Rex Harrison Biography

By 1936 he had become a bona fide British star, starring in ‘French Without Tears’, in which he showed himself to be very skilled in black-tie comedy.

Although a stint as a flight lieutenant in the RAF during World War II interrupted his career somewhat, he quickly re-established himself with a number of British films, after the war had ended.

Harrison moved to Hollywood in 1945, where his career continued to prosper. Among his many roles was that of the king in the 1946 production of ‘Anna and the King of Siam’.

Harrison will probably be best remembered for his performance as Professor Henry Higgins in the musical ‘My Fair Lady’, a character he played on Broadway from 1956-1958 and in London in the late 1950s. In 1964 he also picked up an Oscar for his onscreen version of the role. He had previously received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Julius Caesar in 'Cleopatra' in 1963.

Harrison continued to act on both the stage and screen in the 1970s and into the 1980s. He published his autobiography, ‘Rex’, in 1975 and four years later he edited and published an anthology of poetry - ‘If Love Be Love’.

Knighted in 1989, he starred in the Broadway revival of Somerset Maugham's ‘The Circle’, until one month before his death from pancreatic cancer in 1990.