Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Henry VIII in the Broadway play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949. He returned to Broadway portraying Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1956) where he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
For the Australian rugby league player, see Rex Harrison (rugby league).
Rex Harrison
2 June 1990 (aged 82)
Ashes scattered in Portofino and Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Actor
1930–1990
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Noel Margery Colette-Thomas(m. 1934; div. 1942)
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Elizabeth Rees-Williams(m. 1971; div. 1975)
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Mercia Tinker(m. 1979)
Cathryn Harrison (granddaughter)
In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. His first starring role was opposite Vivien Leigh in the romantic comedy Storm in a Teacup (1937). Receiving critical acclaim for his performance in Major Barbara (1941), which was shot in London during the Blitz, his roles since then included Blithe Spirit (1945), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Cleopatra (1963), My Fair Lady (1964), reprising his stage role as Henry Higgins which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the titular character in Doctor Dolittle (1967).
In 1975, Harrison released his first autobiography. In June 1989, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He was married six times and had two sons: Noel and Carey Harrison. He continued working in stage productions until shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer in June 1990 at the age of 82. His second autobiography, A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy, was published posthumously in 1991.
Early life[edit]
Reginald Carey Harrison was born on 5 March 1908 at Derry House in Huyton, Lancashire,[1] the son of Edith Mary (née Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker.[2] From the age of 10 he went by the name “Rex”, which he adopted for himself.[3] He was the youngest of three children and had two older sisters, Edith Marjorie Harrison (1900-1976) and Sylvia Sackville, Countess De La Warr, DBE (1903-1992).[4][5] He was educated at Birkdale preparatory school and Liverpool College.[3] After a bout of childhood measles, Harrison lost most of the sight in his left eye.[3] He showed an early desire to become an actor, with regular appearances in school plays, and visits to the Liverpool Playhouse.[3]
Alexander Walker wrote: "in looks and temperament, Rex went back to the Elizabethans. They would have called him 'a man of passionate parts'. His physique and looks were far more striking once middle age had literally stretched too smooth and callow a youthful face into a long, saturnine physiognomy, whose hooded eyes and wide mouth had satyr-like associations for some people."[19]
Harrison was married six times. In 1942, he divorced his first wife, Noel Margery Colette Thomas, and married actress Lilli Palmer the next year; they later appeared together in numerous plays and films, including The Four Poster.[20] Whilst married to Palmer, he built a villa at Portofino, San Genesio, where over the years he hosted showbiz royalty including Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud and real ex-royalty in the Duke of Windsor and his wife.
In 1947, while married to Palmer, Harrison began an affair with actress Carole Landis. Landis took her own life in 1948 after spending the evening with Harrison.[21] Harrison's involvement in the scandal by waiting several hours before calling a doctor and police[22] briefly damaged his career and his contract with Fox was ended by mutual consent.[23]
In 1955, Harrison starred opposite Kay Kendall in The Constant Husband, and they had an affair.[24] When he learned that Kendall had been diagnosed with myeloid leukaemia, he and Palmer agreed to divorce so that he could marry Kendall and provide for her care.[25] Harrison and Palmer divorced in 1957 and he married Kendall the same year. Kendall died of myeloid leukaemia in 1959.[26] Terence Rattigan's 1973 play In Praise of Love was written about the end of this marriage, and Harrison appeared in the New York production playing the character based on himself. Rattigan was said to be "intensely disappointed and frustrated" by Harrison's performance, as "Harrison refused to play the outwardly boorish parts of the character and instead played him as charming throughout, signalling to the audience from the start that he knew the truth about [the] illness."[27] Critics however were quite pleased with the performance and although it did not have a long run, it was yet another of Harrison's well-plotted naturalistic performances.
He was subsequently married to Welsh actress Rachel Roberts from 1962 to 1971. In 1980, despite his having married twice since their divorce, Roberts made a final attempt to win Harrison back, which proved to be futile; she took her own life that same year.[28] Harrison then married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, divorcing in 1975; finally, in 1978, he married Mercia Tinker, his sixth and final wife.[29]
Harrison's eldest son Noel Harrison became an Olympic skier, singer, and occasional actor; he toured in several productions including My Fair Lady in his father's award-winning role; Noel died suddenly of a heart attack on 19 October 2013 at age 79. Rex's younger son Carey Harrison is a playwright and social activist.
Harrison's sister Sylvia was married to the 1st Earl of Kilmuir (better known to history as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe), a lawyer, Conservative politician and judge who was successively the lead British prosecutor at Nuremberg, Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor (head of the English judiciary); after his death she married another Cabinet minister, the 9th Earl De La Warr.
Chronology of Harrison's six marriages:
Grandchildren:
Harrison owned properties in London, New York City and Portofino, Italy. His villa in Portofino was named San Genesio after the patron saint of actors.[30]
Death[edit]
Harrison died from the effects of pancreatic cancer at his home in Manhattan, New York City, on 2 June 1990 at the age of 82. He had been diagnosed with the disease only a short time before. The stage production in which he was appearing at the time, The Circle, came to an end upon his death.[31]
His body was cremated, some of his ashes being subsequently scattered in Portofino, and the rest being scattered at his second wife Lilli Palmer's grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in the Commemoration section, Map 1, Lot 4066, Space 2.[32]
Harrison's second autobiography, A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy, was published posthumously in 1991.
Recognition[edit]
Seth MacFarlane, creator of the animated series Family Guy, modelled the voice of the character Stewie Griffin after Harrison, following seeing him in the film adaptation of My Fair Lady.[53][54]
Ex-CIA chief of disguise Jonna Mendez stated in 2019 that a mask of Harrison was used by multiple CIA agents for covert work. The moulds of his face were larger and so could fit over a smaller agents face. The molds were made from aluminium and bought from Hollywood film facilities. She mentioned that his likeness was "taking part in a lot of operations".[55] According to Mendez, Rex Harrison's aluminium facial props mold was used as a baseline for over-the-head masks that the agency would create and use operationally. The masks came in small, medium and large sizes, with Rex's mold becoming the agency's standard "large" size. Subsequently, many undercover operatives' real identities were disguised by masks bearing Rex's facial features.[55]