Rex Harrison

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Rex Harrison (1976)

Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (born March 5, 1908 in Huyton , Lancashire , England , † June 2, 1990 in New York City , New York ) was a British actor . He won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1965 for My Fair Lady .

Career

Rex Harrison began his career in September 1924 at the age of 16 at the Liverpool Repertory Theater with the play Thirty Minutes in a Street . In 1930 he came to London , played on various stages and at the age of 28 was already considered the best comedy actor in England. On the stage as in the film he embodied the dandy , charmer and womanizer .

Harrison did not become a movie star in Great Britain until 1945 as the writer Charles Condomine in ghost comedy . In Hollywood he was able to establish himself in the following years by leading roles in the films Anna and the King of Siam and A Ghost on Free Feet . Despite other big screen successes, Harrison remained mostly a stage actor in the 1950s. On Broadway he was extremely successful from 1956 as Professor Henry Higgins in the musical My Fair Lady . Up until the 1980s he was seen in this star role across America. As an unexpected villain, he appeared in 1960 in the crime thriller Midnight Spikes on the side of Doris Day . In the mid-1960s he was at the height of his work. He played two of his most famous roles as Professor Higgins in the musical adaptation of My Fair Lady and as Julius Caesar in Cleopatra . His last film Time to Die in 1982 (original title: A Time to Die, by Matt Cimber), in which he portrayed a Nazi lawyer and war criminal who almost made it to the Justice Minister in the Federal Republic of Germany, but from a vengeful one, was a failure Ex-GI is shot.

Private life

In 1948 Harrison's name was linked to the suicide of Hollywood star Carole Landis , with whom he is said to have had an affair. As "Sexy Rexy" he became a gossip columnist favorite.

Harrison was married six times:

His first four wives were actresses. With Lilli Palmer he went to Hollywood in 1946 and made a career there too. They also had success together on Broadway in New York. In 1956 the marriage ended in divorce. He was married to Kay Kendall until her death in 1959. The marriage to the writer Mercia Tinker ended with Harrison's death; he died in 1990 of pancreatic cancer . Der Spiegel wrote in its obituary: “A noble, stylish comedian, he mastered the role of the English gentleman so perfectly that it became second nature to him in life too. He wore his arrogance like a tailor-made suit, casually padded with elegant irony [...] “The Queen had given him a knighthood a year earlier .

Filmography (selection)

cinemamovies

watch TV

  • 1973: Don Quichotte (The Adventures of Don Quixote , TV film from the BBC Play of the Month series)
  • 1983: Der Eisvogel (The Kingfisher , TV movie)
  • 1986: Anastasia (Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna , TV movie)

Awards

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 .

Web links

Commons : Rex Harrison  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Harrison, Rex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harrison, Sir Reginald Carey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Huyton , Lancashire, England, UK
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1990
Place of death New York City , New York, United States