Biography

Rex Harrison

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Overview

Born
March 5, 1908 · Huyton, Lancashire, England, UK [now Huyton, Knowsley, Merseyside, England, UK]
Died
June 2, 1990 · New York City, New York, USA (pancreatic cancer)
Birth name
Reginald Carey Harrison
Nicknames
- Sexy Rexy
- The Rotter
Height
6′ 1″ (1.85 m)

Mini bio

Rex Harrison was born Reginald Carey Harrison in Huyton, Lancashire, England, to Edith Mary (Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He changed his name to Rex as a young boy, knowing it was the Latin word for "King". Starting out on his theater career at age 18, his first job at the Liverpool Rep Theatre was nearly his last - dashing across the stage to say his one line, made his entrance and promptly blew it. Fates were kind, however, and soon he began landing roles in the West End. "French Without Tears", a play by Terence Rattigan, proved to be his breakthrough role. Soon he was being called the "greatest actor of light comedy in the world". Having divorced his first wife Collette Thomas in 1942, he married German actress Lilli Palmer. The two began appearing together in many plays and British films. He attained international fame when he portrayed the King in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), his first American film. After a sex scandal, in which actress Carole Landis apparently committed suicide because he ended their affair, the relationship with wife Lilli became strained. Rex (by this time known as "Sexy Rexy" for his philandering ways and magnetic charm) began a relationship with British actress Kay Kendall and divorced Lilli to marry the terminally ill Kay with hopes of a re-marriage to Palmer upon Kay's death. The death of Kay affected Harrison greatly and Lilli never returned to him. During this time Rex was offered the defining role of his career: Professor Henry Higgins in the original production of "My Fair Lady". He won the Tony for the play and an Oscar for the film version. In 1962 Harrison married actress Rachel Roberts. This union and the one following it to Elizabeth Harris (Richard's ex) also ended in divorce. In 1978 Rex met and married Mercia Tinker. He and Mercia remained happily married until his death in 1990. She was also with him in 1989 when he was granted his much-deserved and long awaited knighthood at Buckingham Palace. Rex Harrison died of pancreatic cancer three weeks after his last stage appearance, as Lord Porteous in W. Somerset Maugham's "The Circle".
- IMDb mini biography by: Peacham
Rex Harrison was born in Huyton, Lancashire and educated at Uppingham School but left in 1924 to go on the stage. At 16 he played a husband in Thirty Minutes in a Street at Liverpool Repertory Theatre to such high reviews that other groups were bidding for him. Within 3 years he'd had over 50 roles, many of them leading roles. In 29 he moved into films such as Get Your Man, All at Sea, The Great Game which were known as Quota Qickies being shot, processed ,edited and often released within a week. Rex never acknowledged the Man when questioned and said that his film career started in 1937 with School For Husbands. His theatre break through came in 1930 as the Hon Fred Thrippleton in Getting George Married at London's Everyman's Theatre, To gain more experience and a relief from comedy he joined a repertory company in Cardiff and while appearing in several dramas it was comedies that he received the best audience reaction. He returned to London in 1934 then made his American stage debut in 1936 in Sweet Aloes to tremendous reviews attracting Hollywood attention with 2 studios offering him screen tests and contracts but these were for 7 years and it was because of that, that he rejected the offers and returned to Britain appearing in French Without Tears which ran for 2 years. British film makers deluged him with offers and arranged film shooting to fit in with his stage performances. One film -The Citadel got wide American distribution and got him noticed. While doing his war service in the RAF he married a nurse, Lilli Palmer and twice their home was just missed by U2 bombs. On being demobbed he returned to films on The Notorious Gentleman which was about the love affairs of a scoundrel who is exiled to a rubber plantation by his embarrassed family. Much to his annoyance American critics dubbed him Sexy Rexy which the film ads played up on. From 1947 he moved easily between stage and screen. By the time My Fair Lady reached Broadway he was estranged from Lilli Palmer partly due to his involvement with the suicide of Carol Landis who died from a sleeping pill overdose. He'd discovered her and was questioned at length by the police trying to determine whether or not she'd left a suicide note other than the innocuous one that Rex had found. A year after the premiere of My Fair Lady he married Kay Kendall and later directed her in the play The The Bright One and the following year they co starred in The Reluctant Debutant Kay died in September 1959 of Leukemia. Rex had with held the knowledge from her determined to make what time she had left kept her as happy as possible,, Some while later e married Rachel Roberts and created film history as being the only married couple to be awarded Oscars in the same year, him for Cleopatra and she for This Sporting Life
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Adopted his "Henry Higgins" hat as his favorite form of headwear
A clipped, witty, off-the-cuff line delivery
The role of Professor Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady"

Trivia

Once punched Frank Sinatra in the jaw, thinking the singer was hitting on his wife, Lilli Palmer. Afterwards the two men became good friends.
He had a reputation for being very abrupt with his fans. One night, after a stage performance of "My Fair Lady," it was late, cold and pouring rain and an old woman was standing alone outside the stage door. As Rex emerged, she asked him for his autograph. Rex told her abruptly to "Sod off"; the old woman was so enraged that she rolled up her program and struck him with it. Harrison's co-star Stanley Holloway, who had followed Rex out in time to see this, commented sarcastically that, for the first time in theater history, "The fan has hit the shit!".
Discovered Carole Landis' body the day she committed suicide. He had dined with her the previous night.
When he accepted his Academy Award for My Fair Lady (1964), he dedicated it to his "two fair ladies", Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews. Last-mentioned had played Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway production, but was passed over for the film version in favor of Hepburn.
Was almost completely blind in one eye as the result of a childhood bout of measles.

Quotes

[When asked if he received any special privileges upon becoming a knight]: Alas, no. In the old days I believe you at least got a couple of horses out of the deal.
There is always a struggle, a striving for something bigger than yourself in all forms of art. And even if you don't achieve greatness, even if you fail, which we all must, everything you do in your work is somehow connected with your attitude toward life, your deepest secret feelings.
Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what's wrong with it.
When I was ten we moved and I decided that none of the names I was then called - Reggie, Bobby, Baa - suited me. Somehow I hit on Rex. I must have heard someone calling for their dog and thought it sounded rather nice.
Whatever it is that makes a person charming, it needs to remain a mystery once the charmer is aware of a mannerism or characteristic that others find charming, it ceases to be a mannerism and becomes an affectation. And good Lord, there is nothing less charming than affectations!