PROFILE: Irene Worth
| The Voice | News Releases | Hot Topics | In the News |
| Talking on Talk Shows | Engaging Public Support | NSEA Advertising |
Irene Worth: Acclaimed actress had Nebraska Mennonite heritage
Copyright © 2004 by Jean SandersIrene Worth was acknowledged by her peers as one of the greatest actresses of the 20th century. She was born Harriett Elizabeth Abrams, June 23, 1916 in Fairbury, Nebraska. Her grandparents, who were Mennonites, had settled with others in the nearby Jansen area during the late 19th century. Her parents, Agnes Thiessen and Henry Abrams, were educators.
In 1920 the family moved to Reedley, California, where there was another Mennonite community, but relatives remained in Nebraska and Harriett's father spent several summers pursuing advanced education at Peru Normal School in Peru, Nebraska.
Throughout her primary and secondary school years, the family moved several times around California for Henry Abrams' work as a school administrator. She attended schools at Reedley, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, then her junior and senior years at Newport Beach, where Harriett's acting aptitude revealed itself through her roles in stage productions. In 1933, she graduated from Newport Harbor High School.
She entered Santa Ana Junior College the following fall. In 1935, she transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where she was admitted to three honorary dramatics societies. She graduated in 1937.
Apparently Harriett's parents did not approve of her acting. This may have contributed to her decision to teach school instead of pursuing an acting career immediately. However, her passion for performing never waned. In 1942, she went to New York City and changed her name to Irene Worth. Her first professional performance that year was as Fenella in a road company production of Margaret Kennedy's Escape Me Never. In 1943, she debuted on Broadway as Cecily Harden in Martin Yale's The Two Mrs. Carrolls.
When advised to study with renowned voice coach Elsie Fogarty in London, Worth relocated there in 1944, acting in fringe theaters. On Feb 14, 1946, she opened in London as Elsie in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life. In 1948 she accepted a movie role as Lina Linari in One Night With You. In 1949 she garnered critical praise for her performance at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland as Celia Coplestone in T.S. Elliot's The Cocktail Party.
During the 1950s, Worth was active with the Old Vic Repertory Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company performing throughout Europe and South Africa. She also toured Iran with director Peter Brook's experimental troupe. In 1958, she played Leonie in the movie Orders to Kill and won a British Film Academy Award.
Worth's long association with the Shakespearean Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario, began with its first season in 1953. Some sources say she was one of the original founders, but the official Stratford Festival website credits Tom Patterson, a Stratford-born journalist, as the "dreamer and doer." Regardless, Worth had lead roles that summer and, in subsequent years, appeared at the Festival regularly earning her the often-used title "first lady of Stratford."
During the 1960s, John Gielgud and Worth collaborated in dramatic readings. On June 13, 1965, she received her first Tony award as Miss Alice in Edward Albee's Tiny Alice. She spent much of the next decade in North America and won another Tony as the Princess in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth.
During 1993-1994, Worth produced and performed a two-hour monologue, Portrait of Edith Wharton, based on Wharton's life and writing. Worth stood behind a lectern using no props, costumes or sets. She delineated characters through vocal and visual nuance.
Through interviews and reviews, a perceptual portrait of Worth emerges. She filled the stage with her presence. Her voice was deep and melodious. She had dark, deep-set, slightly hooded eyes; high, wide cheek bones; and an hour-glass figure. She was gracious, elegant, and in control with a warm and humorous personality. According to interviewer Toby Zimmerman, her speech was laced with "dramatic pauses, measured phrases and italicized repetitions."
She was highly intelligent, equally adept at tragedy and comedy, wanted to be challenged, and relished avant-garde and experimental roles.
She loved working on stage because there was room for improvisation through movement and interpretation. Peter Eyre once compared acting with her to "jamming with a great jazz musician."
Worth found ways to combine her love of all the arts with theater. For instance, Harvard music professor Earl Kim composed music to accompany Samuel Beckett's words and asked Worth to recite them in concert. She was enticed, although she asserted that "the complicated score required split-second timing and hair's breath pauses, every word articulated to the notes."
In another blend of artistic styles, Worth suggested and performed a verbal recital to accompany an exhibition of theatrical drawings from London's Victoria and Albert Museum.
She recorded many of Virginia Woolf's letters and diaries for the Listening Library and appeared in I Take Your Hand in Mine, based on the love letters of Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper.
Worth believed in the theater's therapeutic powers and felt that change for good should be accomplished "subtly rather than by irritating." She liked to play strong women heroes. One of those was humanitarian suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Worth knew how to deal with doubters. Prior to being cast in Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers, director Gene Saks wondered if she could do a German accent. Simon and Saks met her for lunch. As they told it, "She looked at us with a cold, chilling stare" and announced that she had not auditioned in forty-two years. She requested the waiter to bring the dessert cart and asked, "Should I haff ze strudel, or perhaps ze apple tart? . . . Danke schoen." She neither smiled nor looked at them. Simon said, "She was smarter than all of us."
Worth opined that bad reviews could make one unsure of oneself. She wished critics would come to rehearsals several times, then attend the play after opening night.
She remained single, explaining that she felt unable to combine being a good actress, mother and wife; but she had no regrets. She said an artist must share her talent. Furthermore, she stated, "The whole purpose of art is to reach that moment of absolute dead center when everything is free and fulfilled."
Worth received many awards including three Tonys, an Obie, and a British Film Academy Award. She was inducted into the New York Hall of Fame and the London Hall of Fame. She received honorary doctorates from Tufts University and Queens College of the City University of New York.
She died March 10, 2002 at age eighty-five.
Major published sources about her life and career are Current Biography (1968) and American Theatre (February 1996) and a 12-page tabloid size supplement in the April 15, 1998 Wilber /NE/ Republican and an obituary in the March 13, 2002 Los Angeles Times.
For more information, consult "900 Famous Nebraskans" on the Internet at www.nsea.org or www.beatricene.com/gagecountymuseum or www.nebpress.com.
