Canadian theater icon Martha Henry dies at 83, less than 2 weeks after last performance

Canadian stage giant Martha Henry died Thursday — less than two weeks after what would be her final performance: Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women” at the Stratford Festival in Ontario.

The celebrated actor, director, and educator died of cancer, surrounded by her family, in her Stratford home. She was 83.

Her death was confirmed by the festival in a tweet.

“We are overcome with grief at the death of Martha Henry, just 12 days after her final performance in ‘Three Tall Women,’” the festival tweeted.

“Our hearts are shattered,” Stratford’s artistic director Antoni Cimolino said in a statement.

“The name Martha Henry is synonymous with artistry, intelligence and beauty. As an actor, her performances became the stuff of legend,” he added.

Henry was born in Detroit, Mich., in 1938. She moved to Canada in February 1959 after graduating from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pa.

After attending the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, she went on to become a staple of the Stratford Festival.

She joined the Stratford acting company in 1962, where she would perform in more than 70 productions throughout her life.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Henry’s first role at the festival came in 1962 in a production of “The Tempest.”

She performed in all three plays put on by the festival that year, but in Shakespeare’s beloved play she took on the role of Miranda, opposite William Hutt in the lead as Prospero.

In 2018, nearly 60 years later, she returned to “The Tempest” at Stratford — only instead of playing Miranda, she took on the lead role of Prospero.

“In losing Martha Henry we have lost the dearest friend, the most inspiring mentor and an unforgettable, original talent,” Cimolino said.

“Her sense of responsibility to the theatre was so profound that it enabled her to endure pain and face down her terminal disease to complete an astoundingly truthful performance as a dying woman in ‘Three Tall Women,’” he added.

“Her life became art,” said the director.