HR Pufnstuf is a popular children's television show that aired in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One of the main characters on the show is a witch named Witchiepoo. Witchiepoo is known for her extravagant outfits, exaggerated makeup, and over-the-top personality. She is constantly trying to steal a magical talking flute from the show's main character, Jimmy. Witchiepoo is often portrayed as silly and bumbling, but she is also determined and resourceful in her attempts to get the flute. She is accompanied by her henchmen, Orson and Seymour.

Billie Hayes, Witchiepoo in H.R. Pufnstuf, dies at 96

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

Billie Hayes, the character actress best known for her comedically villainous turn as Witchiepoo on H.R. Pufnstuf, has died. She was 96.

Hayes died Thursday of natural causes. Her family announced the news.

"In addition to being a very talented and special person, Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch of the West/Wizard of Oz) once told me that Witchiepoo was the best witch ever," H.R. Pufnstuf co-creator Marty Krofft said in a statement to EW. "And as far as I'm concerned, there was no one better than Billie Hayes. She was a home run for us and H.R Pufnstuf."

The vaudeville-inspired Witchiepoo stole the show on H.R. Pufnstuf, which ran for only 17 episodes on NBC in 1969. It was also adapted to a feature film, 1970's Pufnstuf, and Hayes reprised the role there. Much like Wiley Coyote's perpetual quest to kill the Roadrunner, Witchiepoo was perpetually trying to steal the magical Freddy the Flute, with Hayes offering a slapstick performance kitted out in green make-up and a fake nose.

She also brought Witchiepoo back on H.R. Pufnstuf creators Sid and Marty Krofft's other shows, including The Banana Splits Adventure Hour and Lidsville. As part of the pantheon of great pop culture witches, Witchiepoo also appeared on the 1976 Paul Lynde Halloween Special in a sketch with The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch, Margaret Hamilton.

Billie Hayes was born April 11, 1925, in Du Quoin, Illinois, and she got her start in show business at a young age, dancing at local nightclubs beginning at age 9.

She began her career on the stage, rising to prominence on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1956, alongside Maggie Smith, after appearing in the revue What's New With Paul Lynde.

Hayes' biggest Broadway success came as Mammy Yokum in the 1956 musical adaptation of the comic strip Lil' Abner. She replaced original cast member Charlotte Rae in the role, and then Hayes went on to portray Mammy in the 1959 movie and a 1971 TV special.

In the national tour of Hello, Dolly! starring Betty Grable, Hayes played jittery hat shop assistant Minnie Fay.

On screen, she found particular success in voiceover work, playing roles in The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, The Flintstones Comedy Show, Trollkins, The Real Ghostbusters, Rugrats, Transformers: Rescue Bots, The Black Cauldron, The Night Before Christmas, The Powerpuff Girls, and more.

In the 1980s, Hayes had a recurring role on General Hospital as international spy Agent Brighton O'Reilly. Other TV credits include The Monkees, Bewitched, Donny & Marie, and Murder, She Wrote.

Hayes was also a great animal lover and founded the nonprofit animal rescue organization Pet Hope, serving as its president until her death.

Hayes is survived by niece Nancy Powers, nephews Tom Brosch, Louie Brosch, and Guy Brosch; their spouses; and several great-nieces and -nephews.

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Billie Hayes Dies: Wicked Witchiepoo Of ‘H.R. Pufnstuf’ Was 96

Billie Hayes, whose portrayal of the flamboyantly and comically wicked witch Witchiepoo on the 1969-70 Saturday morning live-action children’s classic H.R. Pufnstuf, died of natural causes April 29 at Cedar’s Hospital in Los Angeles. She was 96.

Her death was announced by her family.

A Broadway veteran by the time she reached national fame as the flute-stealing nemesis to a psychedelic dragon, Hayes had starred as Mammy Yokum in both the Broadway and film versions of the popular late-1950s musical Lil’ Abner. She’d made her Broadway debut in New Faces of 1956 along with an ensemble that included actress Maggie Smith.

Following a couple of guest appearances on episodic TV in 1967 – including a Mammy Yokum-type matriarch in the “Hillbilly Honeymoon” episode of The Monkees – Hayes endeared herself to a generation of glued-to-the-tube Saturday morning viewers in 1969 as the eccentrically costumed, ever-cackling and always bumbling Witchiepoo (full name: Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo).

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With a performance panache that was over-the-top even by the wacky standards of the Sid and Marty Krofft universe of costumed creatures, Hayes was an immediate scene-stealer. Series-stealer, actually: Though Witchiepoo was the H.R. Pufnstuf villain, intent on stealing the magical, talking Freddy the Flute as if he were a pair of ruby slippers, Hayes’ wildly entertaining vaudeville, slapstick style had legions of young viewers rooting her on to a victory that never came. “Why me?,” she’d whine or sob after the inevitable backfiring of her latest evil scheme.

Born in Du Quoin, Illinois, Hayes began her show business career at age 9, dancing professionally in local nightclubs. While still in high school, she joined the fourteen-piece regional orchestra of Vince Genovese, and performed solo in her teens in Chicago and throughout the Midwest.

After moving to New York, Hayes performed selections from her nightclub singing-and-dancing routine in an audition for famed theater impresario J.J. Shubert, who was so taken with her comic and musical talents he cast her in principal roles of three roadshow operettas: Student Prince, The Merry Widow and Blossom Time.

Hayes (in red blouse holding pipe), ‘Lil’ Abner’ (1959) Everett Collection

Soon enough she was co-starring with fellow newcomer Paul Lynde in the New York revue What’s New, which led to her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman’s New Faces show. She then took over the role of Lil’ Abner‘s Mammy Yokum from the original cast’s Charlotte Rae, finding herself alongside another up-and-comer in the replacement cast named Valerie Harper.

Hayes, with old-age make-up, a white wig and a long-stemmed pipe, would reprise the role in Paramount’s 1959 film version and, in 1971, a TV-movie adaptation. She’d return to the stage in the late 1960s as the character Minnie Fay in the national touring company of Hello, Dolly! starring Betty Grable.

After her 1969 arrival in the destined-for-cult-classic Sid and Marty Krofft series, which also starred Jack Wild (Oliver!) as the on-the-run Dorothy Gale-stand-in Jimmy and, providing the voice of Pufnstuf the dragon, Lennie Weinrib (actor Roberto Gamonet was inside the puffy, full-body green-and-yellow costume), Hayes had found what would be her signature role. She returned as the character in the 1970 feature film adaptation Pufnstuf, along with Wild, Martha Raye and, in her sole feature role, “Mama” Cass Elliot (as Witch Hazel).

Hayes even reprised the role in 1976 on the ABC Halloween special of her old friend Paul Lynde, appearing with The Wizard of Oz‘s Margaret Hamilton in a comedy sketch that revealed the sisterly bond between the two famous witches.

The cancelation of H.R. Pufnstuf in 1970 led to yet another Krofft casting, this time in the dual role of Witchiepoo and the kindlier Weenie the Genie in Lidsville (1971-72), with Charles Nelson Reilly taking the show’s chief villain spot as magician Horatio J. Hoodoo.

Hayes had a long and busy subsequent TV career in voice roles – The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, The Flintstones Comedy Show, Trollkins, The Real Ghostbusters, Rugrats, Transformers: Rescue Bots, among many others – and she appeared in a recurring role on General Hospital in the early 1980s as a street-wise international spy named Agent Brighton O’Reilly.

Offscreen, Hayes founded the Los Angeles-based animal rescue nonprofit organization Pet Hope, a cause she had championed since adopting a puppy abandoned in the basement of Broadway’s St. James Theatre during the run of Lil’ Abner.

Hayes is survived by niece Nancy Powers, nephews Tom Brosch, Louie Brosch and Guy Brosch; their spouses; and several great-nieces and -nephews. The family requests donations in lieu of flowers to Pet Hope.

On MeTV

Flint finds a young man bleeding to death and a knife nearby. He takes the body to the sheriff who identifies the man as the youngest Zamora brother. He feels duty-bound to kill the murderer.

R.I.P. Billie Hayes, the wicked witch known as Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf

She is accompanied by her henchmen, Orson and Seymour. Despite her evil intentions, Witchiepoo is a beloved character on the show and is often the source of comedic relief. HR Pufnstuf witch is an important element of the show and adds an exciting dynamic to the storyline.

The Broadway veteran was 96 years old.

Sid and Marty Krofft sure had active imaginations. In a span of a few years, the brothers created some of the surreal children's programming in television history. It began with The Banana Splits for Hanna-Barbera in 1968, but the two stepped out on their own a year later with H.R. Pufnstuf. The similarly minded series The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and Land of the Lost followed.

But H.R. Pufnstuf set the mold, with its youthful protagonist, floppy costumed creatures, and psychedelic fantasy. Jimmy (Jack Wild) was the hero, aided by the titular star H.R. Pufnstuf, a bulbous dragon. But every story needs a villain. Enter Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo.

With her iconic cackle, Witchiepoo is undoubtedly implanted in the memory of any kid who grew up in the era. Billie Hayes, a Broadway veteran, portrayed the witch. She became such an icon (in a shockingly short amount of time — Pufnstuf only aired for 17 episode) that Hayes essentially played iterations of the same character on other shows. See the Bewitched episode "Hansel and Gretel in Samantha-Land," for example. She was also Weenie the Genie in Lidsville.

Those of an older generation might remember her better as Mammy Yokum, the scrappy matriarch of Li'l Abner. Hayes played the character, which was born in the popular newspaper comic strips, both on stage and in the 1959 film. Here she is in character.

Born and raised in Illinois, Hayes continued to work in children's television for decades, into her 90s, as recently as 2016, when she voiced a character on Transformers: Rescue Bots. On April 29, she died of natural causes, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 96.

Sid and Marty Krofft — still working in television to this day — honored her on Twitter with this touching tweet.

Billie Hayes, Witchiepoo on ‘H.R. Pufnstuf,’ Dies at 96

Billie Hayes, who played the cackling Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo on Sid and Marty Krofft’s H.R. Pufnstuf and the scrappy Mammy Yokum in the Broadway and big-screen versions of Li’l Abner, has died. She was 96.

Hayes died Thursday of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family spokesperson said.

After starring as the evil protagonist on the 1969-70 kids program H.R. Pufnstuf, she reteamed with the Krofft brothers in 1971-72 on Lidsville, another Saturday morning show for children (she played the incompetent Weenie the Genie on that one).

The Kroffts reacted on Twitter to the news of her death:

More recently, Hayes served as a voice actor for The Black Cauldron (1985) and for such cartoons as Trollkins, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Paw Paws, Darkwing Duck, The Brothers Flub and Transformers: Rescue Bots.

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Born on Aug. 5, 1924, in DuQuoin, Illinois, Hayes played in bandleader Vince Genovese’s orchestra while in high school, then toured with her own singing and dancing act throughout the Midwest.

After moving to New York, she auditioned for theater legend J.J. Shubert and was hired for principle roles in three roadshow operettas: Student Prince, The Merry Widow and Blossom Time.

Hayes made her Broadway debut in Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1956, then succeeded Charlotte Rae as Mammy Yokum in Li’l Abner. She played the bare-knuckle champion of Dogpatch for the remainder of its Broadway run through July 1958, then segued to the 1959 Paramount big-screen version that also starred Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Julie Newmar and Stella Stevens. (Hayes portrayed Mammy Yokum again in a 1971 ABC telefilm.)

In 1966, she toured with the national company of Hello, Dolly!, starring Betty Grable, and later appeared on such TV shows as The Monkees, Bewitched, Trapper John, M.D. and General Hospital.

Survivors include her niece, Nancy, and nephews Tom, Louie and Guy.

Donations in her memory can be made to the humane organization she founded: Pet Hope, P.O. Box 69493, West Hollywood CA 90048.

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Reviews for "The Signature Style of Witchiepoo: Analyzing her Costume Design"

1. John - 2/5 - I was really disappointed with "Hr pufnstuf witch." I found the storyline to be confusing and lacking in coherence. The characters were poorly developed and their motivations were unclear. Additionally, the special effects were dated and unimpressive. Overall, I did not enjoy this film and would not recommend it to others.

2. Sarah - 1/5 - "Hr pufnstuf witch" was a complete waste of time for me. The plot was ridiculous and hard to follow, and I couldn't connect with any of the characters. The acting was subpar, and the costumes and makeup were cheaply done. I found myself constantly checking my watch, waiting for it to be over. Save yourself the trouble and skip this film.

3. Robert - 2/5 - I didn't find "Hr pufnstuf witch" to be entertaining at all. The humor fell flat, and the storyline felt forced and contrived. The musical numbers were forgettable, and the overall execution was lackluster. I was hoping for a fun and enjoyable experience, but unfortunately, this film didn't deliver. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a good time.

4. Amanda - 1/5 - "Hr pufnstuf witch" was a complete disaster. The acting was cringe-worthy, and the dialogue was cheesy and poorly written. The special effects were laughably bad, and the plot was all over the place. I couldn't wait for it to be over and felt like I had wasted my time. I would advise anyone considering watching this film to find something else to do instead.

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