Margaret Hamilton, who portrayed the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, found it difficult to be green at times.

In 1939, nearly a century before Cynthia Erivo became viridescent for the witch’s origin tale in Wicked, Hamilton memorably played the campy, cackling monster who terrorizes the inhabitants of Oz.

Hamilton, who died at the age of 82 in 1985, underwent an especially difficult “ordeal,” according to Oz specialist John Fricke, author of The Wizard of Oz, The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History and The Wizard of Oz, An Illustrated Companion to the Timeless Movie Classic.

This was primarily due to an injury she sustained while filming a sequence with Judy Garland’s character Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road. After telling the gingham-clad Kansan and her puppy Toto, “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too,” the witch vanishes in a cloud of crimson flame and fire.

Fricke claims Hamilton was told to stand on an elevator platform constructed into the floor of the yellow brick road, which would descend her down (along with the broom she was holding) as red smoke obscured her departure. The team would shoot flames up through nearby floor vents once they fully lowered her beneath the set.

And in the early days of Hollywood, before CGI, “it had to be real fire,” says Fricke.

“They practiced it all morning and nailed it on the first take. Maggie spoke the line, spun around, went to the elevator, the smoke came up, they dropped her through the floor, she cleared the floor, the fire came up perfectly, and there was considerable exultation on the set,” according to Fricke.

“But suddenly it was noon, and everyone took off. Maggie used to say that after lunch, everyone was less vigilant and focused than in the morning. “And there were misfires every time they attempted a second take,” Fricke adds.

Director Victor Fleming, “a no-nonsense man’s man,” became frustrated with the technicians, according to Fricke. “He read them the riot act in no uncertain terms and language.”

On their second attempt, the professionals managed to extinguish the fire through the vents before Hamilton became completely soaked.

“Her shoulders, her head, the broom straw, her hat, and the gauze hanging from it, all remained elevated above the ground,” he continued. “The gauze caught fire; the broom straw caught fire.”

Crew members stationed downstairs to assist Hamilton in exiting the platform elevator “quickly smothered the fire, but it wasn’t quick enough,” according to Fricke. “The broom straw was at the side of her face and her right hand. And as a result, she suffered second-degree burns on her face and third-degree burns on her palm where the green makeup was.”

Fricke claims that the crew members rushed Hamilton to the side and informed her that they needed to clean her skin right away so that the possibly deadly makeup, which contained copper, would not seep into the wound.

“Ms. Hamilton, we need to remove this makeup off you.” Green is toxic, and copper will burn into your skin and disfigure you if we don’t clear every bit of it off your face,” they informed Hamilton, according to Fricke, who met the actress in the decade leading up to her death.

They used rubbing alcohol to clean her face and hands. I have heard her recount this story multiple times. She declared, “I’m going to have to scream.” She replied, ‘I will never, as long as I live, forget the anguish of them pouring alcohol on those two burns,'” Fricke adds.

Were the burns caused by the cosmetics? Probably not. Fricke said, “From what Maggie used to say, the closer-than-close flames instantly leaped from the broom straw in her hand—and the trailing gauze from her hat—to her face and hand, burning her.”

“It was a tiny elevator shaft, and the smoke and fire vents were right around the opening.” He says, “She sustained burns just like anyone else would have in such a flash of fire.” Nonetheless, makeup removal was terrible.

Hamilton rested for six weeks before returning to finish filming the part. When she finished wrapping, she took a keepsake with her: tinted skin.

“She stated that in the months following filming, many commented, ‘You seem a touch green.’ Her skin had absorbed some of the green, and it took time for her to eliminate it, “Fricke adds.

Despite this, Hamilton found producing the film to be a wonderful experience, according to Fricke. “She loved it,” he explains. “She was very proud of it until the day she died.”

Wicked: Part One is now in cinemas, with Part Two slated for November 21, 2025.