- Born
- Died
- Birth nameZoe Ada Caldwell
- As a testament to her remarkable talent, Broadway honored esteemed Australian stage actress Zoe Caldwell four times with Tony Awards: for "Slapstick Tragedy" (1966), for her title role in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1968), for her searing title performance as "Medea" (1982), and as opera diva Maria Callas in "Master Class" (1995). The classical stage legend's fervent dedication to the theatre, however, came at the expense of filmgoers everywhere as she made only three rather insignificant movies during her lifetime.
Zoe Ada Caldwell was born in Hawthorn, Australia, on September 14, 1933, and began her professional career at the tender age of 9 in a production of"Peter Pan." Finding radio work in her teens, her parents provided her with the necessary foundation with lessons in dance, elocution and music. She left school at age 15 and began an early career teaching speech and performing on a children's radio program.
Attending the Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne, she was one of the original members of Melbourne's Union Theatre Repertory Company (1953) and with the Elizabeth Theatre Trust (1954-1957). Years of repertory work followed in which she built up quite a formidable resume. Appearing for two seasons with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in productions of "Pericles" and "Much Ado About Nothing." She also toured Russia with the latter company in "Hamlet," "Twelfth Night" and "Romeo and Juliet."
For the next few years she built up her classical resume as Biance in "Othello," "Helena in "All's Well That Ends Well," a Fairy in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Cordelia in "King Lear," Rosaline in "Love's Labour's Lost," Ismene in "Antigone," Pegeen in "Playboy of the Western World" and the title role in "Saint Joan."
In America, Zoe helped launch Minneapolis' Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in 1963, with roles in "The Miser" and "The Three Sisters." Elsewhere she appeared as the title role of "Mother Courage," as well as "The Mad Woman of Chaillot," "The Way of the World" and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," ". Broadway finally opened its curtains for her in 1965 when she briefly replaced Anne Bancroft in "The Devils." She continued her round of Broadway standing ovations with extraordinary performances as Eve in "The Creation of the World and Other Business" (1972: produced by the renown Robert Whitehead, her husband from 1968 on), "Dance of Death" (1974) and as Lillian Hellman in "Lillian" (1986), in addition to her Tony-winning perfs.
As a now-prestigious stage director, she helmed or assisted in productions of "An Almost Perfect Person" (1977, her debut), "Othello" (1982) starring James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, "Macbeth" (1988) starring Plummer and Glenda Jackson and "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard" (1991) starring Judith Ivey and Jason Robards. She also directed Eileen Atkins and Vanessa Redgrave in the 1994 off-Broadway romantic drama "Vita and Virginia."
To the dismay of film-winning audiences, Ms. Caldwell avoided the silver screen almost completely. She appeared briefly as the Countess in the Woody Allen romantic comedy La rose pourpre du Caire (1985), a featured role (Mrs. Hill) in the fantasy mystery Birth (2004) starring Nicole Kidman, and her final role as the Grandmother in the Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock adventure drama Extrêmement fort & incroyablement près (2011).
Television appearances would also be comparatively few but she did display from time to time her classical brilliance in such roles ask the Fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959); Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1961) opposite Sean Connery; legendary actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Dear Liar (1964); another early legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt in Great Performances (1971) and Catherine the Great in Witness to Yesterday (1973). More notably, she recreated her Tony-winning role of Medea (1983)
She and producer/husband Whitehead maintained a long and successful private and professional partnership. The couple had two children: William "Sam" and Charles, the latter taking the role of producer of "The Play What I Wrote" which briefly featured his mother in New York in 2003. Suffering from Parkinson's disease, the 80-year-old actress died of complications on February 16, 2020.- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpouseRobert Whitehead(May 9, 1968 - June 15, 2002) (his death, 2 children)
- Has won four Tony Awards, one for each time she was nominated: as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic), in 1966 for Tennessee Williams's "Slapstick Tragedy," and as Best Actress (Play), in 1968 for playing the title role in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie;" in 1982 for playing the title role in a revival of "Medea," which she recreated in a television version of the same name, Medea (1983); and in 1996 for playing Maria Callas in Terence McNally's "Master Class.".
- She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1970 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to theatre and the John Gielgud Award by the Shakespeare Guild.
- Graduated from the Methodist Ladies College and, much later, received an honorary degree from the University of Melbourne.
- Her first stage role was as "Slightly Soiled" (one of the Lost Boys) in J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan", at the age of nine, in her native Australia.
- One of her primary acting rules is never to get romantically involved with a co-star. She believes that actors playing at being in love are showing the audience what they're feeling at each stage in the relationship, which is the exact opposite of what a real love affair needs, which is privacy. Acting, the audience becomes an intimate partner of the staged lovers, where in real life, lovers need to curtain themselves off from the rest of the world to create real intimacy. Though she admits in her 2001 memoir, "I Will Be Cleopatra", that she violated the rule, she was reticent in providing details. However, she was named as a correspondent by Albert Finney's wife Jane Wenham in their divorce.
- Our job is not to get in the way of the playwright's words. We're in big trouble when you hear actors talk about themselves as 'artists.' We're more like priestesses and priests. We take the word from the playwright to the populace. If you don't get in the way too much, the audience will understand exactly what the playwright wants them to know. If you start bringing your own life into it -- saying, "Oh, my God, if I dug deeply enough, I can remember a time when I was so hurt...blah, blah, blah.' That's fine. Write your own play.
- I knew at a very early age that my job would be to stand in front of people, keeping them awake and in their seats by telling other people's stories and using other people's words. I knew this because it was the only thing I could do.
- Oh, a diva I'm not. Maria Callas was a diva. I never set out to be a diva, I set out to do what I could do, and I was so lucky to have that opportunity. I think if everyone could do what really makes them happy, and earn a living at it, the world would be very different.
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