View source for Uta Hagen

{{Short description|American actress and teacher (1919–2004)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Uta Hagen
| image              = Uta_Hagen_The_Other_1972_photo.jpg
| caption            = Hagen in 1972
| birth_name         = Uta Thyra Hagen
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1919|06|12|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Göttingen]], Germany
| death_date         = {{death date and age|2004|01|14|1919|06|12|df=y}}
| death_place        = New York City, U.S.
| education          = [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]]
| occupation         = {{hlist|Actress|author}}
| years_active       = 1937–2001
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[José Ferrer]]|1938|1948|reason=divorce}}
* {{marriage|[[Herbert Berghof]]|1957|1990|reason=died}}
}}
| children           = 1
}}

'''Uta Thyra Hagen''' (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German and American actress and [[theatre practitioner]]. 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 theatre.

She later became a highly influential acting teacher at New York's [[HB Studio|Herbert Berghof]] Studio and authored best-selling acting texts, ''[[Respect for Acting]]'', with Haskel Frankel,<ref>{{cite book |last=Hagen |first=Uta |title=Respect for Acting |year=1973 |orig-year=1960 |publisher=Wiley Publishing, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=978-0-02547-390-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780025473904 }}</ref> and ''A Challenge for the Actor''. Her most substantial contributions to [[theatre pedagogy]] were a series of "object exercises" that built on the work of [[Konstantin Stanislavski]] and [[Yevgeny Vakhtangov]].

She was elected to the [[American Theater Hall of Fame]] in 1981.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/03/theater/26-elected-theater-hall-fame-26-broadway-voted-into-theater-hall-fame.html |title=Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 March 1981 |access-date=14 November 2013}}</ref> She twice won the [[Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play]] and received a [[Special Tony Award]] for Lifetime Achievement in 1999.

==Life and career==
[[File:Scott-Hagen-Farmer-Haydon-1938.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|right|alt=Three woman posed in shawls|Left to right: [[Martha Scott]], Uta Hagen, [[Frances Farmer]], and [[Julie Haydon]] posed in ''Stage'' magazine, 1938]]
===Early life===
Born in [[Göttingen]], Germany,<ref name="Obit">{{cite news|title=Uta Hagen, 84; Tony Winner, Teacher at Famed Acting School |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29226901/uta_hagen_19192004/ |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=16 January 2004 |page=164 |via = [[Newspapers.com]] |access-date = 7 March 2019 }} {{Open access}}</ref> daughter of Thyra A. (née Leisner), a trained opera singer, and [[Oskar Hagen]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=up4YAAAAIAAJ&q=uta+hagen+gottingen|title=Current Biography Yearbook|date=1964|publisher=H. W. Wilson Company|access-date=14 November 2013|via=Google Books}}</ref> an art historian and musician, Hagen and her family emigrated to the United States in 1924. Uta was raised in [[Madison, Wisconsin]]; her father taught at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/?a=d&d=CDS19300321.2.8|title=Dr. Oskar Hagen to talk on art|date=21 March 1930|work=Cornell Daily Sun|access-date=4 April 2019}}</ref> 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 the [[University of Wisconsin High School]] and in summer stock productions of the Wisconsin Players. She studied acting briefly at the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]] in 1936.<ref>Port of New York, passenger list of the S.S. ''Westernland'', 24 December 1936, sheet 165.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=article&id=WI.v46i4&did=WI.v46i4.i0008&q1=Lady%20Invincible |title=Lady Invincible |last=Miles |first=S. A. |date=Fall 2000 |journal=Wisconsin Academy Review |pages=19–23 |volume=46 |issue=4 |access-date=28 February 2019}}</ref> Her first professional role was as Ophelia opposite [[Eva Le Gallienne]] in the title role of ''[[Hamlet]]'' in [[Dennis, Massachusetts]], in 1936.<ref name="Obit"/>

===Career===
Hagen was cast, early on, as Ophelia by the actress-manager [[Eva Le Gallienne]]. Hagen went on to play (at age 18) the leading [[ingénue]] role of Nina in a Broadway production of [[Anton Chekhov]]'s ''[[The Seagull]]'' with [[Alfred Lunt]] and [[Lynn Fontanne]].<ref name="Obit"/> "The Lunts," she later stated, "were an enormous influence on my life." She admired "their passion for the theatre, and their discipline."<ref name="playbill83844">{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/83844-STAGE-TO-SCREENS-A-Chat-with-Theresa-Rebeck-Remembering-Uta-Hagen/all |title=Stage To Screens: A Chat with Theresa Rebeck; Remembering Uta Hagen |first=Michael |last=Buckley |date=18 January 2004 |magazine=[[Playbill]] |access-date=30 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020143817/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/83844-STAGE-TO-SCREENS-A-Chat-with-Theresa-Rebeck-Remembering-Uta-Hagen/all |archive-date=20 October 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> ''The New York Times''{{'}} critic [[Brooks Atkinson]] hailed her Nina as "grace and aspiration incarnate."<ref name="Gussow">{{cite news |first=Mel |last=Gussow |title=Uta Hagen, Tony-Winning Broadway Star and Teacher of Actors, Dies at 84 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/15/theater/uta-hagen-tony-winning-broadway-star-and-teacher-of-actors-dies-at-84.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=15 January 2004}}</ref>

She played [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''Saint Joan'' (1951) on Broadway, and [[Desdemona]] in a production which toured. Later she acted with [[Paul Robeson]] in Shakespeare's [[Othello]]; her then-husband [[José Ferrer]] was Iago. She took over the role of [[Blanche DuBois]] in ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (play)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]'' for the national tour, which was directed by [[Harold Clurman]]. In ''[[Respect for Acting]]'', she credited her discoveries with Clurman as the springboard for what she would later explore with her husband [[Herbert 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, including [[Anthony Quinn]] and [[Marlon Brando]]. 

Primarily noted for stage roles, Hagen won her first [[Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play|Tony Award]] in 1951 for her performance as the self-sacrificing wife Georgie in [[Clifford Odets]]' ''[[The Country Girl (1950 play)|The Country Girl]]''. She won again in 1963 for originating the role of Martha in [[Edward Albee]]'s ''[[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]''. In 1981 she was elected to the [[American Theater Hall of Fame]] and in 1999 received a "Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award".

Although she appeared in some movies after 1972, the [[Hollywood blacklist]] limited her output in film and television. She would later comment about being blacklisted, "that fact kept me pure."<ref name="Obit"/>

She was nominated for a [[13th Daytime Emmy Awards|Daytime Emmy Award]] as "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" for her performance on the television [[soap opera]] ''[[One Life to Live]]''.

She taught at [[HB Studio]], a [[New 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]], and [[Al Pacino]]. She was a voice coach to [[Judy Garland]], teaching her a German accent for the picture ''[[Judgment at Nuremberg]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fricke |first=John |title=Judy: A Legendary Film Career |date=2010 |publisher=Running Press |isbn=978-0-7624-4368-0 |location=Philadelphia |oclc=751694891}}</ref> Garland's performance earned her an [[Academy Award]] nomination.

Later in life, Hagen returned to the stage, earning accolades for leading roles in ''[[Mrs. Warren's Profession]]'' (1985), ''[[Collected Stories (play)|Collected Stories]]'', and ''Mrs. Klein''. After Berghof's death in 1990, she became the school's chairperson.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hagen |first=Uta |title=Respect for Acting |date=2023 |others=Haskel Frankel |isbn=978-1-119-91359-7 |edition=Expanded |location=San Francisco, CA |pages=225 |oclc=1361694692}}</ref>

She also wrote ''Respect for Acting'' (1973) and ''A 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.<ref name="Hagen 1991">Hagen, Uta 1991. ''A Challenge for the Actor''. New York: Scribner's. {{ISBN|0-684-19040-0}}</ref> In ''[[Respect for Acting]]'', Hagen credited director [[Harold Clurman]] with a turn-around in her perspective on acting:

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

Hagen later "disassociated" herself from ''Respect for Acting''.<ref name="playbill83844"/> In ''Challenge 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 the [[National Medal of Arts]] by President [[George W. Bush]] at a ceremony held at the [[White House]].

[[Harvey Korman]] talks about studying under her during his [[Archive of American Television]] interview in 2004.<ref name="emmytvlegends.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/harvey-korman |title=Harvey Korman |date=20 April 2004 |website=Archive of American Television |access-date=18 June 2012}}</ref> [[David Hyde Pierce]] worked with Hagen in the Richard Alfieri play ''[[Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks]]'', at the [[Geffen Playhouse]] in 2001.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://variety.com/2001/legit/reviews/six-dance-lessons-in-six-weeks-1200468828/ |title=Review: 'Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks' |first=Steven |last=Oxman |date=10 June 2001 |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |access-date=29 September 2016}}</ref> Pierce spoke at her 2004 memorial at Manhattan's [[Majestic Theatre (Broadway)|Majestic Theater]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/arts/uta-hagen-memorial.html |title=Uta Hagen Memorial |date=20 March 2004 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=18 June 2012}}</ref>

==Students of Uta Hagen==
{{Div col|colwidth=10em|rules=no|gap=2em|small=yes}}
*[[Gene Wilder]] 
*[[Robert De Niro]] 
*[[Steve McQueen]]
*[[Tony Goldwyn]] 
*[[Orson Bean]]
*[[Faye Dunaway]] 
*[[James Cromwell]]
*[[Gene Hackman]]
*[[Laura Esterman]] 
*[[Hal Holbrook]] 
*[[Sandy Dennis]] 
*[[Griffin Dunne]] 
*[[Sally Kirkland]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://the-vu.com/2000/08/01/the-sally-kirkland-vu-from-the-land-of-the-silver-screen/ | title=The Sally Kirkland vu from the land of the silver screen | date=August 2000 }}</ref>
*[[Robert LuPone]] 
*[[Barbara Feldon]] 
*[[Tovah Feldshuh]] 
*[[Michael Paré]]<ref>{{cite book | title=Science Fiction Television Series, 1990-2004: Histories, Casts and Credits for 58 Shows | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pQIDAQAAQBAJ&dq=uta+hagen+michael+pare&pg=PA321 | author1=Frank Garcia | author2=Mark Phillips | date=2013 | publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland & Company, Inc.]] | isbn= 978-0-7864-2483-2 | pages=321–322}}</ref>
*[[Katie Finneran]] 
*[[Constance Ford]] 
*[[Victor Garber]] 
*[[Jerry Stiller]]
*[[Anne Meara]]
*[[Rita Gardner]] 
*[[Charles Nelson Reilly]] 
*[[Lee Grant]] 
*[[Charles Grodin]] 
*[[Eileen Heckart]] 
*[[William Hickey (actor)|William Hickey]] 
*[[Gerald Hiken]] 
*[[Anne Jackson]] 
*[[Harvey Korman]]<ref name="emmytvlegends.org"/> 
*[[Geraldine Page]] 
*[[Jason Robards, Jr.]] 
*[[Matthew Broderick]] 
*[[Corey Parker (actor)|Corey Parker]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thevillager.com/2004/01/uta-hagen-legendary-actor-and-teacher-dies-at-84/ |title=Uta Hagen, legendary actor and teacher, dies at 84 |first=Sylvan |last=Migdal |date=27 January 2004 |newspaper=*[[The Villager (Manhattan)|The Villager]] |access-date=28 February 2019}}</ref> 
*[[Whoopi Goldberg]] 
*[[Amanda Peet]] 
*[[Jack Lemmon]] 
*[[Lindsay Crouse]] 
*[[Fritz Weaver]] 
*[[Prunella Scales]]
*[[Kevin Sussman]] 
*[[Rochelle Oliver]] 
*[[Peter Boyle]]
{{div col end}}

==Personal life==
Uta Hagen was married to [[José Ferrer]] from 1938 until 1948.<ref name="Obit"/> They had one child together, their daughter Leticia (born 15 October 1940). They divorced partly because of Hagen's long-concealed affair with [[Paul Robeson]], her co-star in ''[[Othello]]''. Hagen married [[Herbert Berghof]] on 25 January 1957, a union that lasted for 33 years until his death in 1990. Hagen died in [[Greenwich Village]] in 2004 after suffering a stroke in 2001.<ref name="Obit"/>

===In popular culture===
In 2009, Weird Al Yankovic's "Skipper Dan" referenced Uta Hagen in the opening verse:

<poem>
"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"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lyrics |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=Al+Yankovic%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9CSkipper+Dan%E2%80%9D#wptab=si:AMnBZoF7JT-QpjuFHJsQDfjWiAqMutkQWhNgI5KMjbCKYBYwkN1CXmJ9tpSg4VDHOYHSsE7LeVOq-FR1uqGRFvDV4OlDWmZPdD8lQ5XRYpr1J1LpiDEy6laH_bjsoViH2Z-Eb9WPVJb2QFWnjyFvdgQVD_6qGUVC_3Hz5wETmYchRgS1rOy5wRcITzjno8qWM0qDvTsoAg2w |website=Musixmatch}}</ref>
</poem>

====Theatre====
* Her name was in the song "[[La Vie Bohème]]" from the 1996 rock opera ''[[Rent (musical)|Rent]]'' written and composed by [[Jonathan Larson]]: "To the stage, To Uta, To [[Buddha]], [[Pablo Neruda]] too."<ref name="genius.com">{{Cite web|url=https://genius.com/10141072/Original-broadway-cast-of-rent-la-vie-boheme-a/To-uta|title=To Uta|website=genius.com}}</ref>

==Work==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break|width=40%}}

===Stage===
* ''[[The Seagull]]'' (1938)
* ''[[The Happiest Days]]'' (1939)
* ''[[Key Largo (film)|Key Largo]]'' (1939)
* ''[[Vickie]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Othello]]'' (1943)
* ''[[The Whole World Over (play)|The Whole World Over]]'' (1947)
* ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (play)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]'' (1947)
* ''[[The Country Girl (1950 play)|The Country Girl]]'' (1950)
* ''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]'' (1951)
* ''[[In Any Language]]'' (1952)
* ''[[The Magic and The Loss]]'' (1954)
* ''[[Island of Goats]]'' (1955)
* ''[[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]'' (1962)
* ''[[The Cherry Orchard]]'' (1968)
* ''[[You Never Can Tell (play)|You Never Can Tell]]'' (1986)
* ''Charlotte'' (1980)
* ''[[Mrs. Klein]]'' (1995)
* ''[[Collected Stories (play)|Collected Stories]]'' (1998)
* ''[[Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks]]'' (2001)
{{col-break}}

===Film===
* ''[[The Other (1972 film)|The Other]]'' (1972) - Ada
* ''[[The Boys from Brazil (film)|The Boys from Brazil]]'' (1978) - Frieda Maloney
* ''[[Reversal of Fortune]]'' (1990) - Maria
* ''[[Limón: A Life Beyond Words]]'' (2001) - Narrator

===Television===
* ''Victory'' (1945, TV Movie)
* ''A Month in the Country'' (1959) - Natalia Petrovna
* ''The Day Before Sunday'' (1970) - Annamae Whiteley
* ''[[Lou Grant (1982 TV series)|Lou Grant]]'' (1982) - Sister Louise Frawley (segment "The Hunger")
* ''[[A Doctor's Story]]'' (1984, TV Movie) - Mrs. Hilda Reiner
* ''[[The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'' (1986) - Gloria (segment "The Library")
* ''Seasonal Differences'' (1987) - Omi
* ''The Sunset Gang'' (1991) - Sophie (segment "The Home")
* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' (1999) - Lillian (voice)
* ''[[Oz (TV series)|Oz]]'' (1999) - Mama Rebadow
{{col-end}}

==Awards and nominations==
* 1951 [[Tony Award]], Actress—Play, ''The Country Girl''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0153406.html |title=1951 Tony Awards |website=Infoplease.com |access-date=14 November 2013}}</ref>
* 1963 [[Tony Award]], Actress—Play, ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?''
* Special 1999 [[Tony Award]] for Lifetime Achievement<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hbstudio.org/classes/meetuta.htm |title=Meet Uta Hagen |website=HB Studio |access-date=28 February 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711084013/http://www.hbstudio.org/classes/meetuta.htm |archive-date=11 July 2010}}</ref>
* 1999 Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]<ref name=AAAS>{{cite book |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterH.pdf |title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=25 July 2014}}</ref>
* 2002 [[National Medal of Arts]]

==Quotes==
{{Expand section|date=April 2024}}
* "Once in a while, there's stuff that makes me say, 'That's what theatre's about'. It has to be a human event on the stage, and that doesn't happen very often."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/uta_hagen_324211 |title=Uta Hagen Quotes |website=BrainyQuote |access-date=14 November 2013}}</ref>
* "Awards don't really mean much."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/uta_hagen_322307 |title=Uta Hagen Quotes |website=BrainyQuote |access-date=14 November 2013}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Commonscatinline}}
* {{IBDB name|43654}}
* {{iobdb name|3224}}
* {{IMDb name|353467}}
* {{NYPL Archives & Manuscripts|21834|the|Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof papers, 1889–2004}}, [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts|Library for the Performing Arts]]

{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Uta Hagen
|list =
{{Distinguished Performance Award}}
{{National Medal of Arts recipients 2000s}}
{{Special Tony Award}}
{{TonyAward PlayLeadActress 1947-1975}}
}}

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[[Category:1919 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Actors from Göttingen]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Hanover]]
[[Category:American acting theorists]]
[[Category:Theatre practitioners]]
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:American stage actresses]]
[[Category:American television actresses]]
[[Category:Donaldson Award winners]]
[[Category:American drama teachers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:German emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Hollywood blacklist]]
[[Category:Actresses from Madison, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Special Tony Award recipients]]
[[Category:Tony Award winners]]
[[Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients]]
[[Category:University of Wisconsin&ndash;Madison alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American actresses]]
[[Category:21st-century American actresses]]
[[Category:Ferrer family (show business)]]
[[Category:Actresses from Lower Saxony]]