Obit: Uta Hagen

Subject: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: Mark Clark
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 12:08 AM

No one seemed to notice the demise of Ms. Hagen but she was certainly one of the greatest actors ever to grace the stage. The world is definately a poorer place in her absence. She was 84.

Among her many accomplishments was in 1943 when she played Desdemona in a production of Othello with Paul Robeson in the title role. She had a love affair with Robeson that got her spat upon by someone who objedted to interracial couples. According to the Washington Post

Ms. Hagen had became one of the key interpreters of 20th-century master playwrights. In 1949, she replaced Jessica Tandy as the vulnerable Blanche DuBois opposite Marlon Brando in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire." She received her first Tony Award for best dramatic actress as the wife of an alcoholic in Clifford Odets's "The Country Girl" (1950).

The pinnacle of her career was "Virginia Woolf" (1962), in which she and Arthur Hill played a destructive and delusional couple at a small college. She won her second Tony as best dramatic actress for that part.

Elizabeth Taylor played Martha in the 1966 film version and won an Academy Award. Ms. Hagen, who disdained filmmaking, preferring to spend her time in road companies or teaching.

She was a recipient of a 1999 Tony for lifetime achievement and a 2002 National Medal of Arts, the government's top recognition for artists.

A victim of the McCarthy era blacklist, she turned to teaching. Among Hagen's distinguished students were Jack Lemmon, Geraldine Page, and Jason Robards.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: Jeanie
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 05:31 AM

Thanks, Mark. I hadn't noticed any obituaries for Uta Hagen, either. I have an excellent text book she wrote, "Respect for Acting", which encapsulates her way of teaching - it is very readable, full of acting exercises and practical suggestions, well worth looking at by anyone interested in stagecraft.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: JJ
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 07:36 AM

Many frowned on Uta Hagen's affair with Paul Robeson not because their skin tones didn't match but because she happened to be married to Jose Ferrer at the time.

Hagen was playing Desdemona to Robeson's Othello; Ferrer was Iago. That is, he thought he was Iago until he discovered that offstage he was really an alternate-universe Othello, where Desdemona really IS screwing around!

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 12:18 PM

Here is a nice biographical piece about her--doing the math, it seems to have been written in about 1993. As for Jose, he had a bit of a speckled career with women, having married five times (twice to his last wife, Rosemary Clooney). Uta married only twice, and it was 10 years following the divorce from Ferrer before she married her second husband, who died in 1990.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 03:20 PM

Mark mentions that "no one seemed to notice" when Ms Hagen passed away, but I don't think the date of her demise is mentioned yet anywhere in this thread. How long has it been that we failed to notice?

Back in the late 60s, before we met, my wife Peggy studied acting for a year or two at HB Studios in New York, which was Uta Hagen's school (she was the "H" in "HB"). When I first learned about this, in 1972, the name of Uta Hagen was only vaguely familiar to me, as an actress from a former time. If I'm too young at age 56 to really remember Uta Hagen as an actress, it's not surprising that her name has been largely forgotten by the general public (most of whom are younger than me).

Since she avoided acting in films, and thus lost any chance to create a relatively permanent record of her performances, she has been largely forgotten by now among all but the most fervent followers of the Broadway stage. It is of course unfortunate that she got caught up in the McCarthy-era blacklist, which undoubtedly prevented her from maintaining her fame and celebrity at a time when she should have been in her prime. However, with no cinematic record available for viewing on late-night TV, etc., it would still be difficult to maintain her memory even were it not for the political complications.

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: Mark Clark
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 04:07 PM

I only said “no one seemed to notice” because normally an obit thread seems to pop up here about 10 minutes after a death certificate has been signed and often for people with no connection to the arts or to individual Mudcat members. Ms. Hagen may not have appeared in very many films but her students are among the best actors in their profession. It won't surprise me to see them publicly honor her memory in some way that reeducates us about her influence and importance. Among the films in which she did appear are The Other (1972), The Boys From Brazil (1978) and Reversal Of Fortune (1990). She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 2002.

I was aware that she was married to Ferrer at the time of her publicized affair with Robeson but I tend not to moralize about people's personal lives. I didn't moralize about Pres. Clinton's personal life either. I figure that sort of thing is a matter for the people actually living the events.

She died Wednesday, January 14, in Manhattan.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 04:37 PM

Ms. Hagen had a few television appearances. Just above this listing you'll see a few film credits, including something to do with Robeson and Otello made in 1999.

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 04 - 04:39 PM

Oops. Not opera. Othello the play.

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: voyager
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 02:14 AM

Ms. Hagen (UH) also has a curious distinction in our house. We have found her name used more times in the New York Time or Washington Post crossword puzzles than any other professional actor. We're talking dozens of puzzle clues here!

voyager

Subject: RE: Obit: Uta Hagen
From: Peg
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 08:34 AM

That's funny, I   thought she had died last year??
I loved her in some of her later roles, like The Other and The Boys from Brazil.