Kate in Taming of the Shrew

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COLLEEN DEWHURST
(June 3, 1924 - August 22, 1991)

The Queen of Off-Broadway
President of Actors Equity Association 1985-1991

Known most for her theatre roles, Colleen Dewhurst was a renowned interpreter of the works of Eugene O'Neill on the stage. One of her most significant stage roles was in the 1974 Broadway revival of O'Neill's
A Moon for the Misbegotten as Josie Hogan, for which she won a Tony Award.   She told theatre critic Rex Reed "I love the O'Neill women. They move from the groin rather than the brain. To play O'Neill you have to be big. You can't just sit around and play little moments of sadness or sweetness. You cannot phony up O'Neill!"  Critic Walter Kerr wrote of the radiant actress with the dazzling smile: "It is difficult to take your eyes off Miss Dewhurst, whether she is smiling or in fury."

          She played Katharina in Taming of the Shrew for Joseph Papp (1956).   "With Brooks Atkinson's blessing", she wrote, "our world changed overnight. Suddenly in our audience of neighbors in T-shirts and jeans appeared men in white shirts, jackets and ties and ladies in summer dresses. We were in a hit that would have a positive effect on my career..."    She would go on to play Shakespeare's Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth for Papp and years later she portrayed Gertrude in Hamlet at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park.  Other Broadway performances included: More Stately Mansions with Ingrid Bergman, Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night and Mourning Becomes Electra.  She also played Martha in the much acclaimed  Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, opposite Ben Gazzara which Albee directed.

Fans of Anne of Green Gables would recognize her from her spirited interpretation of  Marilla Cuthbert in Kevin Sullivan's adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's novel,  and she  reprised the role in 1987's Anne of Avonlea and in several episodes of Sullivan's Road to Avonlea. 

In her 45 year career, she won the Sarah Siddon Award for her work in Chicago theatre, two Tony Awards, two Obie Awards, and two Gemini Awards.  Of her 13 Emmy nominations, she won two for playing the feisty mother of Candice Bergen's mother in Murphy Brown. 

Before she died, she was often engaged in public causes. She participated in the 'Night of 100 Stars," written and produced by Hildy Parks as a centennial celebration for the Actors' Fund of America.  A vice chair of the group called Save the Theatres, she was very active in the fight to preserve New York theatre buildings.  In fact, she was arrested along with others during a 1982 demonstration to stop the wrecking ball from demolishing the Helen Hayes and Morosco Theatres.  In July 1983, she was a speaker at the renaming of the Little Theatre on W. 44th St. for Helen Hayes.
     
She received wide recognition for her talents and contributions to American theatre. Elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981, she served on the Theatre Advisory Panel at the National Endowment for the Arts (1986-87) and in 1986 she was awarded the Eugene O'Neill Birthday Medal for enriching the world's understanding of the playwright.