Biography
Born in 1929 in Washington, Tresa Hughes was raised in Baltimore. She attended Maryland Art Institute and Johns Hopkins and George Washington Universities and graduated from Wayne State University. She was in the acting company at Pennsylvania's Hedgerow Theatre, led by Jasper Deeter; and a member of Playwrights Theater Company in Chicago, with Mike Nichols and Elaine May. She was an emphatic advocate for New York, where she lived for 55 years. She was an accomplished actress who was cast in more than 20 Broadway plays and was nominated for a Tony Award.
On and Off Broadway, Ms. Hughes originated roles in more than 50 plays, including Hogan's Goat, by William Alfred; The Last Analysis, by Saul Bellow, with Sam Levene; The Prisoner of Second Avenue, by Neil Simon, directed by Mike Nichols, with Peter Falk; and The Man in the Glass Booth with Donald Pleasance, written by Robert Shaw and directed by Harold Pinter.
Hughes was nominated for a Tony Award for best supporting actress in 1961 for her performance in The Devil's Advocate, directed by Dory Schary, with Sam Levene, Leo Genn and Edward Mulhare.
Hughes stood by for Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker and Golda, both written by William Gibson and directed by Arthur Penn. She played many performances with Patty Duke.
She originated roles in workshops of new plays for five summers at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, directed by Lloyd Richards, with playwrights including John Guare, Wole Soyinka and Lanford Wilson.
As a young woman, Hughes often convincingly portrayed much older characters. For instance, in 1957 she played Beatrice in the touring company of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge with Luther Adler, Louis Zorich and Kathleen Widdoes. More than 25 years later, Ms. Hughes reprised the same role in a 1983 Broadway revival with Tony Lo Bianco.
Hughes originated roles in plays written by playwrights including John Arden, Saul Bellow, Eduardo Machado, Arthur Miller, John Osborne, Neil Simon and Arnold Wesker. Her directors included Martin Charnin, James Hammerstein, Fred Rolfe and Herman Shumlin.
She married Robert Hughes, the late documentary filmmaker who worked for the United Nations and public television and won an Oscar and an Emmy for best feature documentaries. Their marriage ended in divorce.
Their daughter Rebecca Hughes is a science writer for Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. Her son-in-law Paul Rogat Loeb writes books: Soul of a Citizen and The Impossible Will Take a Little While. Her grandson William Hughes Martin graduated from Brown University.
