Rex Harrison

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Rex Harrison
Image:Rex Harrison in Miracle on 34th Street trailer.jpg
Rex Harrison pictured in 1947
Birth name Reginald Carey Harrison
Born 5 March 1908(1908-03-05)
Huyton, Knowsley, Lancashire, England
Died 2 June 1990 (aged 82)
New York City, U.S.

Sir Reginald "Rex" Carey Harrison, KBE (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an Academy Award- and Tony Award-winning English theatre and film actor.

Contents

[edit] Youth and stage career

Harrison was born in Huyton, Knowsley, then part of Lancashire, and educated at Liverpool College.[1] He first appeared on the stage in 1924 in Liverpool. Harrison's acting career was interrupted during World War II, whilst he served in the Royal Air Force, reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant.[1] He acted in various stage productions until 11 May 1990. He acted in the West End of London when he was young, appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, which proved to be his breakthrough role.

He continued to appear in London, in George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House, Pirandello's Enrico IV, and in 1984 he appeared at the Haymarket Theatre with Claudette Colbert in Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All?, and also on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre presented by Douglas Urbanski. He again appeared at the Haymarket in J. M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton with Edward Fox.

[edit] In films

Harrison's film debut was in The Great Game (1930), and other notable early films include The Citadel (1938), Night Train to Munich (1940), Major Barbara (1941), Blithe Spirit (1945), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), and The Foxes of Harrow (1947). He was best known for his portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins in the musical My Fair Lady, based on the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion, especially after he reprised the role in the 1964 film version, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar. The 1956 cast album set sales records at the time. He revived the role on stage in the early 1980s. He also starred in 1967's Doctor Dolittle. Harrison was not by general terms a singer; thus, the music was generally written to allow for long periods of recitative, generally identified as "speaking to the music". Although excelling in High Comedy (Noel Coward said "Rex Harrison is the greatest interpreter of high comedy in the world ... next to Me!"), he attracted favourable notices in dramatic roles such as his portrayal of Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (1963) and as Pope Julius II in The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), opposite Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. He also appeared as an aging homosexual man opposite Richard Burton as his lover in Staircase. He also acted in a Hindi movie Shalimar alongside the Indian Superstar Dharmendra.

[edit] Personal life

Harrison was married six times. In 1942 he divorced his first wife, Colette Thomas, and married actress Lilli Palmer the next year; the two later appeared together in numerous plays and films, including The Fourposter. After several years in film, he achieved wide acclaim starring in the adaptation of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit (1945). He followed that with his first major American film, starring as King Mongkut in Anna and the King of Siam. 1947 saw the release of the classic The Ghost and Mrs. Muir opposite Gene Tierney.

In 1947, while married to Palmer, Harrison began an affair with Carole Landis that became public knowledge. Hollywood blamed Harrison for Landis's 1948 suicide and the scandal resulted in him losing his contract with Fox.[citation needed] Harrison and Palmer divorced in 1957. He soon remarried, to actress Kay Kendall. According to Palmer, Harrison requested a divorce to marry Kendall because he knew that she was dying from leukemia.[citation needed] He was subsequently married to Welsh-born Rachel Roberts, who, like Landis, later committed suicide by taking sleeping pills. Harrison then married Elizabeth Rees-Williams and, finally, Mercia Tinker, who would become his widow in 1990.

The chronology of Harrison's six marriages is as follows:

[edit] Honors and death

On 25 July 1989, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, while an orchestra played the music of songs from My Fair Lady.

Having retired from films in the late 1970s, he had continued to act on Broadway until the very end, despite suffering from glaucoma, painful teeth and a failing memory. In 1990 he was appearing on Broadway in The Circle by W. Somerset Maugham, opposite Glynis Johns, when he fell ill. It was discovered that he had pancreatic cancer but had been unaware of it, and he died peacefully three weeks later in New York City at the age of 82, causing the show to end prematurely.

Rex Harrison has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one at 6906 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to motion pictures, and another at 6380 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to the television industry.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The effete English-accented voice of Stewie Griffin in the animated TV show Family Guy was partially based on Harrison's voice.
  • He was blind in one eye as the result of a childhood illness.
  • In episode #9F13 of The Simpsons, "I Love Lisa," the class actor, a dramatist with a slight British accent, is named "Rex," a reference to Harrison.
  • He was known by the nickname "Sexy Rexy", which he detested.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Features

[edit] Short Subjects

[edit] Awards

Image:1963 Cleopatra trailer screenshot (34).jpg
Harrison as Julius Caesar in the film Cleopatra, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award

Wins :

Nominations :

Awards
Preceded by
Ray Walston
for Damn Yankees 		Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical
1957
for My Fair Lady 		Succeeded by
Robert Preston
for The Music Man
Preceded by
Sidney Poitier
for Lilies of the Field 		Academy Award for Best Actor
1964
for My Fair Lady 		Succeeded by
Lee Marvin
for Cat Ballou
Preceded by
Albert Finney
for Tom Jones 		NYFCC Award for Best Actor
1964
for My Fair Lady 		Succeeded by
Oskar Werner
for Ship of Fools

[edit] References

  1. ^ www.filmreference.com

[edit] External links

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