You all know of my love, obsession, passion, etc for
Bewitched (and if you don't, girl, you really don't know me).
Of course, my favorite character is Samantha because she's played by the beautiful, sexy and funny Elizabeth Montgomery. And then there's her cousin Serena, also played by Liz but in a dark wig.
But my most favorite male character is Samantha's witch doctor (they call him Warlock Doctor cause he is a warlock), Dr. Bombay who was played fantastically by Bernard Fox. The doc was always my favorite because first and foremost, he's hysterical with his bad jokes, his bad temper when Samantha has zapped him "of me porpoise and I was winning the race!", and his bevy of beautiful nurses (one of which was played by Utah native Pat Priest, more famously known as "the odd looking one" on
the Munsters, Marilyn Munster). Dr. Bombay epitomized everything that was the best of any world.
One - he's a doctor and that's always a good thing to have around, especially if you are one in the mortal world cause you make the big bucks!
Two - he was the ladies' man, always having a hot nurse or three in his employ and with whom he played "doctor" a lot.
Three - he was smart as he came up with all manner of devices to help diagnose a sick witch.
Four - he had a marvelous sense of humor.
Bernard Fox played Dr. Bombay in not only 18 episodes of
Bewitched, but two episodes of the spin-off series
Tabitha and two episodes of the daytime soap
Passions over 30 years after he had appeared on
Bewitched. He was also considered to reprise the role for the Nicole Kidman
Bewitched movie but, alas, the role was written out.
Whether you realize it or not, Dr. Bombay is in the public stream of consciousness as Mr. Fox has appeared in several HUGE big screen movies over the years including
Titantic (Col. Archibald Gracie) and
The Mummy. When I went to see
The Mummy I didn't realize he was in it until I saw him on the screen and I leaned over to my sister who was sitting a seat away and she leaned in towards me and at the same time we both excitedly whispered, "That's Dr. Bombay!" People around us all sighed with relief as they said, "That's who that is! I knew I knew him!"
About eight years ago somebody posted on one of the
Bewitched message boards that I frequent that Bernard Fox had passed away! I was utterly shocked and saddened, but only for a brief moment when that same person found that there was A Bernard Fox who had passed but not THE Bernard Fox. Quite relieved I decided to write him a letter to tell him how much I really enjoyed him so much so that I had adopted the screen name of Dr. Bombay. I also told him how much I enjoyed his other roles, especially the one in
The Mummy. No more than two weeks passed and I got a response from him! He told me how much he appreciated my letter and told me what a great time he had on
Bewitched and recounted that just he and a few others remained of the cast and how he enjoyed his time filming
the Mummy as he and his wife got to fly to Morrocco.
A couple years after that a Titanic exhibit came to town where each of the tickets was printed with an actual passengers name so at the end of the exhibit you could check to see if your passenger survived. Some magic was working that night as my dad ended up with Col. Archibald Gracie out of the hundreds of possibilities!
Over the past decade I've been to the
Bewitched convention almost every year and the more recent ones he had been invited to attend but always declined because of his health or other reasons.
This year, he is actually attending!!! And even more special is that I've been asked to present him with a Fan Appreciation Award, the first of which we presented to the producer/director of
Bewitched and Liz Montgomery's husband at the time, William Asher.
I'm so excited and I can't wait to see him in person, shake his hand and possibly give him a hug!
