Rex Harrison

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Rex Harrison

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.

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Harrison was born in Huyton, Knowsley, then part of Lancashire, and educated at Birkdale Preparatory School and 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.

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.

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 the beautiful Gene Tierney.

In 1947 Harrison's began an affair with the beautiful Carole Landis. The affair became public but Harrison refused to leave his wife. Hollywood blamed Harrison for Carole's 1948 suicide and the scandal resulted in him losing his contract with Fox. 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. After Kendall's untimely death, it was rumoured that he tried unsuccessfully to reconcile with Lilli. He was later married to Welsh-born Rachel Roberts, who later, like Landis, committed suicide by taking sleeping pills; then to Elizabeth Rees-Williams (the first wife of Irish actor Richard Harris); and to Mercia Tinker, who would become his widow in 1990.

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

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.

 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.

Harrison as Julius Caesar in the film Cleopatra, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award
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

  1. ^ www.filmreference.com

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