Actress Zoe Caldwell dies at age 86

Four-time Tony winner known for ‘Master Class’

NEW YORK — Zoe Caldwell, a four-time Tony Award winner who brought humanity to larger-than-life characters, whether it be the dotty schoolteacher Miss Jean Brodie, an aging opera star Maria Callas or the betrayed, murderous Medea, has died. She was 86.

Her son Charlie Whitehead said Caldwell died peacefully Sunday at her home in Pound Ridge, New York. Whitehead said her death was due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.

The Australian-born actress played in regional theaters around the English-speaking world before becoming the toast of Broadway in 1968, and winning her second Tony, for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”

Among her other characters were Cleopatra, Saint Joan, Mother Courage and authors Colette and Lillian Hellman. As she matured, she accepted only roles that offered a particular challenge. If she thought, “Oh, I can do that,” she didn’t want to do them, she said in 1986.

Three of her four Tonys came in collaborations with her husband, Robert Whitehead, who was one of Broadway’s most prolific producers of serious drama.

She cited his influence in her decision to do “Medea,” the ancient

Greek drama of a woman who is betrayed by her lover and kills their children in revenge. It won her a third Tony in 1982.

“Medea wasn’t a character I believed in until my Robert started to talk to me about her in human terms,” she told The New York Times a few days after the Tony ceremony. “I suddenly understood how a creative force of nature can become destructive if it is mucked up, polluted, depurified — like the atom.”

Terrence McNally’s “Master Class,” which debuted on Broadway in 1995, was another joint effort with Whitehead. It won Caldwell her fourth Tony and brought Whitehead, as producer, the Tony for best play.

She played Callas as the opera superstar critiques, cajoles and inspires a trio of budding singers taking part in the uniquely intense musical education session called a master class.

“A performance is a struggle. You have to win,” she says as Callas.

Then-Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara called Caldwell “incandescent” and said she gave “the performance of her career.”

Ron Frehm The Associated Press file Zoe Caldwell holds her award for best leading actress in a play for her role in “Master Class” in 1996 at the 50th Annual Tony Awards in New York.