Edward Kaye-Martin; Noted Acting Teacher

Edward Kaye-Martin, Los Angeles actor, director and acting teacher of the legitimate stage, has died in Chicago of non-Hodgins lymphoma. He was 50.

The stagecraft veteran died Aug. 13, according to an announcement from Wisdom Bridge Theatre in Chicago, where Kaye-Martin had recently directed “Traveler in the Dark.”

Born Nov. 20, 1938, in New York City, Kaye-Martin performed, directed and taught across the country. His students included Joyce DeWitt, Beth Henley, Marilu Henner, Holly Hunter and Aidan Quinn.

Kaye-Martin was head of UCLA’s acting program from 1968 to 1974 and later taught professional classes at the Melrose Theater in Los Angeles and the Wisdom Bridge and Center theaters in Chicago.

After leaving UCLA, he served as artist-in-residence at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Carnegie-Mellon University, Princeton University and Florida State University, and was a guest instructor at Rutgers University.

Among plays that Kaye-Martin directed in recent years were “Ready When You Are, C.B.” at the Night Flight Theatre in Burbank, “The Man in 605” at the Cast Theatre in Los Angeles, “All the Way Home” and “Summertree” at UCLA, and “On Tidy Endings” at Los Angeles’ Ensemblefest ’88.

His acting credits include “Murder Among Friends” at Theatre-at-the-Square, Boston; “A Sandburg Odyssey,” Lincoln Center Library, New York City; “Cyrano de Bergerac,” Cocoanut Grove Playhouse, Miami; “Paint Your Wagon,” Equity Library Theater, New York City, and “Happy Birthday Wanda June,” Chamber Theater, Los Angeles.

He is survived by a brother, Allen.

A Los Angeles memorial service is being planned for Sept. 24. A Chicago memorial service will be conducted at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Wisdom Bridge Theatre. A memorial fund also will be established in Kaye-Martin’s name at that not-for-profit theater.