She played Morticia Addams' mother, Hester Frump, in three episodes of The Addams Family. [23] This included error detection and recovery software such as restarts and the Display Interface Routines (also known as the Priority Displays), which Hamilton designed and developed. [22][16] Another part of her team designed and developed the systems software. [1], On November 22, 2016, Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from president Barack Obama for her work leading to the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Moon missions. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. We have estimated Her name was clearly visible when the entire Apollo 11 source code was released on GitHub in 2016; according to MIT, the first full line of the software read, "SUBMITTED: MARGARET H. HAMILTON DATE: 28 MAR 69 / M.H.HAMILTON, COLOSSUS PROGRAMMING LEADER / APOLLO GUIDANCE AND NAVIGATION.". She became very concerned about the role's effect on children, and finally did a guest spot on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968) to explain that the Witch was just a character in the film, and not herself. At the time, computer science and software engineering were not yet established disciplines; instead, programmers learned on the job with hands-on experience. She had three grandchildren, Christopher, Scott, and Margaret. And I asked him what part, and he said, 'The Witch,' and I said, 'The Witch?!' The company was developed around the Universal Language of Software Design Systems. She coined the term software engineer because she felt that the work she and her team were doing was just as important and just as much engineering as the other work on the Apollo spacecraft. ], She married Paul Boynton Meserve on June 13, 1931, and made her debut on the New York City stage the following year. "Margaret Hamilton, 82, Dies; Played Wicked Witch In 'Oz', "Ah, The Songs of Long Ago! Hamilton made her debut as a "professional entertainer" on December 9, 1929, in a "program of 'heart rending songs'" in the Charles S. Brooks Theater at the Cleveland Play House. She later founded two software companiesHigher Order Software in 1976 and Hamilton Technologies in 1986, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, once there, she preferred to accept work at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), as a software developer. A brief history of the famous 1969 photo of the software that sent humans to the Moon. Margaret Hamilton Career Profession: Computer Scientist, Systems Engineer and Business Owner Known For: Director of the "Software Engineering Division" of the "MIT Instrumentation Laboratory", which developed "On-board Flight Software for NASA's Apollo Space Program Debut: Film debut: These Three (1936) Movie poster Net Worth: $12 Million Approx Hamilton has published more than 130 papers, proceedings, and reports, about sixty projects, and six major programs. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals and retained a lifelong commitment to public education. [13][14][15] Her work contributed to Lorenz's publications on chaos theory. Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. She appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1975 where she explained to children she was only playing a role and showed how putting on a costume "transformed" her into the witch. was ranked 99th in the 2005 American Film Institute survey of the most memorable movie quotes. The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. On August 17, 1936, Margaret Hamilton (ne Heafield) was born to Kenneth Heafield and Ruth Esther Heafield in Paoli, Indiana. Phil Davis It turned out that the astronaut checklist, which governed the actions the crew had to do before landing, had the crew set the rendezvous radar hardware switch in the wrong position. Check out Margaret Hamilton's Bio Now Would spoof her famous role of The Wicked Witch of The West in a 1976 Paul Lynde Halloween Special for television. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. In 2019, she was awarded the Intrepid Lifetime Achievement Award. Principal Investigator, Magnetometer Instrument, Cassini Mission, This site is maintained by the Planetary Science Communications team at. Margaret Hamilton was born Margaret Heafield on August 17, 1936 in Paoli, Indiana. [36], Hamilton's priority alarm displays interrupted the astronauts' normal displays to warn them that there was an emergency "giving the astronauts a go/no go decision (to land or not to land)". So I was assigned this program and I actually got it to work. Pufnstuf herself being spoofed by actress Billie Hayes. JWST finds galaxies that shouldn't exist! Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton poses for a series of photos with the Apollo guidance software she and her team developed at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. [47] In 1980, British-Israeli computer scientist David Harel published a proposal for a structured programming language derived from HOS from the viewpoint of and/or subgoals. Searching to find out more about Margaret Hamilton? Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. She was best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West, and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch, in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz.A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in . It then sent out an alarm, which meant to the astronaut, 'I'm overloaded with more tasks than I should be doing at this time and I'm going to keep only the more important tasks'; i.e., the ones needed for landing Actually, the computer was programmed to do more than recognize error conditions. Margaret Hamilton - Wikipedia [16] Hamilton also served as Director of the Software Engineering Division. Margaret Hamilton, ne Margaret Heafield, (born August 17, 1936, Paoli, Indiana, U.S.), American computer scientist who was one of the first computer software programmers; she created the term software engineer to describe her work. Journey for Margaret. For her work during this period, Hamilton has been credited with popularizing the concept of software engineering. I was the first one to get it to work. "All of a sudden, the normal mission sequences were interrupted by priority displays of 1201 and 1202 alarms, giving the astronauts a go/no-go decision (to land or not to land)," she added. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science since 2015. She often remarked about children coming up to her and asking her why she had been so mean to Dorothy. [2010]. We had to find a way and we did. She helped write the computer code for the command and lunar modules used on the Apollo missions to the Moon in the late 1960s and early 70s. Among them, there were 6 in which the man stepped on the floor of the Moon. [16] She moved on to another project in the summer of 1961, and hired and trained Ellen Fetter as her replacement.[12]. She studied mathematics at the University of Michigan in the 1950s and later earned a BA in mathematics with a minor in philosophy from Earlham College in 1958. Margaret Hamilton: Credits, Bio, News & More | Broadway World Margaret Hamilton Biography, Facts & Life Story. We had to find a way and we did. (196566; Hamilton had been offered the role of Grandmama, but turned it down. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Margaret Hamilton List of Movies and TV Shows - TV Guide Required fields are marked *. She is one of the people credited with coining the term "software engineering". Margaret Hamilton, ne Margaret Heafield, (born August 17, 1936, Paoli, Indiana, U.S.), American computer scientist who was one of the first computer software programmers; she created the term software engineer to describe her work. [19] She later moved to Millbrook, New York. In that role, she took the lead on the software used to govern the flight dynamics of the Apollo spacecraft, which were used for six landing missions between 1969 and 1972. MIT Museum: Margaret Hamilton Apollo Photos. Her "priority display" innovation had created a knock-on risk that astronaut and computer would slip out of synch just when it mattered most. Margaret Heafield Hamilton is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Guest in the House. Danko made the fiery entrance to Munchkinland, not Hamilton. Margaret Heafield Hamilton (born Heafield on August 17, 1936) is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner.She is credited with coining the term, "software engineering".Hamilton was Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. Her family later moved to Michigan and Hamilton attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for a time. This depended on our assigning a unique priority to every process in the software in order to ensure that all of its events would take place in the correct order and at the right time relative to everything else that was going on. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. She also published six books. Margaret Hamilton was born on August 17, 1936. [25], Her areas of expertise include: systems design and software development, enterprise and process modeling, development paradigm, formal systems modeling languages, system-oriented objects for systems modeling and development, automated life-cycle environments, methods for maximizing software reliability and reuse, domain analysis, correctness by built-in language properties, open-architecture techniques for robust systems, full life-cycle automation, quality assurance, seamless integration, error detection and recovery techniques, human-machine interface systems, operating systems, end-to-end testing techniques, and life-cycle management techniques. Margaret H. Hamilton: Apollo Computer Programmer | Space Margaret HAMILTON - Scientific Women When asked about her experiences on the set of The Wizard of Oz, Hamilton said her biggest fear was that her monstrous film role would give children the wrong idea of who she really was. [63] Hamilton's innovations go beyond the feats of playing an important role in getting humans to the Moon. Margaret H. Hamilton is a computer scientist who was instrumental to NASA's efforts to land humans on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. Half a century ago, MIT played a critical role in the development of the flight software for NASAs Apollo program, which landed humans on the Moon for the first time in 1969. Contrary to her character, one of the top villains in movie . Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program. She did a stint as a What's My Line? She lived in Manhattan for most of her adult life, and summered in a cottage on Cape Island, Southport, Maine. She portrayed the sister of Witchiepoo from H.R. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. 1. Hamilton played two credited roles in the famous film: Almira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West. more information Accept. The company was developed around the Universal Systems Language (USL) and its associated automated environment, the 001 Tool Suite, based on her paradigm of development before the fact for systems design and software development.[32][51][52]. They had one son, Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve, whom she raised on her own. She cofounded the company Higher Order Software in 1976 and established Hamilton Technologies 10 years later. She was born on August 17, 1936, which makes Margaret Hamilton age be 82 years old as of now. The character is considered to be one of the screen's greatest and most memorable villains of all time. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers. [3], Hamilton made her screen debut in the MGM film Another Language (1933) starring Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery. During the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton appeared regularly on television. We have a full Biography, Photos, Theatre Credits, and more! While a decision was made in the moment to let the astronauts land, Hamilton pointed out that a fault analysis was done to see where the error was made. Not because of his acceptance of the new 'term' per se, but because we had earned his and the acceptance of the others in the room as being in an engineering field in its own right. "The NASA Heritage of Creativity." Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. When she was 80 years old, on November 22, 2016, Margaret Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, for her work at NASA during the Apollo missions. [33] The asynchronous executive designed by J. Halcombe Laning[34][30][35] was used by Hamilton's team to develop asynchronous flight software: Because of the flight software's system-software's error detection and recovery techniques that included its system-wide "kill and recompute" from a "safe place" restart approach to its snapshot and rollback techniques, the Display Interface Routines (AKA the priority displays) together with its man-in-the-loop capabilities were able to be created in order to have the capability to interrupt the astronauts' normal mission displays with priority displays of critical alarms in case of an emergency. Social Media Lead: However, in By Your Leave (1934), she plays his housekeeper, and in Saratoga (1937), she has a colloquy with Morgan regarding a cosmetic product he invented (with side glances and eye rolls by Morgan as to its effect on her "beauty"). THE ALEXANDER HAMILTON READER margaret esther hall - PAPERBACK | eBay Learn How rich is She in this year and how She spends money? Play Girl. Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 1958. Dedication and commitment were a given. Hamilton was born in Cleveland, Ohio and practiced her craft doing children's theater while she was a Junior League of Cleveland member. They're clapping at hearing the sound again.[11]. [12] She developed software for predicting weather, programming on the LGP-30 and the PDP-1 computers at Marvin Minsky's Project MAC. Hamilton, now an independent computer scientist, described for MIT News in 2009 her contributions to the Apollo software which last month was added in its entirety to the code-sharing site GitHub: From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission. Mutual respect was across the board. With the error addressed, the lunar landings for Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 were made possible. It was a memorable day when one of the most respected hardware gurus explained to everyone in a meeting that he agreed with me that the process of building software should also be considered an engineering discipline, just like with hardware. Starred in the live on-stage musical "A Little Night Music" (with actress Jean Simmons in the lead role) during the mid-1970s in San Francisco. "Everything was going according to plan until something totally unexpected happened, just as the astronauts were in the process of landing on the moon," she recalled. We knew that. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Hamilton was the recipient of various honours, including NASAs Exceptional Space Act Award (2003). "The award included the largest financial award that NASA had ever presented to any individual up to that point. Margaret Hamilton, the woman who gave the moon to Mankind. She went on to appear in These Three (1936), Saratoga, You Only Live Once, When's Your Birthday?, Nothing Sacred (all 1937), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), My Little Chickadee (with W. C. Fields, 1940), and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (with Harold Lloyd, 1947). In the 1960s, Hamilton was a regular on another CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, playing the role of Grace Tyrell's housekeeper, Katie. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. On December 23, 1938, Hamilton suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland in which the trap door's drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit. I will return to work on one condition no more fireworks!" Hamilton said: What they used to do when you came into this organization as a beginner, was to assign you this program which nobody was able to ever figure out or get to run. It is possible to find relevant details of the biography of this extraordinary pioneer on many websites. A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actress in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. SAGE was soon developed for military use in anti-aircraft air defense. Margaret Hamilton - Biography - IMDb Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. She was contributing writer for Space.com (opens in new tab) for 10 years before joining full-time, freelancing since 2012. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA 's Apollo program. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.. The contract was awarded just weeks before then-President John F. Kennedy announced that he planned to have humans on the moon by the end of the decade. Anthony Oettinger,[53] Barry Boehm,[citation needed] and Hamilton have been credited with naming the discipline of "software engineering". Until the day she died, she had children recognizing her and coming up to her to ask why she was so mean to Dorothy. Biography. UConnToday, 23 April 2013. She was portrayed by Fenella Woolgar in "Judy" (2019). Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Margaret Hamilton (educator) (1871-1969), American educator Margaret Hamilton (actress) (1902-1985), American film character actress Margaret Hamilton (software engineer) (born 1936), American software engineer Margaret Hamilton (publisher) (1941-2022), Australian publisher of children's literature Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller? Margaret Hamilton biography American computer scientist - Salient Women Though only in her early '30s, the gloriously unpretty Hamilton subsequently . These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. This brilliant mathematician, systems engineer, and computational scientist, was Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. "Kindergarten Lost Margaret Hamilton." August 17, 2016. The meaning of those almost mysterious codes was available to very few. Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust. It even printed out its answers in Latin and Greek. Had one child, son, Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve, on June 12, 1936. The studio hired a new stunt double, Aline Goodwin, to finish the broomstick-riding scene for Danko.[9]. In one of the critical moments of the Apollo 11 mission, the Apollo Guidance Computer, together with the on-board flight software, averted an abort of the landing on the Moon. In 1954, she graduated from Thomas Hancock High School in Minnesota. Hamilton was a regular parishioner of the Presbyterian church. A Slight Case of Murder. Hat, Coat and Glove. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.. Her son, interviewed for the 2005 DVD edition of the film, commented that Hamilton enjoyed the line so much, she sometimes used it in her real life. Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. Houston! Hamilton also toured in many plays and musicals, even repeating her role of the Wicked Witch in specially written stage productions of The Wizard of Oz. Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. "From 'Kiddie Lit' to Children's Literature: The Biography of Francelia Butler." (Revised December 29, 2004). She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. Updates? In 2009, Margaret Hamilton and fellow MIT software engineers described what is was like to contribute to the Apollo missions 40 years after the famous Apollo 11 landing in the Moon's Sea of Tranquility in July 1969. The computer (or rather the software in it) was smart enough to recognize that it was being asked to perform more tasks than it should be performing. Credit: Courtesy MIT Museum Margaret Hamilton's Apollo Code A brief history of the famous 1969 photo of the software that sent humans to the Moon. In 1973, Hamilton produced the stage production of An Evening with the Bourgeoisie. Hamilton had prepared for just this situation years before: There was one other failsafe that Hamilton likes to remember. The content of the programs was printed on continuous paper and stored in large folders. "From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission," she said. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2018-2023, All Rights Reserved Super Stars Bio. So, how much is Margaret Hamilton worth at the age of 83 years old? '[8], Hamilton's stand-in and stunt double for the Witch, Betty Danko, also suffered an on-set accident on February 11, 1939. She was best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West, and her Kansas counterpart Almira Gulch, in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz.[1]. One of the many contributors to this effort was Margaret Hamilton, a computer scientist who led the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which in 1961 contracted with NASA to develop the Apollo programs guidance system. Even with her extensive film career, Hamilton took roles in whatever medium she could get if she was free, making her soap opera debut as the nasty Mrs. Sayre on Valiant Lady, who schemed to prevent her daughter from marrying the heroine's son. marriedcelebrity; April 19, 2019; Celebrity Gossip; Born as Margaret Heafield, she is an American system engineer, computer scientist and a woman entrepreneur as well. Hamilton costarred opposite Buster Keaton and Richard Cromwell in a 1940s spoof of the long-running local melodrama The Drunkard, titled The Villain Still Pursued Her. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Her solution: when you see a priority display, first count to Click here if you want to see this biography in Spanish translation. Margaret Elaine Hamilton (born Heafield on August 17, 1936) is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. and they continued. Margaret Hamilton - Biography, Height & Life Story - Super Stars Bio Margaret Hamilton, the actress whose role as the cackling Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz unnerved generations of children, died yesterday, apparently of a heart attack, at a nursing home in Salisbury, Connecticut. Her crisp voice with rapid but clear enunciation was another trademark. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. For Hamilton, although Apollo 11 was monumental, she relished the challenge of doing her job for it. The pipe exploded on the third take of the scene. There was no second chance. They're scared. By Maia Weinstock | MIT News Office Hamilton left MIT in the mid-1970s to work in the private sector. Opposite Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, she played a heavily made-up witch in Comin' Round the Mountain, where her character and Costello go toe-to-toe with voodoo dolls made of each other. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Margaret Hamilton (December 9, 1902 - May 16, 1985) was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. For her last stage role, she was cast as Madame Armfeldt in the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, singing the song "Liaisons" for the national tour costarring with Jean Simmons as her daughter Desiree. Moore Boeck. From 1961 to 1963, Hamilton worked on the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Project at the MIT Lincoln Lab,[14] where she was one of the programmers who wrote software for the prototype AN/FSQ-7 computer (the XD-1), used by the U.S. Air Force to search for possibly unfriendly aircraft.