Alice Ghostley, the popular character actress who is best remembered for her television roles as the bumbling babysitter Esmeralda on Bewitched and the equally daffy Bernice on Designing Women died at her Studio City home on September 21. She had long suffered from colon cancer and a series of strokes. She was 81.

She was born on August 14, 1926, in Eve, Missouri, and in Henryetta, Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, she attended the University of Oklahoma and after that moved to New York with her sister to pursue a career theater. It wasn't easy at first and she worked a number of odd jobs - secretary to a music teacher, theater usher and a waitress before making her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952. She received her first Tony nomination in the Bert Lahr comedy The Beauty Part (1962-63) and eventually won the award for The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (1965-66).

Her Broadway success led to various appearances on some hit shows: Car 54, Where Are You?, Naked City and Please Don't Eat The Daisies. She also appeared in a string of small parts in many popular films: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), My Six Loves (1963), The Flim-Flam Man, and The Graduate (1967) before she landed her first regular series gig. She played Esmeralda, the shy, lovelorn babysitter for three season on Bewitched (1969-72).

Her best known film role was as Mrs. Murdock in the musical Grease (1978), but her nimble comic timing and diffident manner, made her the perfect actress for sitcoms. Her career in the '70s and '80s saw her receive an endless amount of work on T.V.: The Odd Couple, Love, American Style, Good Times, One Day at a Time, Gimme a Break! and of course her stint as the delightfully nutty assistant Bernice in Designing Women for six seasons (1987-93).

Her output slowed in the '90s, with guest spots on Dharma & Greg, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, and Evening Shade and a final film appearance with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Odd Couple II (1998) before she went into semi-retirement. Her husband was Felice Orlandi whom she was married for 50 years until his death (1953-2003). She is survived by her sister, Gladys.

by Michael T. Toole