Penelope Halliwell

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Penelope Halliwell

Name

Penelope "Penny" Halliwell (Grams)

Birthplace

Boston, Massachusetts

Birth date

June 23, 1930

Species

Witch

Status

Deceased

Family

P. Baxter & Gordon Johnson (parents)
Gordon II Johnson (Brother)
Allen Halliwell & three other husbands
Patricia Halliwell (daughter)
Victor Bennett (ex-son-in-law)
Prue, Piper, Phoebe Halliwell & Paige Matthews (granddaughters)
Leo Wyattl, Coop & Henry Mitchell (grandsons-in-law)
Wyatt, Chris, Melinda Halliwell, Henry Mitchell, Jr., the Mitchell twins & Phoebe's daughters (great grandchildren)

Notable powers

Aside from the basic powers of a magical witch, Penny possesses the gifts of:

Telekinesis
Astral Projection (possibly)

Portrayed by

Jennifer Rhodes

Penelope Halliwell née Johnson, better known as Penny or Grams, was a powerful witch, High Priestess of Good, and the grandmother of the Charmed Ones: Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige. She was born on June 23rd, 1930, in a hotel room in Boston to P. Johnson née Baxter and Gordon Johnson. She also had a brother named Gordon Johnson II and gave birth to her daughter, Patricia Halliwell, on April 5 1950.

Early life

According to the family tree, she was born on June 23, 1930, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was born in a hotel room to her parents Gordon Johnson and P. Baxter. ("Pardon My Past") She has a brother who was born in 1943, when she was 13 years old. According to information provided in season 2, P. Baxter died in December 1970, when Penny was forty years old. A descendant of Melinda Warren, Penelope was a powerful witch with the power of telekinesis. ("That '70s Episode")

Sorority sisters Gail (left) and Penny (right) in college

She first married Allen Halliwell, and took his last name. Together they had a daughter, Patricia, who was born in 1950. Penny was once a peace lover until Allen was killed by her former best friend, Robin, and Robin'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. ("Witchstock")

Later in life she started her own coven with witch practitioners (non-magical) and her closest friends as members, including her college sorority sister Gail. ("How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans")

Wiccan duties

As Penny became the matriarch of the Halliwell/Warren family, she fell in love with the Necromancer. But she couldn't be with him because, though he truly did love her, he used her to get to the spirits of the Halliwell/Warren line. She later banished his spirit forever in 2003. ("Necromancing The Stone")

She created most of the potions in the Book of Shadows. She battled such evil beings as the Woogyman. ("Is There a Woogy in the House?")

Grams became known as a High Priestess of Good who binds a witch to her love through handfasting. She was summoned from the dead to bind Leo and Piper in matrimony. It is unclear if she binded any more members of the Halliwell family but it is presumed so.

Powers & Abilities

Telekinesis

Penny is an extremely skillful and powerful witch, like her ancestor, Melinda Warren. Though she and her granddaughter Prue shared the same power of telekinesis, she was far more skilled in using it, having learned how to focus it, and created spells and potions on her very own. One memorable feat she performed was when she mistook the future versions of her granddaughters for warlocks, and telekinetically expelled them from the manor. Prue had never demonstrated such fine-control over human-sized objects.

Astral Projection

Although not seen, Penny possibly had the power of Astral Projection since we learned Prue gained it as an advancement of telekinesis.

Grams has been discovered to be the one flipping through the Book.

Love and Family

Penny married a total of four times (starting with Allen), and was engaged for a total of six times, but the relationships didn't work out which made her very cynical towards men. However, she admited at least that her first husband Allen was a good man and was still friends with him until his death. In an alternate timeline where he never died, she ended up remarrying him and it was his death that turned her into who he is today. When Patty married Victor Bennett, Penny didn't allow her to take his last name, a tradition that will be followed by the Charmed Ones (all except Paige).

Penny witnessed the birth of her granddaughters Prudence, Piper, and Phoebe Halliwell, later earning the nickname 'Grams'. When Patty was forced to give a warlock named Nicholas immunity to the girls' powers, Grams had no choice but to bind the girls' powers for their protection. ("That '70s Episode")

Victor and Penny fight over how to raise the girls

She was forced to keep the secret about the birth of Patty's fourth daughter Paige from everyone, because Paige was fathered by Patty's Whitelighter, Sam Wilder; relationships between witches and Whitelighters were forbidden by the Elders. Penny helped Patty and Sam decide that it was best to give the baby up for adoption. After Patty's death in 1978, Penny became surrogate mother to Patty's first three children, and would continually argue with Victor about how the girls should be raised. Because of those arguments, the girls didn't see their father again for almost 20 years. Penny was essentially a single mother from then on. ("Charmed Again," "Sympathy For The Demon")

Grams had long believed that her granddaughters would grow up to become the Charmed Ones. However, as the girls got older, she was increasingly worried about their constant bickering, and doubted they'd ever come together long enough to fulfill their destiny. Eventually, she decided to create 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 had a heart attack and fell down the attic stairs to her death; she'd had a heart condition for several years. ("Pre-Witched")

She became a guardian spirit, keeping watch over her grandchildren and helping them find spells in the Book of Shadows; it is revealed in the premiere of season two, Witch Trial, that she is the one who turns pages for them when they're in a jam. She also reappears to bless her great-grandchildren at their Wiccanings.

In addition a future version (to her) of Piper and her husband Leo and a past version of Patty approached her for help. She was so shocked she fainted as Patty was dead at that time, but when she learned her granddaughters were the Charmed Ones, she immediately offered her help. Traveling to the present with the rest of the group, she, Piper and Patty made an impromptu Power of Three and removed the Hollow from Phoebe, Paige, Past Piper, Billy and Christie, changing the future. She witnessed Piper and Billie's future selves merge with their past selves and the disappearance of Leo. Later, after witnessing Future Wyatt and Chris, she traveled to Phoebe's loft and helped to make the potion that would ultimately vanquish the Triad. After a big family reunion, she and Patty are returned to their times by Coop and her memory of the event is erased despite her wish to remember.

Life after Death

Grams and Armond

Grams, as a high priestess, performed the marriage ceremony uniting Leo Wyatt and Piper in spirit form. When their first child turned out to be a boy, Grams was initially upset about it as she believed the family line should only be female, but eventually came around to accept and love her new great-grandson Wyatt. She told the girls that he looked like their grandfather Allen, which she said was a good thing as Allen was a good man. ("Just Harried", "Necromancing The Stone")

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 later learned to trust her family to make the right decisions without her input, but still provided them with assistance when needed. ("Cheaper By The Coven")

Notes

Penny is seen undoing little Piper's freeze on Andy in That '70s Episode, which could mean she either had a power that does it, telekinetically removed the freeze or used a spell that allowed her to do this.
In the episode Just Harried, Penny states that Piper has to keep her last name because all women in her family do it, and yet she changed her last name Johnson to Halliwell when she married Allen Halliwell.

Penelope Halliwell

Penny and first husband Allen, 1967	Penny battling the Woogyman, c. 1970s	Penny decides to bind the Charmed Ones' powers, 1998	Penny dies of a heart attack in 1998
Grams was always known for her potion brewing	Brought forward in time to help fight Billie and Christy	Penny's name on the family tree