Harbor High graduate, stage actress remembered

Deepa Bharath

All the world was her stage.

But Newport Harbor High graduates from the early 1930s remember

three-time Tony Award winner Irene Worth simply as Harriet Abrams, the

outgoing girl with a smiling face who was always nice to people.

Worth died Sunday in New York City of a stroke at the age of 85.

The woman, known internationally as one of the all-time greats among

leading ladies of the stage, spent only three years in Newport Beach, the

time she was a student at Newport Harbor High School, part of the

graduating class of 1933.

She gained celebrity status over the years with her top-notch stage

performances all over the world. Her roles have ranged from those etched

by classicists such as Shakespeare, Ibsen and Seneca to modern

playwrights such as T.S. Elliot, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee and

Samuel Beckett.

Worth was known especially for her mellifluous voice and her

commanding stage presence and won critical acclaim on both sides of the

Atlantic Ocean.

Worth won her best actress Tony awards for her title role in Edward

Albee’s “Tiny Alice” in 1965 and as Alexandra del Lago in Tennessee

Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth” in 1976. She also received the Tony for

best featured actress in 1991 for playing the grumpy German immigrant

Grandma Kurnitz in the premiere of Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers.”

Worth was born in Fairbury, Neb., in 1916. Her father was

superintendent of the county school system. In 1920, her family moved to

California. Worth’s father took a job as the superintendent of the

Newport-Mesa school district in 1931, which brought the family to Costa

Mesa.

In high school, she was president of the girls’ glee club and appeared

in “The Mikado” during her senior year, 1933.

Woodrow Hadley, who was one year Worth’s junior at Newport Harbor

High, remembers the accomplished actress as a “happy and outgoing person”

who participated in sports and drama.

Hadley’s wife, Bernice, who was two years Worth’s junior, says her

cousin Virginia Hogland and Worth were very close during their high

school years.

“[Worth’s] father actually sang at Virginia’s wedding,” she recalled.

Hogland passed away two years ago, she added.

“I knew her through Virginia,” Bernice Hadley said. “But I remember

that I was really young and she was always nice to me.”

Worth’s fame and glory on stage surprised her Newport Harbor High

classmates, said Woodrow Hadley.

“None of us thought she’s become so famous,” he said. “Yes, she had a

beautiful voice and a great personality, but it was the Depression Era

and a lot of people did not advance that far.”

Worth, who never married, is survived by her sister Carol Johnson of

Santa Monica and brother Luke Evans of Los Angeles.