Los Angeles – Alice Ghostley, the Tony Award-winning comedic actress and singer who specialized in playing ditsy ladies and was best known on television for her supporting roles as Esmeralda on “Bewitched” and Bernice on “Designing Women,” died Friday. She was 81.
Ghostley died at her home in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles after a long battle with colon cancer and a series of strokes, said Jim Pinkston, a longtime friend.
Ghostley made her Broadway debut in “Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952,” the hit revue in which she received critical acclaim for singing the satirical sendup “The Boston Beguine,” which became her signature song.
Ghostley won the Tony Award for best featured actress in a play in 1965 for “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.” She received a Tony nomination two years earlier for various characterizations in the 1962-63 Broadway comedy “The Beauty Part.”
Ghostley last appeared on Broadway in “Annie,” taking over the role of Miss Hannigan, the wicked orphanage supervisor, in 1978 and playing the part until 1983.
On “Bewitched,” she played the timid good witch Esmeralda, the housekeeper, from 1969 to 1972. And from 1987 to 1993, she played Bernice Clifton on “Designing Women,” a role that earned her an Emmy nomination for supporting actress in a comedy in 1992.
Ghostley’s film credits include “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Graduate” and “Grease.”
