Zoe Caldwell
Encyclopedia
Zoe Caldwell, OBE
(born 14 September 1933) is an Australian-born actress.
, Australia and was raised in the suburb of Balwyn in Yongala Street. Her father, Edgar, was a plumber and her mother, Zoe, was a taxi dancer
. Caldwell's mother, Zoe, had a Peugeot
of 1950 vintage. She would often load some of the neighbourhood kids into it to take them to the Elizabethan Theatre in Richmond where they would go backstage and watch rehearsals and performances.
in Tennessee Williams
' Slapstick Tragedy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Medea
and Master Class
. In the last she portrayed opera diva
Maria Callas
. In Stratford, Ontario she has worked often, including her role as Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
opposite Christopher Plummer
's Mark Antony
in 1967. She emigrated to England upon being invited to join the RSC at a time when Charles Laughton
was attempting Lear, and Vanessa Redgrave
, Eileen Atkins
, Albert Finney
were among the other newcomers in the company. She played Bianca in the 1959 production of Othello
, starring Paul Robeson
. Later she played the indomitable Helena opposite Dame Edith Evans
in a production of "All's Well that Ends Well
". It was in this last that Caldwell worked under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie
whom she calls a "...pathfinder. He cut a path through the forest and all you had to do was follow it." Her career later brought her to America, where she was one of the original core of actors under Guthrie's direction which established the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, where she played for a number of years, in repertory, everything from Ophelia in Hamlet
to Natasha in Three Sisters
.
Other credits on Broadway include Arthur Miller
's The Creation of the World and Other Business
in which she played Eve, a one-woman play by William Luce
based on the life of Lillian Hellman
and a production of Macbeth
with Christopher Plummer
as Macbeth and Glenda Jackson
as Lady Macbeth
under Caldwell's direction. Caldwell directed, off-Broadway, a two-woman play, created by Eileen Atkins
, Vita and Virginia, based on the letters between Virginia Woolf
and Vita Sackville-West
. Atkins played Virginia and Vanessa Redgrave played Vita. Caldwell's directed the Broadway production of Othello
in the late 1970s with James Earl Jones
, Christopher Plummer and Dianne Weist. She helmed the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut
for two limited-run seasons as its Artistic Director in the mid-1980s. She has also appeared on film, most notably as an imperious dowager in Woody Allen
's The Purple Rose of Cairo
. In 2002 she starred in the film Just a Kiss
. She filmed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
in 2011.
She voiced the character of the Grand Councilwoman in Disney's Lilo & Stitch
. She originated the role in the 2002 theatrical feature and has continued it through the subsequent TV series and direct-to-video releases, as well as in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
. They had two sons and were married until Whitehead's death in 2002. She has not remarried. The novelist Patrick White
dedicated his short story, Clay
to her and Barry Humphries
.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 14 September 1933) is an Australian-born actress.
Early life
She was born as Ada Caldwell in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia and was raised in the suburb of Balwyn in Yongala Street. Her father, Edgar, was a plumber and her mother, Zoe, was a taxi dancer
Taxi dancer
A taxi dancer, or taxi for short , is a paid dance partner in a partner dance. For official purposes in the US, their occupation was referred to as "dancer", when they worked in taxi-dance halls that had all the necessary business permits...
. Caldwell's mother, Zoe, had a Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
of 1950 vintage. She would often load some of the neighbourhood kids into it to take them to the Elizabethan Theatre in Richmond where they would go backstage and watch rehearsals and performances.
Career
Caldwell has won four Tony Awards for her performances on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' Slapstick Tragedy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Medea
Medea
Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
and Master Class
Master Class
Master Class is a play by Terrence McNally, with incidental music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Vincenzo Bellini.The play originally was staged by the Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Mark Taper Forum. After twelve previews, the Broadway production, directed by Leonard Foglia, opened...
. In the last she portrayed opera diva
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
. In Stratford, Ontario she has worked often, including her role as Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
opposite Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
's Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...
in 1967. She emigrated to England upon being invited to join the RSC at a time when Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
was attempting Lear, and Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
, Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
, Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
were among the other newcomers in the company. She played Bianca in the 1959 production of Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, starring Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
. Later she played the indomitable Helena opposite Dame Edith Evans
Edith Evans
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
in a production of "All's Well that Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605, and was originally published in the First Folio in 1623....
". It was in this last that Caldwell worked under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie
Tyrone Guthrie
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, at his family's home, Annaghmakerrig, in County Monaghan, Ireland.-Life and career:Guthrie...
whom she calls a "...pathfinder. He cut a path through the forest and all you had to do was follow it." Her career later brought her to America, where she was one of the original core of actors under Guthrie's direction which established the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, where she played for a number of years, in repertory, everything from Ophelia in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
to Natasha in Three Sisters
Three Sisters (play)
Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
.
Other credits on Broadway include Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's The Creation of the World and Other Business
The Creation of the World and Other Business
The Creation of the World and Other Business is a play by Arthur Miller.A parable inspired by the Book of Genesis in the Bible, it explores the classic theme of good versus evil by way of a comedic retelling of the story of the creation of man . Miller's God is powerful but lacks wisdom...
in which she played Eve, a one-woman play by William Luce
William Luce
William Luce is a writer, primarily for the stage and television. He has written several plays which starred Julie Harris, and specializes in writing one-person plays.-Stage:...
based on the life of Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
and a production of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
with Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
as Macbeth and Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson, CBE is a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She has been a Member of Parliament since 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn. She previously served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate...
as Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
under Caldwell's direction. Caldwell directed, off-Broadway, a two-woman play, created by Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
, Vita and Virginia, based on the letters between Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
and Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
. Atkins played Virginia and Vanessa Redgrave played Vita. Caldwell's directed the Broadway production of Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
in the late 1970s with James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
, Christopher Plummer and Dianne Weist. She helmed the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
for two limited-run seasons as its Artistic Director in the mid-1980s. She has also appeared on film, most notably as an imperious dowager in Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin, and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real...
. In 2002 she starred in the film Just a Kiss
Just a Kiss (2002 film)
Just a Kiss is a dark comedy and was the first feature film directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Fisher Stevens. Fisher also is credited with playing the harmonica . Patrick Breen wrote the screenplay adapted from his own off-Broadway play and starred in the film...
. She filmed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (film)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an upcoming 2011 American drama film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Eric Roth. It stars Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey...
in 2011.
She voiced the character of the Grand Councilwoman in Disney's Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch
This article is about the movie. For the television series, see Lilo & Stitch: The Series.Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on June 21, 2002...
. She originated the role in the 2002 theatrical feature and has continued it through the subsequent TV series and direct-to-video releases, as well as in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
Personal life
Zoe Caldwell was married in 1968 to Canadian-born Broadway producer Robert Whitehead, a cousin of actor Hume CronynHume Cronyn
Hume Blake Cronyn, OC was a Canadian actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy.-Early life:...
. They had two sons and were married until Whitehead's death in 2002. She has not remarried. The novelist Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
dedicated his short story, Clay
The Burnt Ones
The Burnt Ones is a collection of eleven short stories by Australian writer Patrick White, first published by Eyre and Spottiswoode in 1964. Penguin Books published it in 1968 with reprints in 1972 and 1974...
to her and Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
.