NEW YORK: Tony-winning actress Marian Seldes, regarded as one of the great ladies of the American stage and famed for never missing a single performance during an entire four-year Broadway run of “Deathtrap,” died at her Manhattan home on Monday aged 86.
Her death, which followed a prolonged illness, was announced by her brother, Timothy Seldes, in a statement issued through a longtime publicist, Sam Rudy.
In a career spanning six decades, Seldes performed in film, television and radio but was most celebrated for her theatre work, making her Broadway debut in 1948 in the Robinson Jeffers adaptation of “Medea,” directed by John Gielgud and starring Judith Anderson in the title role.
Seldes earned five Tony nominations, winning the award her first time out in 1967 for her supporting role in A Delicate Balance by the playwright Edward Albee, with whom she had a long association. She also appeared in productions of Albee’s The Play About the Baby, Tiny Alice, Counting the Ways and Three Tall Women.
She received a Tony Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 honouring her contribution to the theatre. Taking the stage to accept the accolade, she famously placed her hand over her heart, gazed out at the audience of stage luminaries and exited without uttering a word.
She later explained, “They said to keep it short, so I decided I would just say nothing.”
Seldes’ influence on American theatre and the world of entertainment at large extended to her work as a renowned acting teacher at the Juilliard School, and later as an adjunct professor at Fordham University.
Among her better-known students were such stars as Kevin Kline, Laura Linney, William Hurt, Kelsey Grammar, Christopher Reeve, Kevin Spacey, Patti Lupone, Viola Davis and Robin Williams.
Reuters
