1. Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison was an English actor.
55 Facts About Rex Harrison
1. 2.
Rex Harrison made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role.
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Rex Harrison won his first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Henry VIII in the Broadway play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949.
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Rex Harrison returned to Broadway portraying Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady where he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
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Rex Harrison's first starring role was opposite Vivien Leigh in the romantic comedy Storm in a Teacup.
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Rex Harrison was married six times and had two sons: Noel and Carey Harrison.
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Rex Harrison continued working in stage productions until shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer in June 1990 at the age of 82.
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Reginald Carey Rex Harrison was born on 5 March 1908 at Derry House in Huyton, Lancashire, the son of Edith Mary and William Reginald Rex Harrison, a cotton broker.
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Rex Harrison was the youngest of three children and had two older sisters, Edith Marjorie Harrison and Sylvia Sackville, Countess De La Warr, DBE.
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Rex Harrison was educated at Birkdale preparatory school and Liverpool College.
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Rex Harrison showed an early desire to become an actor, with regular appearances in school plays, and visits to the Liverpool Playhouse.
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Rex Harrison first appeared on stage in 1924 in Thirty Minutes in a Street at the Liverpool Playhouse, when he was 16 years old.
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Rex Harrison remained there, playing small parts, until 1927 when he joined a touring production of Charley's Aunt.
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Rex Harrison achieved critical acclaim for Heroes Don't Care in 1936.
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Rex Harrison's acting career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Royal Air Force, reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
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Rex Harrison alternated appearances in London and New York in such plays as Bell, Book and Candle, Venus Observed, The Cocktail Party, The Kingfisher and The Love of Four Colonels, which he directed.
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Rex Harrison won his first Tony Award for his appearance at the Shubert Theatre as Henry VIII in Maxwell Anderson's play Anne of the Thousand Days and international superstardom for his portrayal of Henry Higgins in the 1956 stage musical My Fair Lady, where he appeared opposite Julie Andrews.
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Rex Harrison returned as Henry Higgins in the revival of My Fair Lady directed by Patrick Garland in 1981.
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Rex Harrison was nominated for a third Tony Award in 1984 for his performance as Captain Shotover in the revival of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House.
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Rex Harrison had support roles in Get Your Man, Leave It to Blanche, and All at Sea, and a better part in Men Are Not Gods as a reporter in love with Miriam Hopkins; this was the first time Harrison worked for Alexander Korda.
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Rex Harrison's first starring role was in the romantic comedy Storm in a Teacup, opposite Vivien Leigh, for Korda.
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Rex Harrison starred in School for Husbands then reteamed with Leigh in St Martin's Lane.
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Rex Harrison had a key support role in The Citadel for MGM and starred in a comedy for Korda, Over the Moon alongside Merle Oberon.
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Rex Harrison starred in some thrillers: The Silent Battle, Ten Days in Paris and Night Train to Munich, the latter directed by Carol Reed and co starring Margaret Lockwood.
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Rex Harrison was then absent from screens due to war service.
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Rex Harrison returned to films as the lead in Blithe Spirit, from the play by Noel Coward, directed by David Lean.
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Rex Harrison appeared opposite Anna Neagle in I Live in Grosvenor Square which was another big hit.
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Rex Harrison received an offer from 20th Century Fox to star in Anna and the King of Siam in Hollywood.
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In England, Rex Harrison was in The Constant Husband for Sidney Gilliat and British Lion.
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Rex Harrison was offered top billing in MGM's The Reluctant Debutante alongside his wife Kay Kendall.
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Rex Harrison co-starred opposite Doris Day in Midnight Lace and Rita Hayworth in The Happy Thieves.
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In 1964 Rex Harrison reprised his 1956 stage performance as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor.
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Rex Harrison was one of several stars in the popular The Yellow Rolls-Royce, and played the Pope opposite Charlton Heston in Fox's The Agony and the Ecstasy, for Carol Reed.
34.
At the height of his box office fame after the success of My Fair Lady, Rex Harrison proved a temperamental force during production, demanding auditions for prospective composers after musical playwright Leslie Bricusse was contracted and demanding to have his singing recorded live during shooting, only to agree to have it rerecorded in post-production.
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Rex Harrison disrupted production by engaging in incidents with his then wife, Rachel Roberts, and through other deliberate misbehaviour, such as intentionally moving his yacht in front of cameras during shooting in St Lucia and refusing to move it out of sight, all prompted by contract disputes.
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Rex Harrison was at one point temporarily replaced by Christopher Plummer, until he agreed to be more cooperative.
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Rex Harrison was not by any objective standards a singer and the talking on pitch style he used in My Fair Lady was adopted by many other classically trained actors with limited vocal ranges; the music was written to allow for long periods of recitative, or "speaking to the music".
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Nevertheless "Talk to the Animals", which Rex Harrison performed in Doctor Dolittle, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1967.
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Rex Harrison reunited with Mankiewicz in The Honey Pot, a modern adaptation of Ben Jonson's play Volpone.
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Rex Harrison made two more films for 20th Century Fox, both expensive play adaptations that failed at the box office: A Flea in Her Ear, and Staircase.
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Rex Harrison had small roles in Ashanti, The Fifth Musketeer and A Time to Die, his last film.
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In 1947, while married to Palmer, Rex Harrison began an affair with actress Carole Landis.
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In 1955, Rex Harrison starred opposite Kay Kendall in The Constant Husband, and they had an affair.
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Terence Rattigan's 1973 play In Praise of Love was written about the end of this marriage, and Rex Harrison appeared in the New York production playing the character based on himself.
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Rex Harrison was married to Welsh actress Rachel Roberts from 1962 to 1971.
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Rex Harrison then married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, divorcing in 1975; finally, in 1978, he married Mercia Tinker, his sixth and final wife.
47.
Rex Harrison died of a heart attack on 22 January 2025, at age 80.
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Rex Harrison owned properties in London, New York City and Portofino, Italy.
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Rex Harrison died from the effects of pancreatic cancer at his home in Manhattan, New York City, on 2 June 1990 at the age of 82.
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Rex Harrison had been diagnosed with the disease only a short time before.
51.
Rex Harrison's body was cremated, some of his ashes being subsequently scattered in Portofino, and the rest being scattered at his second wife Lilli Palmer's grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in the Commemoration section, Map 1, Lot 4066, Space 2.
52.
Seth MacFarlane, creator of the animated series Family Guy, modelled the voice of the character Stewie Griffin after Rex Harrison, after seeing him in the film adaptation of My Fair Lady.
53.
Ex-CIA chief of disguise Jonna Mendez stated in 2019 that a mask of Rex Harrison was used by multiple CIA agents for covert work.
54.
Rex Harrison mentioned that his likeness was "taking part in a lot of operations".
55.
The masks came in small, medium and large sizes, with Rex Harrison's mould becoming the agency's standard "large" size.