Michael Hackett

Michael Hackett, Professor Emeritus of Theater who taught directing and theater history in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television for 44 years before his retirement in 2023, died peacefully on Sunday, December 14, 2025 in Bakersfield, CA of complications from cancer. He was 75.

Professor Hackett was a highly esteemed figure in the artistic community of Los Angeles and beyond. Hackett directed for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the Royal Theatre at The Hague; the Centrum Sztuki Studio and Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw; the Santa Fe Short Story Festival; the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; Los Angeles Opera children’s series; the Getty Center and Getty Villa; Musica Angelica; the Antaeus Company; the Geffen Playhouse; the Hammer Museum; and 15 radio productions for L.A. Theatre Works. He served as the artistic producer for Robert Wilson’s King Lear at Studio One, Metromedia in Hollywood, and co-produced, with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, two radio plays directed by Peter Sellars.

Familiar to opera audiences in Southern California, Hackett lectured extensively for Los Angeles Opera and, for these activities, received the Fifth Annual Peter Hemmings Award from the Opera League of Los Angeles. He also conducted more than 70 arts-related interviews for classical radio KUSC and lectured at the Huntington Museum of Art, the Norton Simon Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Costume Council, the Hammer Museum, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, and the Getty Research Institute.

The success of his 1991 production “Metamorfozy” at the Dramatyczny Theater in Warsaw led to extensive theater work throughout Poland, including directing five productions, lecturing and teaching; and resulted in his being awarded in 2020 the Witkacy Prize by the Polish Centre of the International Theatre Institute for “outstanding achievements in promoting Polish theater in the world.”

Michael Hackett was born on May 21, 1950, in Washington, D.C., to Michael and Catherine (Kitty) Hackett. He discovered his lifelong love of the arts as a boy soprano and performer in children’s theater. He was active in theater at Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C. and at Boston College where he earned his BA, and he received his Ph.D. in Drama and the Humanities from Stanford University.

In addition to teaching at UCLA, Mr. Hackett taught and directed at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for three years, where he co-designed and instituted a music-drama program and gave lecture/demonstrations for the Royal College of Music. He also led workshops for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. For 15 years, he directed Greek chorus workshops for the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Rodney Cottier, former head of the drama school at LAMDA wrote of Michael’s “passion and artistic integrity” and impact on his students: To steal from a bishop in Tudor times, ‘he lit a candle which can never be put out’.”

Hackett is survived by his wife, Claire Leddy Hackett; daughters Kate (Peter Katz) and Stephanie; grandson Sam Katz and brothers Peter (Carol) and John (Catherine).

The family wishes to thank Hoffman Hospice and Around the Clock caregivers, especially Sandra Fernandez, for their compassionate and skilled care.