30 Facts About Julie Harris

1.

Julie Harris debuted on Broadway in 1945, against the wishes of her mother, who wanted her to be a society debutante.

2.

Julie Harris was acclaimed for her performance as an isolated 12-year-old girl in the 1950 play The Member of the Wedding, a role she reprised in the 1952 film of the same name, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

3.

Julie Harris gave acclaimed performances in films including The Haunting, and Reflections in a Golden Eye, in which she played opposite Marlon Brando.

4.

Julie Harris was a Grammy Award winner and a three time Emmy Award winner.

5.

Julie Harris was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, and the 2002 Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.

6.

Julia Ann Harris was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, the daughter of Elsie L, a nurse, and William Pickett Harris, an investment banker and authority on zoology.

7.

Julie Harris had an older brother, William, and a younger brother, Richard.

8.

Julie Harris graduated from Grosse Pointe Country Day School, which later merged with two others to form the University Liggett School.

9.

In 1952, Julie Harris won her first Best Actress Tony Award for originating the role of insouciant Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin.

10.

Julie Harris repeated her stage role in the film version of I Am a Camera.

11.

Julie Harris received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for the audio recording of the play.

12.

Julie Harris first performed the play in 1976 and subsequently appeared in other solo shows, including Luce's Bronte.

13.

In 1983, Julie Harris became a company member of The Mirror Theater Ltd's Mirror Repertory Company.

14.

Julie Harris became a mentor to the company, having urged Founding Artistic Director Sabra Jones to create the company from 1976 forward, when Jones married John Strasberg.

15.

In 1966, Julie Harris won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.

16.

Julie Harris played the ethereal Eleanor Lance in The Haunting, director Robert Wise's screen adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson.

17.

Julie Harris was nominated for 11 Primetime Emmy Awards for her television work, winning three.

18.

Julie Harris starred as Nora Helmer opposite Christopher Plummer in A Doll's House, a 90-minute television adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play.

19.

Julie Harris made more appearances in leading roles on the Hallmark program than any other actress, appearing in two different adaptations of the play Little Moon of Alban, her performance in the 1958 TV movie of the same name earning her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

20.

Julie Harris won her third Emmy award in 2000 for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her voice role of Susan B Anthony in Not for Ourselves Alone.

21.

In 1980, Julie Harris guest starred in the series Knots Landing as country singer Lilimae Clements, the eccentric and protective mother of Valene Ewing ; she returned to the series as a regular character from 1981 to 1987.

22.

Julie Harris recorded narrations of many children's books for Caedmon Records.

23.

Julie Harris did extensive voiceover work for documentary maker Ken Burns: the voices of Emily Warren Roebling in Brooklyn Bridge, Ann Lee in The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God, and most notably Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut for Burns' 1990 series The Civil War.

24.

Julie Harris continued to work until 2009, well into her eighties, narrating five historical documentaries by Christopher Seufert and Mooncusser Films, as well as being active as a director on the board of the independent Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.

25.

In 2007, when the company built a new, additional theater, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Ms Julie Harris declined to have the building named for her.

26.

Julie Harris lived in West Chatham, Cape Cod, for many years until her death.

27.

Julie Harris died on August 24,2013, of congestive heart failure at her home in West Chatham, Massachusetts.

28.

On December 5,2005, Julie Harris was named a Kennedy Center Honoree.

29.

Julie Harris has found happiness in her life's work, and we thank her for sharing that happiness with the whole world.

30.

Julie Harris's eyes connected directly to and channeled the depths of her powerful and tender heart.