her husband has been writing plays for her — and successful plays, too. Only two of them have run for less than 150 performances.”

3. The British press seemed impressed with her

In commenting on the actress in 1935, the Western Mail wrote, “Marion Lorne is inimitable. She is the most amusing, vaguest actress on the stage today. She loses passports, loses keys, loses something or other in every play she acts, but she never loses her temper, nor her presence of mind."

The Evening Dispatch added three years later, “Marion Lorne is certainly the only woman I have ever met who didn’t want to look at herself. Because she’s afraid to see what she does and how she looks doing it, she’s refusing tempting Hollywood offers to go into films. But then, Marion Lorne is a unique personality in many ways. For one thing, she enjoys a quiet touch of humor at her own expense in many ways. Although she has been on the stage for 25 years, she has never played anything but a leading role.”

4. Perfect happiness was not something she sought out

 Speaking to the Daily Mirror on January 30, 1931, she emphasized that “perfect happiness” was something that she did not want: “It would positively frighten me, for I should feel sure that something terrible would happen afterwards and, anyway, it would leave nothing to wish for and nothing to strive for. No, just ordinary happiness is good enough for me. Of course, I get lots of happiness out of acting and cannot imagine life without it. I shall act till I can’t stand up.”

It would take many years, but that’s pretty much how things turned out.

5. Life took a downward turn

There was much good fortune in England, but things changed when the second World War and Nazi Germany’s “blitz” on England began. In its October 13, 1957 edition, Tulsa World summarized, “Hackett and his wife returned to the United States for a three-month visit. Hackett died suddenly [in 1944]. War wiped out their fortune and Miss Lorne was alone, penniless and out of work in New York.”

6. There was no choice but to pick up the pieces

For about two years, Marion Lorne was more or less frozen, feeling lost in indecision without her husband. But then, in 1946, she was cast in the role of Josephine Hull in the touring company of Harvey, including almost a year in Chicago, all of which helped to establish her reputation in America.

7. She made her movie debut in ‘Strangers on a Train’

Although she was reluctant, Marion Lorne agreed to appear in the 1952 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train, playing Robert Walker’s mother, in what was her debut film. “I was frightened to death about doing it,” she admitted to the Detroit Free Press, “but Alfred Hitchcock, who I knew from England, won me over. I even thought of going to South America as a way out, but he said I was the right person for the part and, well, I just did it.”

8. 'Mister Peepers'

Despite her Strangers on a Train misgivings, Lorne would bring her familiar characterization of the seemingly dazed and confused persona to several TV series, beginning with Mister Peepers, the sitcom that saw her playing Mrs. Gurney opposite Wally Cox as science teacher Robinson J. Peepers and Tony Randall as history teacher Harvey Weskit, which would run from 1952 to 1955.

Explains pop culture historian Geoffrey Mark, "After the death of her husband in England, Marion reinvented herself. American television audiences fell in love with her character on Mister Peepers, as Marion interacted with Wally Cox on live television. The character was part-writers and part-Marion, where Marion used her easily-confused, stammering character that she had previously done on the stage."

The actress told The Minneapolis Star in 1961, “A friend of mine tried to persuade me to go into TV by sending me a number of scripts to read. I knew nothing about TV and wasn’t the least interested in it, but I read the scripts just to be nice. I finally told him it was no use, I had read enough. One day he called  and begged me to read just one more script. It was for the Mister Peepers series. I did so reluctantly, but by the time I finished the first page, I had made up my mind to do it. The character of Mrs. Gurney was the same as one I had done years ago in London. You can imagine my friend’s surprise when I called him back immediately and told him that I would take the part.”

9. 'Sally' and 'The Garry Moore Show'

She would follow this with 1957 to 1958’s Sally, playing elderly widow Myrtle Banford opposite Joan Caulfield’s Sally Truesdale; and then frequent appearances on variety series The Gary Moore Show (1958 to 1962). In each of them she was essentially playing what would become Aunt Clara, just without the magic powers.

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9. Marion Lorne was confused that people found her so funny

 “I don’t know why people seem to think I’m so funny,” she admitted to the Leader-Tribune in 1958. “When I get into a taxicab, the driver often gives me a sort of startled look and says, ‘Why I know you — you’re Marion Lorne!’ Then he bursts out laughing. This happens when I’m walking along the street, too. The disconcerting thing about it is that everybody always waits expectantly then for me to say something funny, and I really don’t. And so they go on, looking sort of baffled. The nicest thing about it all is that at a time when I thought there was no more laughter in life, I found I could make people laugh, and without really trying, because I really never say anything funny, you know.”

10. She actually enjoyed the loss of privacy TV brought her

As with many people, television took away any sense of privacy, but it didn’t seem to bother her: “All the time I was on the stage, I was fairly well known, especially in England, where I worked so long, but I had a private life. I could go anywhere, but now, the minute I show myself on the street, well, they start gathering about and they want autographs or they just stand there and smile, bless them. My friends say they won’t put up with it anymore, but I hope I have to for a long time.”

11. That time the 'Bewitched' actress was actually 'bewitched'

On Bewitched, Marion Lorne portrayed Aunt Clara, which turned out to be the most popular role of her career. "[Producer/director] Bill Asher and Elizabeth Montgomery loved working with her," notes Geoffrey Mark, "and loved that she could do broad comedy and pathos with the same enthusiasm and skill."

According to what Elizabeth Montgomery relayed in an interview with Bewitched authority Herbie J Pilato in 1989, one day she received a strange phone call from Lorne while the show was in production. Lorne was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel, which was close to Montgomery's home, and was in a panic. Montgomery was concerned.

"She called me from her room," Montgomery told Pilato, author Twitch Upon a Star and The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery, “…and insisted that I come to see her. When I finally got to her room, she was awfully nervous, and she kept saying, ‘I did it! I did it!’ And she told me that I was the only one who would understand.”

While Lorne was convinced she'd suddenly developed magical powers, her bracelets had actually created some form of electrical current that was aligned with the same frequency as her hotel room’s television set. “Every time her arm would move,” Montgomery continued to recall, “the bracelets would clink and the channels would change.”

Montgomery, who “adored Marion,” wasn’t about to burst Lorne’s magically-thought bubble because the senior actress was “walking on air.”

In recounting her charming memory of Marion Lorne’s comically frantic magical powers assumption, Elizabeth Montgomery made sure to clarify that “Marion was a very smart lady, and a brilliant performer … who knew exactly what she was doing as Aunt Clara.”

12. For Darrin, Aunt Clara was the magical relative with a difference

On Bewitched, there was no question that Samantha's various relatives, from Agnes Moorehead's Endora to Paul Lynde's Uncle Arthur, drove Darrin Stephens crazy, but there was undoubtedly one exception. "Aunt Clara," says Geoffrey Mark, "was the only member of Samantha's family that Darrin actually loved, and who was always welcomed by him in their home."

And for Marion Lorne, there was equally no question that she was delighted with the part. "The Aunt Clara character," she told The Commercial Appeal in 1965, "is built on one lovely absurdity after another, rather like Miss Guerney in the old Mister Peepers show. I enjoy so much the business of this witch with waning powers. To me, the premise is delightful. But even more, I like the charming eccentricity of Aunt Clara, like her peculiar habit of borrowing doorknobs for her marvelous collection."

The impression she made was a strong one, as was her connection with viewers, which is why her loss — on May 9, 1968 at the age of 84 —was felt so strongly by so many.

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