Madison Actor Tom Haig Has Passed Away at Age 99

The Wisconsin State Journal has reported that Tom Haig, the Madison actor who helped found The Bartell Theatre, died on March 15 at age 98.

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Beginning in 1994, Haig and his late wife led a small group that would convert the old Esquire movie theater into the Bartell. The Bartell houses three performance spaces and is home to six theater companies.

Sarah Whelan, another of the theater's founders and a longtime Madison actor shared, "Tom was the spearhead for the building of the Bartell Theatre...

Lots of us were involved in its inception, but he really did the bulk of the work and fundraising."

Kirk Stantis, executive director of the Gerald A. Bartell Community Theatre Foundation, said that Haig raised more than $600,000 for the project and that he also did much of the remodeling work.

Haig performed in about 60 productions for groups that included Strollers Theatre, Mercury Players, Children's Theater of Madison, University Theatre and Madison Opera. In 2008, at age 86, while legally blind and hard of hearing, Haig starred in the dialogue-heavy David Mamet play "Duck Variations."

Read the full story HERE.

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