Rex Harrison
“The urbane Englishman who made talking through a song an art of its own.”
Rex Harrison's breakthrough came in 1936 when he charmed the West End in Terence Rattigan's comedy 'French Without Tears,' establishing him as a debonair leading man. He became a true international star with stage and screen triumphs as Henry Higgins, winning the 1964 Best Actor Oscar for 'My Fair Lady.'
Lancashire Boy to West End Star
Born Reginald Carey Harrison, he adopted the name 'Rex' as a child. After regional repertory work, his 1936 hit 'French Without Tears' made him a fashionable West End leading man and launched a stage and film career spanning five decades.
The Definitive Henry Higgins
Harrison created the role of phonetics professor Henry Higgins in Lerner and Loewe's 'My Fair Lady' on Broadway in 1956. He reprised it for the lavish 1964 film and won the Academy Award for Best Actor, his signature triumph.
Stage, Screen and Knighthood
A versatile performer in comedy, drama and musicals, he won two Tonys and was knighted in 1989. Married six times, he kept working on stage almost until his death from cancer in 1990.
Career Timeline
- 1908Born Reginald Carey Harrison in Huyton, Lancashire, England
- 1936West End breakthrough in 'French Without Tears'
- 1945Stars in Noel Coward's 'Blithe Spirit'
- 1946Hollywood debut in 'Anna and the King of Siam'
- 1947Charms audiences in 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'
- 1949Wins Tony for 'Anne of the Thousand Days'
- 1956Originates Henry Higgins in 'My Fair Lady' on Broadway
- 1963Plays Julius Caesar in epic 'Cleopatra'
- 1964Wins Best Actor Oscar for 'My Fair Lady' film
- 1967Stars in troubled musical 'Doctor Dolittle'
- 1989Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
- 1990Dies of pancreatic cancer in Manhattan
Biggest Hits
- Composer Frederick Loewe joked Harrison had a vocal range of just one and a half notes, so he invented a talk-singing style for 'My Fair Lady.'
- Seth MacFarlane based the voice of baby Stewie Griffin on 'Family Guy' on Harrison's clipped Henry Higgins delivery.
The Moment You Remember
His talk-singing of the Higgins songs in My Fair Lady, each phrase delivered with exasperated precision, showed that a man who could barely carry a tune could still own a musical and win an Oscar doing it.
Portrait: Allan Warren · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons