Tony winner Uta Hagen dead at 84

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Tony award-winning actress and esteemed drama coach Uta Hagen has died at her New York City home. She was 84.

Hagen, who won a Tony for her portrayal of Martha in the original 1962 Broadway production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", was teaching up until several months before her death Wednesday, the New York Times reported Thursday.

Hagen made her professional debut in 1937 as Ophelia in "Hamlet" and was acclaimed for her Nina (in "The Seagull"), Desdemona (opposite Paul Robeson's Othello), Shaw's St. Joan, Blanche DuBois in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and as the title character in "The Country Girl" by Clifford Odets, the Times said.

The German-born actress grew up in Wisconsin and was married to actor José Ferrer for 10 years. She and her second husband, Herbert Berghof, taught at HB Studios in New York and she kept the business going after he died in 1990.

Hagen is survived by their daughter, Leticia; a granddaughter; and a great-granddaughter.