Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: Who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the movie The Wizard of Oz?
Margaret Brainard Hamilton (December 9, 1902– May 16, 1985) was an American film character actress best known for her portrayal of Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939).[1]
After being threatened to be killed by her, Toto calls the Munchkins, who set him and Dorothy free and hold up the witch. During the final battle, it cuts away to a scene where Quentin Tarantino is having a meeting with Kermit, discussing ideas for how Dorothy can defeat the Wicked Witch of the West. Tarantino's ideas are deemed too expensive and too violent for a Muppet movie, so they agree for Dorothy to do a powerful kick on the witch. Cutting back to the action, Dorothy kicks the witch into her own "bottled water bath" which contains tap water (to which she is severely allergic). Angel Marie admitted that he filled the water bottles with tap water to restock them. This action causes the Wicked Witch of the West to melt as Johnny averts Foo-Foo's eyes. With the Wicked Witch of the West dead, Dorothy finds the magic eye floating in the tub unharmed and grabs it.
The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum as the antagonist in his classic children's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900). In Baum's subsequent "Oz" novels, it is the Nome King who is the principal villain; the Wicked Witch of the West is rarely even referred to again after her death in the first book.
Wicked is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel "", a retelling of the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film "The Wizard of Oz" and L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy Gale's arrival in Oz from Kansas, and it includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum's novel. "Wicked" tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (whose name later changes to Glinda the Good Witch), who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace.
In "The Marvelous Land of Oz" the prehistory was changed slightly. Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, reveals that the Wizard usurped the previous king of Oz Pastoria and hid away his daughter Ozma. This was Baum's reaction to the popular 1903 Broadway extravaganza Baum adapted from his book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", in which the Wizard took the role of the main antagonist and the Wicked Witch of the West was left out.
The house is carried by the tornado to the Land of Oz. Dorothy meets the Munchkins and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (who resembles Aunt Em). Her house has fallen upon, and killed, the Wicked Witch of the East. This frees the Munchkins from her power, and they treat Dorothy as their heroine ("Come Out, Come Out"; "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead"). The Wicked Witch of the West (who resembles Miss Gulch) arrives to claim her sister's magic ruby slippers and vows to avenge her death. Glinda has already put the slippers on Dorothy's feet, further infuriating the witch. Dorothy wants to go home to Kansas. The Munchkins tell her that the Wizard of Oz will know what to do ("Follow the Yellow Brick Road"). She starts off towards the Emerald City. 
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a novel published in 1995 written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. It is a revisionist exploration of the characters and land of Oz from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", its sequels, and the 1939 film adaption "The Wizard of Oz". Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel is not for children; it contains adult language and content, including violent imagery and sexual situations. The novel presents events, characters and situations from Baum's books and the film in new ways, making numerous alterations.
Luft appeared in "The Wizard Of Oz", a stage version of the movie that made Garland famous, at The Lowry Centre in Manchester, England. She portrayed the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton in the film.
The Wicked Witch of the West originated as the primary villain and main antagonist of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" book, in which she is given no name. She is described as being completely blind in one eye, and there is no mention of her having green skin. She rules the western quadrant called Winkie Country in the Land of Oz and enslaved many of the natives. She also owns a pack of killer wolves, black crows and stinging bees. When Dorothy Gale and company are sent by the Wizard to defeat her, she sends her collection of deadly pets to kill them but is unsuccessful. She then uses the Golden Cap to call upon the Winged Monkeys who destroy the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, but capture Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion. She imprisons them in her castle before Dorothy melts her with a bucket of water when the Wicked Witch tried to steal one of her Silver Shoes. After her death in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", The Wicked Witch of the West is rarely referred to again in the later Oz books.
At the time of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the lands in the North, South, East and West of Oz are each ruled by a Witch. The Witches of the North and South are good, while the Witches of the East and West are wicked. Glinda (the Good Witch of the South) is later revealed to be the most powerful of the four, although later Oz books reveal that the Wicked Witch of the West was so powerful, even Glinda feared her. After Dorothy's house crushes the Wicked Witch of the East, thereby liberating the Munchkins from bondage, the Good Witch of the North tells Dorothy that she (the Witch of the North) is not as powerful as the Wicked Witch of the East had been, or she would have freed the Munchkins herself.
The Wicked Witch of the West is one of the most iconic villains of modern times. However, the iconic version of the Wicked Witch is Margaret Hamilton's portrayal in the 1939 movie, which is copyrighted. The character of the Wicked Witch from the book is in public domain, but that version of the Wicked Witch is not even green. Most modern portrayals of the Wicked Witch of the West do make her green, because that is how the public thinks of the Wicked Witch, but they all strive to make her appearance somehow distinctive.
The Wicked Witch is not given a name in the books, so subsequent authors gave her their own names. All of these names are protected under copyright as part of their respective works, which means new creators have to keep coming up with their own version. Some of the most well-known incarnations of the Wicked Witch of the West are "Elphaba" ("Wicked"), "Theodora" ("Oz the Great and Powerful"), "Zelena" ("Once Upon a Time"), "Evillene" ("The Wiz"), and "Azkadellia" ("Tin Man").
There are similar issues regarding portrayals of the Wicked Witch of the East, but she is not as prevalent in the public conscious as her Western sister.
In Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz", the Wicked Witch of the West used a broomstick to fly over Oz. She also used it to skywrite "Surrender Dorothy" above the Emerald City. The Wizard commands Dorothy and her three traveling companions to bring the Wicked Witch's broomstick to him in order to grant their wishes. Dorothy carries it to the Wizard with the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion after the Wicked Witch's death.
The house lands in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as a heroine, as the falling house has killed the Wicked Witch of the East; only the witch's legs and the ruby slippers on her feet are visible. Her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, arrives to claim the slippers, but Glinda transports them onto Dorothy's feet first. The Wicked Witch of the West swears revenge on Dorothy for her sister's death, then vanishes. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where she can ask the Wizard of Oz to help her get back home.
Emerging into the light, the friends encounter another obstacle. The Wicked Witch has cast a spell creating a huge field of poppies that puts Dorothy and the Lion to sleep. Glinda counters with a snowfall that nullifies the poison, so the friends may continue on their journey ("Optimistic Voices"). Arriving at the Emerald City, Dorothy and company persuade the gatekeeper to admit them. They are welcomed with open arms and are groomed in preparation for a meeting with the Wizard ("The Merry Old Land of Oz"). The Wicked Witch flies down into the City with more threats, still angry that she doesn’t have the ruby slippers. The four friends and Toto go into the Wizard’s chamber. The great Oz appears as a frightening, disembodied head and says he will grant the group their wishes if they do something for him first. He demands: ("Bring Me the Broomstick") of the Wicked Witch of the West.
"Wicked" is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel "", an alternative telling of the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" and L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 story, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy's arrival in Oz from Kansas, and it includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum's novel. "Wicked" tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda, who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace.
A teenage girl, Dorothy, lives on a farm in dreary Kansas with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em dreaming of faraway places ("Over The Rainbow"). One day the farmhouse, with Dorothy inside, is swept off by a tornado to Munchkin land in the Land of Oz. The falling house kills the cruel ruler of the Munchkins, the Wicked Witch of the East. The Munchkins and the Sorceress of the North greet Dorothy ("Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" and "Munchkinland"). The Sorceress tells Dorothy that she will have to go to the Emerald City to ask the great Wizard of Oz to help her return home. The Wicked Witch of the West, sister of the late Wicked Witch of the East, vows revenge upon Dorothy.
The Witch did not carry a broom in the novel, but rather an umbrella, which she uses on one occasion to strike Dorothy's dog Toto. Her nature is a volatile and yet somewhat cowardly one. Despite her immense power, she avoids face-to-face contact with her enemies, and is frightened of Dorothy at first when she sees the girl wearing the Silver Shoes. She is also afraid of the dark in Baum's original story for reasons unknown. For that reason, the Witch never tried to steal the Silver Shoes while Dorothy was sleeping. Despite her fear of water and the dark, the Wicked Witch of the West was one of the most powerful witches in all of Oz. In ensuing Oz books, her power is described as having been so great that even Glinda the Good Witch of the South feared her.The 1910 silent film "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" features a character similar to the Wicked Witch of the West, identified in intertitles as "Momba the Witch" (Compare the character Mombi from "The Marvelous Land of Oz"). In the film, Momba has an unspecified hold over the Wizard, who promises his crown to anyone who can release him from Momba's power. Momba captures Dorothy and her companions, evoking the events in Baum's original novel, and is destroyed when Dorothy throws a bucket of water over her.
The friends finally reach the Emerald City, where they meet Lord Growlie, his daughter Gloria and the Royal Army of Oz. Lord Growlie warns that if someone bothers the Wizard with a foolish request, he may destroy them. After a tour ("The Merry Old Land of Oz"; "Evening Star"), the friends meet the Wizard. He is very frightening and says that, before he will help them, they must kill the Wicked Witch of the West. As Dorothy and her new friends travel to the castle of the Wicked Witch, she sends various foes to hamper or attack them, but they manage to persevere. The witch eventually captures Dorothy, and her friends rush to try to rescue her, disguising themselves as ghosts. The witch is not fooled and intends to shrink Dorothy and her friends with a magic potion in her cauldron. Thinking fast, Dorothy pushes the witch into the cauldron. The water shrinks the Wicked Witch away to nothing ("Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" (reprise)).
Ozma elaborates further, saying that there were once four Wicked Witches in Oz, who leagued together to depose the King, but the Wicked Witches of the North and South were defeated by Good Witches before the Wizard arrived in Oz. According to this version, the King at the time was Ozma's grandfather. This version of prehistory restores the Wizard's reputation, but adds the awkwardness of both Ozma and her father having been born in captivity.
The witches are largely absent in this version; The Good Witch of the North appears, named Locasta, and The Wicked Witch of the East is a special effect. Toto, Dorothy's dog, was replaced by a cow named Imogene. The Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who had appeared only in Act Three, was written out by Mitchell in 1903. His re-write of that act was set in the Borderland that divides Oz and Glinda's Domain, as Dorothy and her friends try to escape Pastoria.
The Wicked Witch of the West is given the similar name, "Momba" in the 1910 silent film "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", but is based on that character, not Mombi. A witch named Mombi also appears in the 1914 film "His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz". The character resembles W. W. Denslow's depiction of the Wicked Witch of the West (complete with eyepatch, pigtails and umbrella), and her role in the story is based on the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and inspired the witch Blinkie in the novel "The Scarecrow of Oz".
Another musical number cut before release occurred right after the Wicked Witch of the West was melted and before Dorothy and her friends returned to the Wizard. This was a reprise of "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" (blended with "We're Off to See the Wizard" and "The Merry Old Land of Oz") with the lyrics altered to "Hail! Hail! The Witch is Dead!" This started with the Witch's guard saying "Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!" and dissolved to a huge celebration of the citizens of the Emerald City singing the song as they accompany Dorothy and her friends to see the Wizard. Today, the film of this scene is also lost and only a few stills survive, along with a few seconds of footage used on several reissue trailers. The entire audio still exists and is included on the two-CD Rhino Record deluxe edition of the film soundtrack.[44]
The Wicked Witch of the West is the malevolent ruler of the Winkie Country. Her castle is described as beautiful instead of being the sinister fortress shown in the movie. In all versions, she is seriously aquaphobic. The Wicked Witch of the West was not related to the Wicked Witch of the East, but leagued together with her, the Wicked Witch of the South and Mombi to conquer the Land of Oz and divide it among themselves, as recounted in L. Frank Baum's "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz". She shows no interest in the death of the Eastern Witch, and all she cares about is obtaining the Silver Shoes which will increase her power. W. W. Denslow's illustrations for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" depict her as a paunched old hag with three pigtails and an eye-patch. L. Frank Baum himself specified that she only had one eye, but that it "was as powerful as a telescope", enabling the witch to see what was happening in her kingdom from her castle windows. Other illustrators, such as Paul Granger, placed her eye in the center of her forehead, as a cyclops. Usually, she is shown wearing an eye patch, however some illustrations show her with two eyes.
In the 1939 version of "The Wizard of Oz", Margaret Hamilton plays the Wicked Witch of the West as a green-skinned witch dressed in a long black dress with a black pointed hat. She does not wear an eye-patch like in the novel. This representation of the Wicked Witch has become a standard for what witches resemble and an archetype of human wickedness. While this relationship is not mentioned in Baum's books, in the movie, the Witch is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East. The movie makes her even more of a primary antagonist, and consequently she appears in the film much earlier (and more often), than in Baum's original novel. She demands the Munchkins reveal who killed her sister, not long after Dorothy's arrival in Oz. She is described by Glinda the Good Witch of the North, not the South as in the book, as "worse than the other one". She actively seeks revenge against Dorothy for killing her sister, even though it was "accidental". However, as soon as the Witch is reminded of the ruby slippers, all interest in her sister's death vanishes and all she cares about are obtaining "her" slippers, which will enable her to conquer Oz. She is more menacing than her literary counterpart, making Dorothy too afraid to ever lose her temper with the Witch. She makes sure that Dorothy knows her power when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow by throwing a ball of fire at them. Before Dorothy and her friends get to the city, the Witch casts a sleeping spell over a field of poppies through which the group must pass. Glinda remotely counteracts the spell with a snowfall. The Wicked Witch then flies on her broom over the Emerald City, demanding that the citizens of the Emerald City surrender Dorothy to her, and the Wizard demands the destruction of the Witch, with her broom as proof, in exchange for granting the wishes of Dorothy and her companions. Unlike Baum's original depiction, the Wicked Witch sends the Winged Monkeys as the first wave of attack. The Golden Cap is not mentioned but, after the failure of her poppy spell, the Witch does hold and then angrily cast away a costume piece that could be considered the cap (It greatly resembles the Cap in depicted in W. W. Denslow's original illustrations for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz") and was mentioned as her "wishing cap" in the original shooting script. She is killed when Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her, in attempt to put out a fire the witch bestowed on the Scarecrow. In the novel, Dorothy simply throws it on her in a fit of anger. There is no prior mention of the Wicked Witch's vulnerability to water in the movie, save for a split-second before the water actually douses her when she screams "Don't touch that water!" (this line does not appear in the film's shooting script). After the Wicked Witch of the West is dead, her soldiers are glad to be free of her power, and quote "Hail to Dorothy! The Wicked Witch is dead!" The character ranks No. 4 in the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Best Movie Villains of All Time, making her the highest ranking female villain, as well as placing 90th on "Empire" magazine's "100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time".
Landing in Oz, Dorothy's house flattens the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, greets Dorothy and tells her where she is. Glinda calls for the Munchkins to ("Come Out"). These little people, overjoyed at the demise of their wicked tormentor, welcome Dorothy and Toto ("Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"; "We Welcome You to Munchkin Land"). Glinda presents Dorothy with the magic ruby slippers that belonged to the dead witch. This enrages the witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda tells Dorothy that the Wizard of Oz might be able to help her return home, and how to find him ("Follow the Yellow Brick Road"). Dorothy sets off toward the Emerald City to speak to the great Oz ("You’re Off to See the Wizard").