Prolific Lou Hetler shared his time and theater talent

Tough, sweet, demanding, thoughtful, obstinate — those are among the words that friends and family use to describe Lou Hetler, a local actor, playwright, teacher and director who was a mainstay in the Seattle acting and theater community for more than 20 years.

Gangly and professorial-looking, the Polish-born Mr. Hetler, a Vashon Island resident who had just completed work on a new play, died May 30 of a ruptured aneurysm. He was 88.

"He was prolific right to the end," said his wife, Kathryn Mesney-Hetler. "He was a busy man right up to the end."

Mr. Hetler emigrated to the United States through Ellis Island when he was 6, living in Brooklyn, N.Y., as a child. Mr. Hetler's father, Morris, was a cutter in New York City's garment district. His mother, Nettie, was a homemaker who cared for Mr. Hetler and his three younger sisters.

Drawn to the theater early on, Mr. Hetler received a bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Oklahoma, where he also met his first wife, Eliese Felsinthal, the mother of his three children, Joel Hetler, Robert Hetler and Susan Aberman. Mr. Hetler went on to attend Columbia University's Teachers College in New York and earned a doctorate in theater studies from the University of Denver.

Mr. Hetler soon took a job teaching at the State University of New York, Brockport; he ultimately became chairman of that school's theater department. He taught there for 28 years before retiring in the mid-1970s.

In 1976, Mr. Hetler and his second wife, Mesney-Hetler, a theater professor and actress, moved from New York to Los Angeles. Hetler resumed teaching, this time at Long Beach Community College.

Two years later, the Hetlers moved to the Seattle area. Before long, both were teaching at what is now Cornish College of the Arts. And both quickly became involved in all aspects of numerous productions at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Empty Space Theatre and other venues.

Clayton Corzatte, a well-known Seattle-area actor and teaching colleague at Cornish, said Mr. Hetler could be a taskmaster who demanded the best from his students.

"I remember how devoted he was to our students," Corzatte said. "... They learned so much about what goes into putting something in front of the public."

Bonnie Cohen, another colleague at Cornish, said that while Mr. Hetler could be exacting and difficult in professional settings, he was also warm and caring.

"I knew two sides of him," Cohen said. "I knew him as an artist, and then I knew him as a friend. Those two sides of him sort of balanced him out."

Whether the context was professional or personal, though, Cohen said Mr. Hetler had a unique way of letting someone know when he disagreed with them.

"Lou had this uncanny ability to interrupt people without saying a word," Cohen said. "He would just start shaking his head 'no,' and they got the message."

In his later years, Mr. Hetler kept up a schedule that could exhaust a person half his age. In addition to directing, writing and teaching, Mr. Hetler also acted in television commercials and performed in many local productions. In the mid-1990s, he appeared as Sigmund Freud in one episode of the TV show "Northern Exposure" and as Carl Jung in another.

Mr. Hetler is survived by his wife, his three children, sisters Esther Wolf of Seattle, Shirley Haas and Leah Wolloch, both of Florida; four grandchildren and six nieces and nephews.

A memorial service was held last Saturday on Vashon Island. Donations may be made to the Lou Hetler Memorial Playwright Fund at branches of Washington Mutual Bank.