Harris was envied (he had a record 4 consecutive theatrical hits within 18 months by the age of 28) and despised (arrogant, egotistical, tyrannical) by his peers on Broadway.
Laurence Olivier was said to have based his characterization of Richard III on Harris' personality. He was a notorious womanizer, fathering an illegitimate child with
Ruth Gordon in 1929, a scandal that destroyed the first of his four rather brief marriages.
George S. Kaufman, who had worked with Harris on monster hit "The Front Page," disliked him intensely, expressing the desire that, when he died, he be cremated so his ashes could be thrown in the face of Jed Harris. Despite his innumerable shortcomings, Harris is still regarded as one of the most successful talents ever to work on Broadway.
