Elaine Hamilton Grundy

Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American character actress, vaudevillian and educator, whose fifty-year career in entertainment spanned theater, film, radio and television. She often played villains and is best known to modern audiences for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch in the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz. A former kindergarten teacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before s…