Zoe Caldwell

Zoe Caldwell, OBE (born Ada Caldwell; 14 September 1933 in Melbourne) is an Australian

Australian actress. She is a four-time Tony Award

Tony Award winner, and is the voice of the Grand Councilwoman

Grand Councilwoman in the Lilo & Stitch franchise.

Contents

1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography

4.1 Film 4.2 Theatre Credits 4.3 Television 4.4 Video Games

5 Bibliography 6 References 7 External links

Early life[edit] She was born Ada Caldwell in Melbourne, Victoria
Melbourne, Victoria and raised in the suburb of Balwyn. Her father, Edgar, was a plumber.[2] Caldwell's mother often took some of the neighbourhood kids to the Elizabethan Theatre in Richmond where they could go backstage and watch rehearsals and performances.[3][4] Career[edit] Caldwell began her career in Melbourne
Melbourne in the 1950s and early 1960s, performing with the newly formed Union Theatre Repertory Company (later the Melbourne
Melbourne Theatre Company).[5] She emigrated to England upon being invited to join the RSC at a time when Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was attempting Lear, and Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins, Albert Finney
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
Edith Evans in a production of All's Well That Ends Well. Her career later brought her to America, where she was one of the original company of actors under Guthrie's direction at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. At the Guthrie, she played parts such as Ophelia in Hamlet
Hamlet and Natasha in Three Sisters.[citation needed] A life member of the Actors Studio,[6] Caldwell has won four Tony Awards for her performances on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' Slapstick Tragedy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Medea
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
Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
Cleopatra opposite Christopher Plummer's Mark Antony
Mark Antony in 1967.[citation needed] 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
Lillian Hellman and a production of Macbeth
Macbeth with Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer as Macbeth
Macbeth and Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson as Lady Macbeth
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
Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Atkins played Virginia and Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave played Vita. Caldwell directed the Broadway production of Othello
Othello in the late 1970s with James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, and Dianne Wiest. She helmed the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford, Connecticut for two limited-run seasons as its Artistic Director in the mid-1980s.[citation needed] 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 voiced the character of the Grand Councilwoman in Disney's Lilo & Stitch, and continued voicing the character in the franchise's later films and in Lilo & Stitch: The Series, as well as in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.[7] She appeared in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close in 2011. Personal life[edit] Caldwell graduated from Methodist Ladies' College, Kew and, much later, received an honorary degree from the University of Melbourne. In 1968, she married Canadian-born Broadway producer Robert Whitehead, a cousin of actor Hume Cronyn. They had two sons and were married until Whitehead's death in June 2002.[8] Filmography[edit] Film[edit]

Year Title Role Notes

1959 A Midsummer Night's Dream Fairy Television film

1961 Macbeth Lady Macbeth Television film

1964 Dear Liar Mrs. Patrick Campbell Television film

1968 The Secret of Michelangelo Narrator Television film

1983 Medea Medea Television film

1985 The Purple Rose of Cairo The Countess

1989 Lantern Hill Mrs. Kennedy Television film

2002 Lilo & Stitch Grand Councilwoman
Grand Councilwoman (voice)

2003 Stitch! The Movie Grand Councilwoman
Grand Councilwoman (voice) Direct-to-video

2004 Birth Mrs. Hill

2004 Stitch's Great Escape! Grand Councilwoman
Grand Councilwoman (voice) Short film

2006 Leroy & Stitch Grand Councilwoman
Grand Councilwoman (voice) Direct-to-video

2011 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Oskar's Grandmother

Theatre Credits[edit]

Year Title Role Notes

2003 The Visit Claire Zachanassian Melbourne
Melbourne Theatre Company

2003 The Play What I Wrote Mystery Guest Star - replacement Lyceum Theater

1995-1997 Master Class Maria Callas John Golden Theater - Tony Award

1991 Park Your Car In Harvard Yard Director Music Box Theater

1988 Macbeth Director Mark Hellinger Theatre

1986 Lillian Lillian Ethel Barrymore Theater

1982 Medea Medea Cort Theater - Tony Award

1977 An Almost Perfect Person Director Belasco Theater

1974 Dance of Death Alice Vivian Beaumont Theater

1972 The Creation of the World and Other Business Eve Shubert Theater

1968 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Jean Brodie Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Theater - Tony Award

1966 Slapstick Tragedy Polly Longacre Theater - Tony Award

1965 The Devils Sister Jean of the Angels - replacement Broadway Theatre

Television[edit]

Year Title Role Notes

1960 BBC Sunday Night Play Ruth Honeywill Episode: "Twentieth Century Theatre: Justice"

1960 ITV Playhouse Louise Episode: "The Song of Louise in the Morning"

1960 Suspense Kathy Harrigton Episode: "Flight 404"

1960 Theatre 70

Episode: "The Neighbour"

1963 Festival

Episode: "The Doctor's Dilemma"

1964 Playdate Streetwalker Episode: "A Night Out"

1971 Great Performances Sarah Benhardt Episode: "Sarah ... Sarah Benhardt"

1978 Play of the Month Mme. Arkadina Episode: "The Seagull"

1986 American Masters Carlotta Monterey O'Neill Episode: "Eugene O'Neill: A Glory of Ghosts"

1990 Road to Avonlea Old Lady Lloyd Episode: "Old Lady Lloyd"

2003 Lilo & Stitch: The Series Grand Councilwoman
Grand Councilwoman (voice) Episode: "Finder: Experiment #428"

Video Games[edit]

Year Title Role Notes

2002 Disney's Stitch: Experiment 626 Grand Councilwoman

2010 Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Grand Councilwoman

Bibliography[edit]

Caldwell, Zoe (2001). I will be Cleopatra: An Actress's Journey. Melbourne: Text Publishing. ISBN 1-877008-03-6.

References[edit]

^ "Happy Birthday To Pound Ridge's Zoe Caldwell". poundridge.dailyvoice.com. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2016. ^ Nightingale, Benedict. Her Infinite Variety, The New York Times, 21 October 2001; accessed 27 May 2008. ^ "Zoe Caldwell's honorary degree". University of Melbourne. Archived from the original on 30 August 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2006. ^ "New York State Writers Institute on Caldwell". State University of New York. Archived from the original on 31 October 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2006. ^ "Zoe Caldwell". AusStage. Retrieved 25 July 2017. ^ Garfield, David (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of the Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of the Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 277. ISBN 0-02-542650-8. ^ "Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep details". IMDb. Retrieved 14 January 2015. ^ Gussow, Mel. "Robert Whitehead, Who Brought Top Playwrights to Broadway, Dies at 86" The New York Times, 17 June 2002; accessed 27 January 2014.

External links[edit]

Zoe Caldwell at the Internet Broadway Database
Internet Broadway Database Zoe Caldwell on IMDb Zoe Caldwell at the Internet Off-Broadway Database