Though they played mortal enemies on screen, Margaret Hamilton and Judy Garland actually got along fairly well off-screen.

Hamilton played the iconic Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 MGM film, The Wizard of Oz. Garland, her acting career still in its infancy, played the youthful Dorothy Gale. The role is frequently considered to be the catapult that shot the young child star into the Hollywood stratosphere.

During an interview with Newsday, Hamilton explained that, though Garland was young at the time of filming, she carried herself in a rather dignified way.

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“She was 16, and my own associations with her were nothing but love,” said the actor. “I just adored her. She was a darling youngster, so thrilled and excited about everything, and everybody loved her. I’ve never known anybody who didn’t - on that set. She was complete innocence. To my mind, that face on that screen (in Oz) so often is exquisitely lovely.”

Though Hamilton acknowledged that Garland was a talented actor, she made a point to emphasize that Dorothy’s kindness was simply an extension of Garland herself.

“The wide-eyed sort of wonder, and the sympathy that she has for the characters she plays with, putting their troubles before her own,” said Hamilton. “And that’s the sort of person she was, really. Just entirely different from the little girls of 16 today…She was just a typical little 16-year-old girl who was about to grow up and was perfectly lovely.”