Penny Halliwell
Encyclopedia
Penelope Halliwell is a recurring, supporting fictional character
from the WB television series Charmed
that acts in our world from beyond death.
She was the grandmother of the "Charmed Ones" (Prue
, Piper
, Phoebe
), all fathered by Victor. She had primary responsibility for their rearing after the death of her daughter Patty
and also was the grandmother of (the half-sister) Paige Matthews
, who was given up for adoption by her parents, the whitelighter
Sam Wilder and Patty.
Within the multi-generational series, she is the great-grandmother of Wyatt
and Chris
as well as being a descendant of various witches (who sometimes appear as episode guest-stars) from an ancient an powerful line that began in the 1640s in Virginia. She was played all eight seasons of the series by actress Jennifer Rhodes
, and is credited usually as a special guest star.
) and had a brother named Gordon II. She was a witch and a descendant of Melinda Warren. She was born with the power of telekinesis (which she passed on to her granddaughter Prue
and great-grandchildren Wyatt
and Chris
).
She first married Allen Halliwell sometime in the late 1940s, and took that last name. She gave birth to Patty
, the future mother of the Charmed Ones at age twenty.
Penny was once a peace lover
until Allen was killed by her former best friend, Robyn, and Robyn's warlock boyfriend, Nigel. As a result, she became a fierce demon
/warlock slayer. She learned to focus her telekinetic power and created spells and potions on her very own. She was known to be a very skilled and powerful witch, like her ancestor, Melinda Warren. Later in life, she started her own coven
with non-magical witches and her closest friends as members, including her former sorority sister Gail Altman (who died in the second season after trying to steal the girls' powers). Penny and Gail had been friends since the 1950s. A picture of Penny and Gail was taken outside of the sorority house.
As Penny became the matriarch of the Halliwell/Warren family, she fell in love with the Necromancer demon. Affectionately calling him "Armand", she could not continue a relationship with him because, though they truly did love each other, he used her to get to the spirits of the Halliwell/Warren line. She later banished him to the spirit world in the 1970s and then vanquished him forever in 2003.
Penny married a total of four times (including the first one with Allen), and had been engaged a total of six times, but none of her relationships had worked for her. As a matter of fact, Penny cursed her wedding ring so whenever she put it on, it would remind her of what a pain it is to be a housewife (later in the series, Cole Turner) gave Phoebe this ring so they'd marry with it, and she became a perfect housewife. In "Gone with the Witches", the same happens to Piper, but because a demon cast it on her to distract her for a while. When Patty married Victor Bennett, Penny didn't allow her to take his last name—thus starting a tradition of every female Halliwell keeping her maiden name.
Penny witnessed the birth of her first three granddaughters Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell, later earning the nickname 'Grams'. Sometime between Prue's birth in 1970 and Piper's birth in 1973, Victor found out that Patty and Penny were both witches—and his daughters were witches as well. He had a hard time coping, and constantly sparred with Penny in a fashion similar to how Darrin Stephens constantly fought with Endora on Bewitched
. They also fought over how to raise the girls. While Penny wanted to raise them as witches, Victor wanted to raise them as normal girls. Patty also wanted to raise them as witches, but wanted to wait to start their training; she seemed alarmed when Penny wanted to teach five-year-old Prue and three-year-old Piper how to make potions.
Not long after Patty conceived Phoebe, a warlock named Nicholas found out that Prue, Piper and Phoebe were destined to grow up to become the Charmed Ones. He forced Patty to bless a ring and give him immunity to her daughters' powers so he could take them for himself. When Grams found out about this, she had no choice but to bind the girls' powers until she died.
Grams was forced to keep the secret about the birth of Patty's fourth daughter Paige
, who was fathered by Patty's Whitelighter
, Sam Wilder, from everyone, even Paige's half-sisters. At the time, it was not only forbidden, but unthinkable, for witches and Whitelighters to be involved. While Patty wanted to keep Paige, Grams feared the Elders might strip Prue, Piper and Phoebe's powers as punishment. She thus convinced Patty and Sam to give the baby up for adoption. After Patty's death, Grams became surrogate mother to Patty's first three children, and would constantly argue with Victor about how the girls should be raised. Because of those arguments, the girls didn't see their father again for over 20 years.
While Grams tried to raise the girls, as normally as possible, she would occasionally drop hints about their Charmed destiny. She was also determined that nothing would get in the way of them fulfilling it. For instance, Prue long harbored dreams of going East to study photojournalism. However, when Prue was 20, she ran a red light and caused an accident, severely injuring Phoebe. Grams forced Prue to stay on the West Coast.
Years later, Grams developed a heart condition. Prue and Piper gave up their apartment and moved back in the manor to help Phoebe take care of her. However, they bickered almost constantly, much to Grams' frustration. Grams knew that the girls' powers were tied to their bond as sisters, and eventually concluded they'd never stop bickering long enough to fulfill their destiny. For this reason, despite Patty's efforts to talk her out of it, she created a potion to permanently strip them of their powers. On March 5, 1998, she made the decision to give the sisters the potion, but before she could, she suffered a massive heart attack and fell down the attic stairs. She died in the hospital not long afterward. She became a guardian spirit, keeping watch over her grandchildren. In the season two premiere, it is revealed that she was the one who turns pages in the Book of Shadows
when they're in a jam.
As High Priestess, Grams performed the marriage ceremony uniting Leo Wyatt
and Piper in spirit form. Later, she appeared in both spirit form and corporeal form (with a body). When the first child of Piper and Leo turned out to be a boy, Grams was initially upset, as she believed the family line should only be female, but eventually she came to accept and love her new great-grandson Wyatt
. Ironically, Grams' belief that men couldn't be trusted with power, as it would ultimately corrupt them, turned out to be true in Wyatt's case (in a possible future). His brother Chris
had to come back from the future to prevent Wyatt from turning evil and becoming a global tyrant.
When Grams learned about Gideon
's death at Leo's hands (because Gideon had tried to kill Wyatt), she was unsure if she could trust Leo to be around the girls. She's since learned to trust her family to make the right decisions without her input, but still provides them with assistance when needed.
She returns in the series finale to help change the future. Piper travels through time to save Phoebe and Paige and after accidentally traveling to her mother's time Piper, Patty and Leo travel back to get Grams' help. They end up traveling to 1982, where they see Grams talking to a ten-year-old Piper. She faints when she sees Patty (Patty has been dead for four years by this time) and is overwhelmed by what they tell her (she comments that she "needs a drink"). But once she learns her granddaughters are the Charmed Ones, she immediately demands to know what to do. She, Piper and Patty cast a spell in Piper's past to drive the Hollow out of the past Charmed Ones and Billie
and Christy Jenkins
, and change the future. She stays until the end, helping the girls make a vanquishing potion to use on the Triad
and Billie and Christy and at the end is saddened to learn from Future Chris that she can't keep her memory of the event.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
from the WB television series Charmed
Charmed
Charmed is an American television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006, on the now defunct The WB Television Network. The series was created in 1998 by writer Constance M...
that acts in our world from beyond death.
She was the grandmother of the "Charmed Ones" (Prue
Prue Halliwell
Prudence "Prue" Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. Prue is depicted as one of the featured leads as she fulfills her role as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time...
, Piper
Piper Halliwell
Piper Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Piper is introduced in the series as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Holly Marie Combs throughout the...
, Phoebe
Phoebe Halliwell
Phoebe Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Phoebe is introduced in the series as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Lori Rom in the unaired pilot,...
), all fathered by Victor. She had primary responsibility for their rearing after the death of her daughter Patty
Patricia Halliwell
Patricia "Patty" Halliwell is a fictional character on the WB television series Charmed. Patty Halliwell is the mother of the "Charmed Ones" on the series. She is played by actress Finola Hughes.- Character's background :...
and also was the grandmother of (the half-sister) Paige Matthews
Paige Matthews
Paige Matthews is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Paige is introduced at the start of season four as the fourth Halliwell sister and youngest Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Rose McGowan...
, who was given up for adoption by her parents, the whitelighter
Whitelighter
A Whitelighter is a fictional character featured on the WB television series Charmed. These beings are former human mortals who are given a second chance at life in order to serve under an angelic group known as The Elders as guardian angels for good witches and other future...
Sam Wilder and Patty.
Within the multi-generational series, she is the great-grandmother of Wyatt
Wyatt Halliwell
Wyatt Matthew Halliwell is a fictional character on the WB television series Charmed. Charmed is a series which focuses on three good witches, the prophesied "Charmed Ones", sisters who battle the forces of evil. In present day scenes, infant Wyatt is portrayed by twins Jason and Kristopher...
and Chris
Chris Halliwell
Christopher Perry "Chris" Halliwell is a fictional character on The WB television series Charmed. He is played by actor Drew Fuller. He is the son of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt.- Character's background :...
as well as being a descendant of various witches (who sometimes appear as episode guest-stars) from an ancient an powerful line that began in the 1640s in Virginia. She was played all eight seasons of the series by actress Jennifer Rhodes
Jennifer Rhodes
Jennifer Rhodes is an American actress whose career spans four decades.- Life and career :Jennifer Rhodes grew up in Rosiclare, Illinois, a small town on the Ohio River.She also has one sister, Kim Rhodes. She became interested in theater while attending Southern Illinois University and moved to...
, and is credited usually as a special guest star.
Character background
Penelope Johnson was born June 23, 1931 in a hotel room in Boston, Massachusetts by breech birth. Her parents were Gordon Johnson and P. Baxter (the past lives of Dan Gordon and Piper HalliwellPiper Halliwell
Piper Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Piper is introduced in the series as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Holly Marie Combs throughout the...
) and had a brother named Gordon II. She was a witch and a descendant of Melinda Warren. She was born with the power of telekinesis (which she passed on to her granddaughter Prue
Prue Halliwell
Prudence "Prue" Halliwell is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. Prue is depicted as one of the featured leads as she fulfills her role as a witch and, more specifically, a Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time...
and great-grandchildren Wyatt
Wyatt Halliwell
Wyatt Matthew Halliwell is a fictional character on the WB television series Charmed. Charmed is a series which focuses on three good witches, the prophesied "Charmed Ones", sisters who battle the forces of evil. In present day scenes, infant Wyatt is portrayed by twins Jason and Kristopher...
and Chris
Chris Halliwell
Christopher Perry "Chris" Halliwell is a fictional character on The WB television series Charmed. He is played by actor Drew Fuller. He is the son of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt.- Character's background :...
).
She first married Allen Halliwell sometime in the late 1940s, and took that last name. She gave birth to Patty
Patricia Halliwell
Patricia "Patty" Halliwell is a fictional character on the WB television series Charmed. Patty Halliwell is the mother of the "Charmed Ones" on the series. She is played by actress Finola Hughes.- Character's background :...
, the future mother of the Charmed Ones at age twenty.
Penny was once a peace lover
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
until Allen was killed by her former best friend, Robyn, and Robyn's warlock boyfriend, Nigel. As a result, she became a fierce demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
/warlock slayer. She learned to focus her telekinetic power and created spells and potions on her very own. She was known to be a very skilled and powerful witch, like her ancestor, Melinda Warren. Later in life, she started her own coven
Coven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
with non-magical witches and her closest friends as members, including her former sorority sister Gail Altman (who died in the second season after trying to steal the girls' powers). Penny and Gail had been friends since the 1950s. A picture of Penny and Gail was taken outside of the sorority house.
As Penny became the matriarch of the Halliwell/Warren family, she fell in love with the Necromancer demon. Affectionately calling him "Armand", she could not continue a relationship with him because, though they truly did love each other, he used her to get to the spirits of the Halliwell/Warren line. She later banished him to the spirit world in the 1970s and then vanquished him forever in 2003.
Penny married a total of four times (including the first one with Allen), and had been engaged a total of six times, but none of her relationships had worked for her. As a matter of fact, Penny cursed her wedding ring so whenever she put it on, it would remind her of what a pain it is to be a housewife (later in the series, Cole Turner) gave Phoebe this ring so they'd marry with it, and she became a perfect housewife. In "Gone with the Witches", the same happens to Piper, but because a demon cast it on her to distract her for a while. When Patty married Victor Bennett, Penny didn't allow her to take his last name—thus starting a tradition of every female Halliwell keeping her maiden name.
Penny witnessed the birth of her first three granddaughters Prue, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell, later earning the nickname 'Grams'. Sometime between Prue's birth in 1970 and Piper's birth in 1973, Victor found out that Patty and Penny were both witches—and his daughters were witches as well. He had a hard time coping, and constantly sparred with Penny in a fashion similar to how Darrin Stephens constantly fought with Endora on Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
. They also fought over how to raise the girls. While Penny wanted to raise them as witches, Victor wanted to raise them as normal girls. Patty also wanted to raise them as witches, but wanted to wait to start their training; she seemed alarmed when Penny wanted to teach five-year-old Prue and three-year-old Piper how to make potions.
Not long after Patty conceived Phoebe, a warlock named Nicholas found out that Prue, Piper and Phoebe were destined to grow up to become the Charmed Ones. He forced Patty to bless a ring and give him immunity to her daughters' powers so he could take them for himself. When Grams found out about this, she had no choice but to bind the girls' powers until she died.
Grams was forced to keep the secret about the birth of Patty's fourth daughter Paige
Paige Matthews
Paige Matthews is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. One of the featured leads, Paige is introduced at the start of season four as the fourth Halliwell sister and youngest Charmed One one of the most powerful witches of all time. The character was portrayed by Rose McGowan...
, who was fathered by Patty's Whitelighter
Whitelighter
A Whitelighter is a fictional character featured on the WB television series Charmed. These beings are former human mortals who are given a second chance at life in order to serve under an angelic group known as The Elders as guardian angels for good witches and other future...
, Sam Wilder, from everyone, even Paige's half-sisters. At the time, it was not only forbidden, but unthinkable, for witches and Whitelighters to be involved. While Patty wanted to keep Paige, Grams feared the Elders might strip Prue, Piper and Phoebe's powers as punishment. She thus convinced Patty and Sam to give the baby up for adoption. After Patty's death, Grams became surrogate mother to Patty's first three children, and would constantly argue with Victor about how the girls should be raised. Because of those arguments, the girls didn't see their father again for over 20 years.
While Grams tried to raise the girls, as normally as possible, she would occasionally drop hints about their Charmed destiny. She was also determined that nothing would get in the way of them fulfilling it. For instance, Prue long harbored dreams of going East to study photojournalism. However, when Prue was 20, she ran a red light and caused an accident, severely injuring Phoebe. Grams forced Prue to stay on the West Coast.
Years later, Grams developed a heart condition. Prue and Piper gave up their apartment and moved back in the manor to help Phoebe take care of her. However, they bickered almost constantly, much to Grams' frustration. Grams knew that the girls' powers were tied to their bond as sisters, and eventually concluded they'd never stop bickering long enough to fulfill their destiny. For this reason, despite Patty's efforts to talk her out of it, she created a potion to permanently strip them of their powers. On March 5, 1998, she made the decision to give the sisters the potion, but before she could, she suffered a massive heart attack and fell down the attic stairs. She died in the hospital not long afterward. She became a guardian spirit, keeping watch over her grandchildren. In the season two premiere, it is revealed that she was the one who turns pages in the Book of Shadows
Book of Shadows (Charmed)
The Book of Shadows, or simply "the Book", is a fictional book of witchcraft from the TV series Charmed. In the beginning, the book was created by Melinda Warren and was passed down the family to the Charmed Ones. This book contains spells, incantations, potions and information of the evil beings...
when they're in a jam.
As High Priestess, Grams performed the marriage ceremony uniting Leo Wyatt
Leo Wyatt
Leonardo "Leo" Wyatt is a fictional character from The WB television series Charmed, portrayed by Brian Krause. A possible breakout character included in the writing initially as a love interest beginning in the seventh episode of the first season that initially set Phoebe and Piper quarreling and...
and Piper in spirit form. Later, she appeared in both spirit form and corporeal form (with a body). When the first child of Piper and Leo turned out to be a boy, Grams was initially upset, as she believed the family line should only be female, but eventually she came to accept and love her new great-grandson Wyatt
Wyatt Halliwell
Wyatt Matthew Halliwell is a fictional character on the WB television series Charmed. Charmed is a series which focuses on three good witches, the prophesied "Charmed Ones", sisters who battle the forces of evil. In present day scenes, infant Wyatt is portrayed by twins Jason and Kristopher...
. Ironically, Grams' belief that men couldn't be trusted with power, as it would ultimately corrupt them, turned out to be true in Wyatt's case (in a possible future). His brother Chris
Chris Halliwell
Christopher Perry "Chris" Halliwell is a fictional character on The WB television series Charmed. He is played by actor Drew Fuller. He is the son of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt.- Character's background :...
had to come back from the future to prevent Wyatt from turning evil and becoming a global tyrant.
When Grams learned about Gideon
Gideon (Charmed)
Gideon is a fictional character on the television show Charmed.- Character's background :Gideon is one of the most powerful Elders and is the headmaster of Magic School, an institution where young magical beings learn magic...
's death at Leo's hands (because Gideon had tried to kill Wyatt), she was unsure if she could trust Leo to be around the girls. She's since learned to trust her family to make the right decisions without her input, but still provides them with assistance when needed.
She returns in the series finale to help change the future. Piper travels through time to save Phoebe and Paige and after accidentally traveling to her mother's time Piper, Patty and Leo travel back to get Grams' help. They end up traveling to 1982, where they see Grams talking to a ten-year-old Piper. She faints when she sees Patty (Patty has been dead for four years by this time) and is overwhelmed by what they tell her (she comments that she "needs a drink"). But once she learns her granddaughters are the Charmed Ones, she immediately demands to know what to do. She, Piper and Patty cast a spell in Piper's past to drive the Hollow out of the past Charmed Ones and Billie
Billie Jenkins
Billie Jenkins is a fictional character on The WB television series Charmed. She was played by actress Kaley Cuoco, and appeared in every episode of the series' eighth and final season....
and Christy Jenkins
Christy Jenkins
Christy Jenkins is a fictional character from the television series Charmed. The character was primarily portrayed by Marnette Patterson in eight episodes in 2006, with the character as a whole appearing in ten episodes of the eighth season.-Television:...
, and change the future. She stays until the end, helping the girls make a vanquishing potion to use on the Triad
Triad (Charmed)
The Triad is a fictional group of powerful demons on the television series Charmed. They ranked very high in the hierarchy of evil during the series...
and Billie and Christy and at the end is saddened to learn from Future Chris that she can't keep her memory of the event.
Powers and abilities
Aside from the basic powers of a magical witch, such as spellcasting and scrying, Penny possesses the gift of:- TelekinesisPsychokinesisThe term psychokinesis , also referred to as telekinesis with respect to strictly describing movement of matter, sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term...