Why did Uta Häagen-Dazs' career go straight down the shitter?

I saw her on stage late in her career/life and I thought she was terrible. I guess those who can't do,…....

She's on the audio recording of Othello with Paul Robeson. It is a testament to her brilliance.

Robeson was her long-term lover while she was married to José Ferrer.

R1, you may need a teacher to help you with that adage.

For starters, Uta Hagen was matronly at an early age, and as an actress she was fussy and somewhat hammy. I saw her in a couple plays and found her very distracting and not what I consider a good actress.

Very similar to what happened to Farrah Fawcett Frusen Glädjé !!

She was busy running an acting studio and teaching. I knew her, hung out at her place in Montauk. She loved cooking. Even wrote a cook book. She really wasn't into the whole show-biz thing.

I just don’t think she had much respect for acting.

When I first moved to New York with my BFA in hand I exected the theater there to be like fireworks.... they surely had the choice of all the actors in the country to cast in plays and would certainly only get the BEST! Well, how soon our dreams were dashed.

One of the first plays I saw was YOU NEVER CAN TELL at Circle in the Square, featuring Uta Hagen. I thought she would just blaze with talent in some elaborately embroidered characterization. I don't remember a single thing about her performance except that she had a deep voice and a stocky figure. This was also supposedly a comedy and I don't recall her being particularly funny.

I was woefully disappointed.

She was in one of the worst plays on Broadway I've ever seen, giving one of the worst performances ever. The play was called CHARLOTTE. And to make it worse, her sexy male lover was...

Charles Nelson Riley!

On the other hand, as a gayling, I saw her do WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? and she was fantastic.

I first became aware of her in The Other, in which she's marvelous. I wish she had done more films.

"Charlotte" closed after 4 performances, and Charles returned to "Match Game."

I became aware of her because I dated one of Stella Adler's assistants, who gave me a wonderful education in theatre, including taking me to some of Stella's classes.

[quote] r10 On the other hand, as a gayling, I saw her do WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? and she was fantastic.

In 2019 Hagen, Jonathan Pryce, Mia Farrow, and Peter Gallagher and did a benefit reading of that classic at the Ahmanson Theatre . I wonder if anyone recorded it?

OP- THIS was my favorite Uta Haagen- Dazs

Does anyone remember her on ONE LIFE TO LIVE? All I can find is that she played a character named Hortense for one week in 1985.

I wonder if she went head to head with Sleestak.

R16- There is a lot of 1986 on YT (OLTL) but very little 1985- and it's mainly late 1985. I figured she played a role in that David/Jenny farewell storyline in Vienna (Hortense?) But that was actually early to mid 86'...

Wasn't she the original Big Martha when WAofVW opened on Broadway?

Wasn't she in The Other (1972)?

Yes, and yes.

She also replaced Jessica Tandy as Blanche in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE two years into its run.

her Broadway credits

Insulin? For vhat, insulin?

My lady iss not diabetic!

A much older friend of mine lived in NYC in the 50s and saw a lot of classic productions and performances, and he told me one of the most moving things he ever saw was Hagen's performance in the role of Georgie in "The Country Girl." He said Grace Kelly was just completely out of her league playing the part in the movie version, but that Hagen really made it work, and that she broke everyone in the audience's hearts when they realized how awful her life had truly become because of her husband's alcoholism.

Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor won Oscars for the roles Hagen won Tonys for, but in Kelly's case it's pretty hard to see why.

When a beautiful woman goes dowdy, it often leads to an Oscar.

[quote]r16 Does anyone remember her on ONE LIFE TO LIVE? All I can find is that she played a character named Hortense for one week in 1985. I wonder if she went head to head with Sleestak.

[quote]r17 There is a lot of 1986 on YT (OLTL) but very little 1985- and it's mainly late 1985. I figured she played a role in that David/Jenny farewell storyline in Vienna (Hortense?) But that was actually early to mid 86'...

See, this is a frustrating thing about the internet - there is SO MUCH information on here, but also big holes in the information. My mom's always asking me to Google something and I have to explain to her that we very well might not find it if it's obscure... that the stuff that ends up on the internet are things that others are INTERESTED in. Someone had to be interested in the subject to upload and document it.

Now, I may be being a bit MARY! about this, but if Uta Hagen was nominated for an Emmy for a role on a soap opera, you'd think someone would be interested enough to document pictures online, character descriptions, air dates, etc. She was a very famous theater actress, and every performer in the United States - along with everyone who ever took an acting class - probably owns her book, "Respect for Acting." (I wonder if she made a lot of money off its sales.) (I hope so)

Who was the ellusive Hortense on ONE LIFE TO LIVE? And did Uta Hagen attend the Daytime Emmy Awards that year, only to have some guttersnipe model-turned-ingenue snatch the award away from her at the last moment?

How sad that is.

You can see her at the Daytime Emmy Awards, quite regal in a lavender turban, but, sadly, they don't show a clip of her playing Hortense. Around 17:55 at the link.

It was quite a crop of theatre actresses in her category, including Dame Judith Anderson, Eileen Herlie, and Kathleen Widdoes, so she was in good company when she lost to ... Leann Hunley.

I don't think my link worked above. Sorry.

[quote]R26 She was in good company when she lost to ... Leann Hunley.

Leann Hunley?

More like Leann CUNTLY! [italic]Am I right?

Uta also had a house on Washington Square near 5th. I guess it went to her only child Letty, a daughter she had with Jose Ferrer. A nutty, disturbed woman.