23 July 1956

Born Reginald Carey Harrison in Huyton, Lancashire, England; educated at Liverpool College. Harrison made his stage debut at 16 with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre, with which he remained for three years. In 1930 he first appeared on the London stage as well as in British films. In 1936 he made the first of many appearances on Broadway, in Sweet Aloes, and later that year became a London stage star in French Without Tears, a play that established him as an adroit master of black-tie comedy. He appeared in THE CITADEL (1938), NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH (1940), and MAJOR BARBARA (1941). His rising stage and screen career was interrupted by WW II, in which he served as flight lieutenant in the RAF, but was resumed triumphantly in 1945 with such British films as BLITHE SPIRIT and NOTORIOUS GENTLEMAN / THE RAKE'S PROGRESS. Later that year he went to Hollywood, where he starred in a number of films, notably ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946). Other notable screen appearances during this period include THE FOXES OF HARROW (1947), UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948), THE FOUR POSTER (1952) and MIDNIGHT LACE (1960). Harrison's remarkable stage and screen career on both sides of the Atlantic culminated in the mid-1950s with a definitive portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins in Broadway's My Fair Lady. He won the Academy Award in 1964 for repeating the role in the film version. Subsequent screen credits include such films as THE YELLOW ROLLS-ROYCE (1964), THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (1965), DOCTOR DOLITTLE (1967), A FLEA IN HER EAR (1968), CROSSED SWORDS (1977), SHALIMAR (1978), ASHANTI and THE FIFTH MUSKETEER (both 1979), and his last feature film, A TIME TO DIE (1982). The elegant, charming, and blasé actor was married six times. His first marriage (1934-42), to one Marjorie Thomas, produced actor Noel Harrison (b. 1936 in London); his second (1943-57) was to actress Lilli Palmer; his third (1957-59) to the late actress Kay Kendall; his fourth (1962-71) to actress Rachel Roberts; his fifth (in 1971) to Elizabeth Harris, the ex-wife of actor Richard Harris; and his sixth (in 1978) to one Mercia Tinker. In 1948, Harrison's name was mentioned in connection with the suicide of Hollywood actress Carole Landis. He was referred to, often teasingly, as "Sexy Rexy" (a name which he hated) in the gossip columns. Harrison had a reputation for being very abrupt with his fans. According to the IMDb, one night, after a stage performance of My Fair Lady, it was late, cold and pouring with rain and there was an old woman standing alone outside the Stage Door. When she saw Harrison, she asked him for his autograph. He told her to "Sod off", and the old woman was so enraged at this that she rolled up her program and hit him with it. Stanley Holloway, who had followed Harrison out in time to see this, congratulated him on not only making theater history but, for the first time in world history, "the fan has hit the shit!" In 1989 at the age of 81, Harrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. This was unusual since historically knighthood was not bestowed on anyone who lived abroad or had married more than once. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1990, three weeks after his last stage appearance as Lord Proteus in W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle. Harrison is one of the nine actors who have won a Tony® Award and an Academy Award for recreating their stage role on film.  Nominated for Actor 1963: CLEOPATRA  Actor 1964: MY FAIR LADY 2 nominations, 1 Award