Tall, luminous and leonine, the legendary Colleen Dewhurst must go down as one of the theater's finest contemporary tragediennes of the late 1900s. With trademark dusky tones and a majestically careworn appearance, she possessed an inimitable down-to-earth fierceness that not only earned her the title "Queen of Off-Broadway" but allowed her to put a fiery and formidable stamp on a number of Eugene O'Neill's heroines. The multiple award-winning actress was no slouch in the on-camera department, either, reaping trophies for a host of wryly comedic and electrifying dramatic turns on TV. While most of her towering achievements occurred in mid- to late career, she quickly made up for lost time. In addition, she and two-time actor/husband George C. Scott became an acting force together throughout much of the 1960s and early 1970s.
She was born on June 3, 1924, in Montreal, Quebec, the only child of professional hockey player Fred Dewhurst, who later became a sales manager to support his family. Her mother, a homemaker, was a Christian Science practitioner. Raised in the US (just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin), she graduated from Riverside High School in Milwaukee in 1942 and then enrolled at Milwaukee's Downer College for Young Ladies. Working such odd jobs as a receptionist and elevator operator in between summer-stock engagements, she prepared for the stage in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she met and later married fellow acting student James Vickery in 1947. She also took up studies with such illustrious teachers as Harold Clurman and Tyrone Guthrie. The young actress showed fine promise as Julia Cavendish in "The Royal Family" while a student at Carnegie Lyceum in 1946. However, it took six years for her to make her professional debut at the ANTA in New York with a small dancing role in O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" (1952). Eleven years later the actress would win an off-Broadway Obie Award in the play's leading role.
Colleen built up her esteemed resumé gradually. In 1956 Joseph Papp featured her strongly at his New York Shakespeare Festival with roles in "Tamburlaine the Great," "Titus Androcius," "Camille" (title part), "The Taming of the Shrew" (as Kate) and "The Eagle Has Two Heads". She won a single Obie Award (her first) for her combined performances in the last three productions mentioned. The following year she portrayed Lady Macbeth and also Mrs. Squeamish in "The Country Wife". She divorced Vickery in 1959 after meeting the equally imposing George C. Scott during the 1958 run of Broadway's "Children of Darkness," for which the actress won a Theatre World Award. Scott divorced his wife to marry Colleen in 1960 (ex-husband Vickery later married actress Diana Muldaur).
Dewhurst's signature O'Neill role was that of Irish-American Josie Hogan in "The Moon for the Misbegotten". She first played the part in 1958 in Italy, then tackled the role again in 1965 in a production in Buffalo, New York, The third time was the charm when she recreated the role on Broadway in December of 1973 at age 49, not only earning the coveted Tony Award (her second), but the Los Angeles Drama Critics and Sarah Siddons awards as well. Over the years O'Neill's plays would benefit greatly from her searing, impassioned performances, which included Sara in "More Stately Mansions," Christine Mannon in "Mourning Becomes Electra," Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night," Essie Miller in "Ah, Wilderness!" and, of course, Abbie Putnam in "Desire Under the Elms". In 1987 she portrayed Carlotta Monterey O'Neill (Eugene's wife) in an acclaimed one-woman show "My Gene" in New York.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Dewhurst became a frequent contender at the Tony Awards ceremonies. She won her first Tony for James Agee's "All the Way Home" in 1960, and went on to be nominated for "Great Day in the Morning" (1962), "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (1963), "More Stately Mansions" (1967, "All Over" (1971), "Mourning Becomes Electra" (1972) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1976). One of her few career failures was directing the Broadway production of "Ned & Jack", which opened and closed the same night on November 8, 1981. Very much a theater activist, Colleen joined several advisory boards in her time and became president of the Actor's Equity Association in 1985, serving until her death six years later.
While Dewhurst and then-husband Scott were heralded for their explosive appearances together on stage ("Desire Under the Elms" [both won Obies], "Antony and Cleopatra," "The Lion in Winter"), film (Les complices de la dernière chance (1971)) and TV (The Crucible (1967)), the couple's personal relationship was equally turbulent. Separated in 1963 and divorced in 1965 due to his infidelity, they remarried two years later. After appearing together in "The Last Run", Scott and Dewhurst parted ways again when he took up with another actress from the movie, Trish Van Devere, whom he later married. Scott and Dewhurst had two sons together and remained amicable.
Preferring the stage, Colleen was vastly underused on the big screen. Despite showing Hollywood her potential on film with a small but spectacular, spine-tingling role as an asylum patient who nearly does in poor Audrey Hepburn in Au risque de se perdre (1959), she offered only a sprinkling of film roles over the years--Contre-espionnage (1960), L'homme à la tête fêlée (1966), John Wayne et les cow-boys (1972), Un silencieux au bout du canon (1974), Château de rêves (1978), Terreur sur la ligne (1979), Un fils pour l'été (1980), Dead Zone (1983), The Boy Who Could Fly (1986), Termini Station (1989) and Le choix d'aimer (1991).
Better utilized on TV, the multiple Emmy Award winner appeared delightfully as Candice Bergen's brash, worldly mother on the popular Murphy Brown (1988), earning two of her Emmy statuettes. The other two came for her strong supporting performances in the mini-movies Mal à l'âme (1986) and Vivre sans elle (1989). In 1985 Colleen played Marilla Cuthbert in Kevin Sullivan's strong adaptation of Le bonheur au bout du chemin (1985) and continued her role in the mini-movie Le bonheur au bout du chemin II (1987). She then graced Sullivan's series Les contes d'Avonlea (1990) with the same character in a recurring format. Sadly, Dewhurst died before her role could be written out of the show properly. Thankfully, a touching death scene was edited into one episode as a tribute.
Diagnosed with cervical cancer, Colleen's fervent Christian Science beliefs led her to refuse any kind of surgical treatment. She died at age 67 at the pet-friendly South Salem, New York, farmhouse she shared with her companion (since 1974), producer Ken Marsolais on August 22, 1991. In October of that year George C. Scott starred in and directed a production of "On Borrowed Time" and dedicated the show to her memory. Both of their sons, Alex(ander) and Campbell Scott entered the entertainment field. Alex became a theatrical manager and writer, while the younger Campbell has made an impressive showing on stage and in films. He appeared with his mother in "Dying Young" (one of her last performances), and on Broadway in both "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "Ah, Wilderness!" in the late 1980s. Colleen's autobiography, incomplete at the time of her death (she had been working on it for nearly 15 years), finally arrived in bookstores in 1997.
