Throughout history, there have been many names that have paved the way for theater. However, there is one highly influential woman who took acting and directing to a whole new level; Uta Hagen. Hagen surrounded her life around the arts, well-known for her acting and directing in New York. She has a lifetime of achievements for her involvement both on and off the stage. It is Uta Hagen we have to thank for helping actors bring to life the characters that we see on television and the stage.
Uta Thyra Hagen was born on June 12, 1919 in Gottingen, Germany (Playbill). She was the daughter of Thyra and Oskar Hagen, named by her father after a statue found within a cathedral in Nuremburg (League). Her mother was an opera singer, and her father was an art history professor. At six years old, Uta’s parents took her to see St. Joan in Berlin (Brennan). This was all it took for her sparked interest of starting a theater career. In 1926, at the young age of seven, her family packed up and moved to Madison, Wisconsin where her father took a teaching job at the University of Wisconsin. Uta attended University of Wisconsin High School, followed by studies at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London (Brennan). Aside from these studies, Uta was an untrained performer, but held honorary Doctorates from Smith College, DePaul University, and Wooster College (Legend).
Her professional theater debut began when she was 18 years old. It was 1937, and she played the role of Ophelia in Hamlet for a production held in Dennis, Massachusetts (Legend). One short year later, she made her Broadway debut at the Shubert Theatre as “Nina” in the then-famous production of The Seagull (Legend). This was just the beginning to Uta’s success; her theater resume includes twenty-two Broadway productions, most notably Othello starring Paul Robeson and Jose Ferrer (Legend). She would later move on to marry Ferrer from 1938-1948 (Brennan). She also had a three year affair with Paul Robeson, as they were all living together at the time, before marrying Herbert Berghof (Klein).
With all of Uta Hagen’s stage success, came awards and recognition. Hagen took the stage in Clifford Odets’ The Country Girl and as a result, won a Tony Award in 1951. In 1963, she took home her second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play – the production was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (League). Hagen followed with a Drama Critics Award, and the Donaldson Award (in honor of the founder of Billboard), for her role of Georgie in The Country Girl (E). By 1981, she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. In 1986, she received the Mayor’s Liberty Medal in New York City, which was given to those who were considered leaders in their field. She wrapped up the following year winning the John Houseman Award and the Campostella Award for distinguished service (WIC). It is interesting to note that Uta was blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950’s due to her affiliations and political beliefs (Brennan). This left her unable to have a career in film. Even so, she managed to have a very successful live theater career.
Later in life, Uta Hagen began to give back to the theater community through her teachings and practice. Together with her husband Herbert Berghof, in 1947 she opened and began teaching acting at HB Studios in New York (WIC). To study under Uta Hagen was a great honor, and a surfeit way for an actor to improve one’s craft. Some of the great actors seen in TV and film have studied with Hagen. Some of the most notable are Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Geraldine Page, Matthew Broderick, and Whoopi Goldberg (Brennan, WIC). In addition to her teachings, she also wrote two books about the technique of acting. She released Respect for Acting in 1973 about the techniques of acting. In 1991, she followed with the book A Challenge for the Actor, which “takes the concept of ‘substitution’ from her first book, and replaces it with transference” (WIC). Within these books, Uta also discusses her 9 questions to developing a character. It covers questions such as “Who am I? Where am I? What are the given circumstances?” (Nine). These are all questions that Hagen believed that an actor should be able to answer.
The world lost another theater great when Uta Hagen died at her Manhattan home on January 14, 2004 (Playbill). She was 84 years old and was having complications from a stroke (Brennan). At one time, Uta was quoted saying “I’ve said so many time ‘I hope I die onstage’ but William Carden, who directed me in ‘Mrs. Klein’ made me change my mind. He said, ‘Wait until the curtain calls’”(Klein). Though Uta Hagen is not with us today, she continues to positively impact the theater community through her many teachings.