T. Edward Hambleton, 94; Co-Founded Phoenix Theater Off-Broadway

T. Edward Hambleton, 94, a co-founder of off-Broadway’s influential Phoenix Theater, died Saturday at a Baltimore hospital of complications from an esophageal tumor, his family said.

For three decades, the Phoenix, established in 1953 in a Yiddish theater in the East Village, showcased some of the theater’s finest artists, including Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Uta Hagen, Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and John Houseman.

The theater, which Hambleton founded with Norris Houghton, produced not only classics such as Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” but new works too, including such musicals as “The Golden Apple” with Kaye Ballard; “Once Upon a Mattress,” starring the then-unknown Carol Burnett; and Arthur Kopit’s comedy “Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad.”

Houghton left the theater in 1962 but Hambleton continued as its managing director, later working with the Assn. of Producing Artists. In its later years, the Phoenix, after moving to the Upper East Side, began developing new works by young playwrights, including Wendy Wasserstein’s “Uncommon Women and Others” and Marsha Norman’s “Getting Out.”

Hambleton received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2000.