Introduction
Martha Henry, CC OOnt (born February 17, 1938) is an American-Canadian stage, film, and television actress, perhaps best known for her work at the Stratford Festival in Canada.
Background
Martha Buhs was born in Detroit, Michigan to Kathleen (née Hatch) and Lloyd Howard Buhs. She grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and attended the Kingswood School (today Cranbrook Kingswood School). She later adopted the stage surname Henry, which is the legal surname of her first husband, actor Donnelly Rhodes.
Leading actress at Stratford
An early graduate from the National Theatre School in Montreal, she became a leading actress at the Stratford Festival, appearing in leading roles from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. During these years she won acclaim in several roles including Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1969), Isabella in Measure for Measure (1976), Olga in Three Sisters (1976), and Paulina in The Winter's Tale (1978).
She and a team of three other directors were hired to lead Stratford's 1981 season after the resignation of Robin Phillips. The team was dismissed a few months later causing Henry and some other Stratford veterans to work away from the Festival for several years.
Artistic director and awards
She was artistic director of the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario from 1988-94. In 1993 she traveled to Guyana, South America where she starred in Darrell Wasyk's film, Mustard Bath, winning a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress. She returned to the Stratford stage to play Mary Tyrone in the widely respected 1994-95 production of Long Day's Journey into Night.
She won a Best Actress Genie award for the 1996 film version that followed. In February 2007, she was appointed director of Stratford's Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training.
Honours
She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981, and promoted to Companion in 1990. She was made a Member of the Order of Ontario in 1994. Henry received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for her lifetime contribution to Canadian theatre in 1996.
Television roles
Notable television roles include Catherine in Empire, Inc., the Prime Minister's mother in H20 and the owner of the Chateau Rousseau in Ken Finkleman's At the Hotel. In 1994, she starred in the TV film And Then There was One.