Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (who called her "a profoundly truthful actress"). Because Hagen was on the Hollywood blacklist, in part because of her association with Paul Robeson, her film opportunities dwindled and she focused her career on New York theater. She twice won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999. She later became a highly influential acting teacher at New York's Herbert Berghof Studio and authored best-selling acting texts, Respect for Acting, with Haskel Frankel, and A Challenge for the Actor. She was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.
Nobody ever learns how [to act]. The search for human behavior is infinite. You'll never understand it all. I think that's wonderful.
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Fact
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New York [January 2003]
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With Haskel Frankel, Uta wrote "Respect for Acting", considered one of the most significant book on acting. It remains in print and a consistent seller.
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Her father named her after a famous statue in the Naumburg Cathedral titled Ute.
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She has a granddaughter, Teresa Teuscher Biefeldt, and a great-granddaughter, Thyra Bielfeldt.
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Of Welsh-German ancestry on her father's side and Danish on her mother's side.
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Her last name rhymes with "noggin".
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Won a 1999 Special Tony Award (New York City) lifetime achievement award.
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Her father is Dr. Oskar Frank Leonard Hagen, an art historian, musicologist, composer, conductor, Handel authority, and professor of the history of art at the University of Goettingen and the University of Wisconsin. Her mother is Thyra Araalie Leisner, an opera singer. Uta is also the sister of Holger Hagen and sister-in-law of Bruni Löbel.
Has received three Tony Awards: two as Best Actress (Dramatic), in 1951 for "The Country Girl" and in 1963 for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," and, in 1999, a Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.
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Made an auspicious film debut as the grandmother in Tom Tryon's eerie best-seller The Other (1972) at the age of 53.
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Suffered a stroke in October of 2001.
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Wrote a cook book entitled "Love for Cooking."
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Reprised her signature role of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the age of 80 to wonderful reviews. A year later, she gave her last performance on stage at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, California on August 21, 2001, playing opposite David Hyde Pierce in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.
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Played Ophelia opposite Eva Le Gallienne's Hamlet in a Massachusetts production in 1936.
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Awarded a National Medal of the Arts at the White House by President Bush in March 2003.
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In 1999, she won a third Tony, a lifetime special achievement award.
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She and then-husband José Ferrer co-starred with Paul Robeson in Othello in 1943-1944. Allegations that their association with the left-wing Robeson cast them under suspicion of having Communist ties during the McCarthy era, are completely false. Rumor was she was never able to forge a film career until the 70s due to the Robeson association, however, although opportunity presented itself, she had no film career before the McCarthy era, and Ferrer's career never suffered from the friendship with Robeson. She was quite happy with her stage appearances and teaching.
One child with José Ferrer, Leticia Thyra Ferrer, born on October 15, 1940 in New York. In Uta Hagen's autobiography "Sources: A Memoir," her daughter's first name "Leticia" stood for happiness, and her second name "Thyra" is from the name of Uta's mother.
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Among her many illustrious awards: Theatre Hall of Fame (1981), the Mayor's Liberty Bell (1986), and the John Houseman Award (1987) for distinguished service.
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After husband/coach Herbert Berghof died in 1990, she took over the chairmanship of HB Studios and the theatre of the HB Playwrights Foundation.
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Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1994.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Oz
1999
TV Series
Mama Rebadow
King of the Hill
1999
TV Series
Maureen
American Playhouse
1991
TV Series
Sophie (segment "The Home")
Reversal of Fortune
1990
Maria, Sunny's Personal Maid
Tattinger's
1988-1989
TV Series
Honey Epstein
ABC Afterschool Specials
1987
TV Series
Omi
The Twilight Zone
1986
TV Series
Gloria (segment "The Library")
One Life to Live
1985
TV Series
Hortense
A Doctor's Story
1984
TV Movie
Mrs. Hilda Reiner
Lou Grant
1982
TV Series
Sister Louise Frawley
The Boys from Brazil
1978
Frieda Maloney
The Other
1972
Ada
CBS Playhouse
1970
TV Series
Annamae
The Long, Hot Summer
1966
TV Series
Eleanor Davis
Play of the Week
1959
TV Series
Natalia Petrovna
Playhouse 90
1959
TV Series
Kraft Theatre
1950
TV Series
Lady Macbeth
Victory
1945
TV Movie
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Mary Anthony: A Life in Modern Dance
2004
Documentary
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
2003
Documentary
Herself
Uta Hagen's Acting Class
2001
Video
Herself
Limón: A Life Beyond Words
2001
Narrator
The 53rd Annual Tony Awards
1999
TV Special
Herself - Winner: Lifetime Achievement
American Masters
1999
TV Series documentary
Herself / Desdemona in 'Othello'
The 50th Annual Tony Awards
1996
TV Special
Herself - Presenter: Best Leading Actress in a Play
Intimate Portrait
1993
TV Series documentary
Herself
Galeria oberta
1986
TV Series
Herself
Today
1980
TV Series
Herself - Guest
Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man
1970
TV Special
Herself
The 17th Annual Tony Awards
1963
TV Special
Herself - Winner: Best Actress in a Play
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age
2017
Documentary post-production
Herself
Nominated Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
1988
Daytime Emmy
Daytime Emmy Awards
Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming
ABC Afterschool Specials (1972)
1986
Daytime Emmy
Daytime Emmy Awards
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
One Life to Live (1968)
1979
Saturn Award
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
Best Supporting Actress
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
Known for movies
The Boys from Brazil (1978) as Frieda Maloney
Reversal of Fortune (1990) as Maria, Sunny's Personal Maid
$12 Million
