Uta Hagen | |
|---|---|
 Hagen in 1972 | |
| Born | Uta Thyra Hagen (1919-06-12)12 June 1919 Göttingen, Germany |
| Died | 14 January 2004(2004-01-14) (aged 84) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | University of Wisconsin–Madison,Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1937–2001 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German and American actress andtheatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere ofWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? byEdward Albee, who called her "a profoundly truthful actress." Because Hagen was on theHollywood blacklist, in part because of her association withPaul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theatre.
She later became a highly influential acting teacher at New York'sHerbert Berghof Studio and authored best-selling acting texts,Respect for Acting, with Haskel Frankel,[1] andA Challenge for the Actor. Her most substantial contributions totheatre pedagogy were a series of "object exercises" that built on the work ofKonstantin Stanislavski andYevgeny Vakhtangov.
She was elected to theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in 1981.[2] She twice won theTony Award for Best Actress in a Play and received aSpecial Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999.
Born inGöttingen, Germany,[3] daughter of Thyra A. (née Leisner), a trained opera singer, andOskar Hagen,[4] an art historian and musician, Hagen and her family emigrated to the United States in 1924. Uta was raised inMadison, Wisconsin; her father taught at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison.[5] Her early years in Germany were likely affected by the growing political changes in Europe, which would have added a layer of complexity to their decision to emigrate. She appeared in productions of theUniversity of Wisconsin High School and in summer stock productions of the Wisconsin Players. She studied acting briefly at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1936.[6] After spending one semester at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where her father was the head of the department of art history, she left for New York City in 1937.[7] Her first professional role was as Ophelia oppositeEva Le Gallienne in the title role ofHamlet inDennis, Massachusetts, in 1936.[3]
Hagen was cast, early on, as Ophelia by the actress-managerEva Le Gallienne. Hagen went on to play (at age 18) the leadingingénue role of Nina in a Broadway production ofAnton Chekhov'sThe Seagull withAlfred Lunt andLynn Fontanne.[3] "The Lunts," she later stated, "were an enormous influence on my life." She admired "their passion for the theatre, and their discipline."[8]The New York Times' criticBrooks Atkinson hailed her Nina as "grace and aspiration incarnate."[9]
She playedGeorge Bernard Shaw'sSaint Joan (1951) on Broadway, andDesdemona in a production which toured. Later she acted withPaul Robeson in Shakespeare'sOthello; her then-husbandJosé Ferrer was Iago. She took over the role ofBlanche DuBois inA Streetcar Named Desire for the national tour, which was directed byHarold Clurman. InRespect for Acting, she credited her discoveries with Clurman as the springboard for what she would later explore with her husbandHerbert Berghof: "how to find a true technique of acting, how to make a character flow through me." She played Blanche (on the road and on Broadway) opposite at least four different Stanley Kowalskis, includingAnthony Quinn andMarlon Brando.
Primarily noted for stage roles, Hagen won her firstTony Award in 1951 for her performance as the self-sacrificing wife Georgie inClifford Odets'The Country Girl. She won again in 1963 for originating the role of Martha inEdward Albee'sWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In 1981 she was elected to theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame and in 1999 received a "Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award."
Although she appeared in some movies after 1972, theHollywood blacklist limited her output in film and television. She would later comment about being blacklisted, "that fact kept me pure."[3]
She was nominated for aDaytime Emmy Award as "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" for her performance on the televisionsoap operaOne Life to Live.
She taught atHB Studio, aNew York City acting school. She began there in 1947, and married its co-founder,Herbert Berghof, on 25 January 1957. Hagen was an influential acting teacher who taught, among others,Matthew Broderick,Christine Lahti,Amanda Peet,Hope Davis,Jason Robards,Sigourney Weaver,Katie Finneran,Liza Minnelli,Whoopi Goldberg,Jack Lemmon,Charles Nelson Reilly,Manu Tupou,Debbie Allen,Herschel Savage,George Segal,Jon Stewart, andAl Pacino. She was a voice coach toJudy Garland, teaching her a German accent for the pictureJudgment at Nuremberg.[10] Garland's performance earned her anAcademy Award nomination.
Later in life, Hagen returned to the stage, earning accolades for leading roles inMrs. Warren's Profession (1985),Collected Stories, andMrs. Klein. After Berghof's death in 1990, she became the school's chairperson.[11]
She also wroteRespect for Acting (1973) andA Challenge for the Actor (1991), which advocate realistic (as opposed to "formalistic") acting. In her mode of realism, the actor puts his own psyche to use in finding identification with the role," trusting that a form will result.[12] InRespect for Acting, Hagen credited directorHarold Clurman with a turn-around in her perspective on acting:
In 1947, I worked in a play under the direction of Harold Clurman. He opened a new world in the professional theatre for me. He took away my 'tricks'. He imposed no line readings, no gestures, no positions on the actors. At first I floundered badly because for many years I had become accustomed to using specific outer directions as the material from which to construct the mask for my character, the mask behind which I would hide throughout the performance. Mr Clurman refused to accept a mask. He demanded ME in the role. My love of acting was slowly reawakened as I began to deal with a strange new technique of evolving in the character. I was not allowed to begin with, or concern myself at any time with, a preconceived form. I was assured that a form would result from the work we were doing.
Hagen later "disassociated" herself fromRespect for Acting.[8] InChallenge for the Actor, she redefined a term which she had initially called "substitution," an esoteric technique for mixing elements of an actor's life with his/her character work, calling it "transference" instead.Respect for Acting was used as a textbook for many college acting classes. She also wrote a 1976 cookbook,Love for Cooking. In 2002, she was awarded theNational Medal of Arts by PresidentGeorge W. Bush at a ceremony held at theWhite House.
Harvey Korman talks about studying under her during hisArchive of American Television interview in 2004.[13]David Hyde Pierce worked with Hagen in the Richard Alfieri playSix Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, at theGeffen Playhouse in 2001.[14] Hyde Pierce spoke at her 2004 memorial at Manhattan'sMajestic Theater.[15]
Uta Hagen was married toJosé Ferrer from 1938 until 1948.[3] They had one child together, their daughter Leticia (born 15 October 1940). They divorced partly because of Hagen's long-concealed affair withPaul Robeson, her co-star inOthello. Hagen marriedHerbert Berghof on 25 January 1957, a union that lasted for 33 years until his death in 1990. Hagen died inGreenwich Village in 2004 after suffering a stroke in 2001.[3]
In 2009, Weird Al Yankovic’s “Skipper Dan” referenced Uta Hagen in the opening verse:
"I starred in every high school play
Blew every drama teacher away
I graduated first in my class at Juilliard
Took every acting workshop I could
And I dreamed of Hollywood
While I read my Uta Hagen
and studied the Bard"[19]
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