A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Rex Harrison

 

Reginald Carey Harrison was born on the 5th of March 1908 at Derry House in Huyton, a semi-detached property known as 'Derry Lodge' that still exists on Tarbock Road and not far away is 'Harrison Hey', a road named after him. The son of Edith Mary (née Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker, he was the youngest of three children and had two older sisters, Edith Marjorie and Sylvia Margaret. A supporter of Everton FC, he was educated at Liverpool College but after a bout of measles he lost most of the sight in his left eye. To lift his spirits his mother took him to the theatre which made him determined to pursue a career in acting. Despite his refusal to take acting lessons, he managed to land his very first acting gig when he was 16 years old when he joined the Liverpool Repertory Theatre in 1924, remaining a member of the company for over twenty years. His father was a friend of one of the board members of the Liverpool Playhouse and pulled a few strings, and his son was hired on 30 shillings a week. He gave himself the stage name 'Rex' after learning that the name meant 'king' in Latin. His debut in 1925 was a disaster after he mixed up his lines and the director, William Armstrong, advised him to give up. Instead, he went to London, after touring the provinces in the comedy 'Charlie's Aunt', and in 1930 his first film, 'The Great Game', was released. In January 1934 he married the wealthy upper class model Noel Margery Colette-Thomas shortly before their son was born Noel, born. 

Noel with his parents in Portofino, Italy

 

It was his performance in 'Heroes Don't Care' (1936) that made Alexander Korda sign him for film work and they made the amusing 'Storm in A Teacup' (1936), but he continued with stage work and made his West End debut appearing in 'French Without Tears' (1936) and throughout the 1930s divided his time nearly equally between the stage and the screen having a noted stage success with his role in Noel Coward's 'Design for Living' (1939–41). In 1942, he divorced his first wife, Noel Margery Colette-Thomas, and in 1943 married the actress Lilli Palmer with whom he had been having an affair while his wife was working for the Red Cross. They would later appear together in numerous plays and films, including 'The Four Poster' (1952). They had a son, Carey, and built a villa at Portofino on the Italian Riviera where over the years he hosted showbiz royalty including Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, and real royalty in the Duke of Windsor and Wallace Simpson. He undertook War Service between 1942-1944 and after the War, had his first big film success in 'Blithe Spirit' (1945), shortly followed by 'The Rake's Progress' (1945).

Hollywood then claimed him and films included 'Anna and The King of Siam' (1946) and 'The Ghost and Mrs Muir' (1947). However, despite his talent, his reputation behind the scenes was less-than-savory. Not only was he difficult to work with, but he was also a die-hard womanizer. In 1947, while married, Rex began an affair with actress Carole Landis who took her own life in 1948 after spending the evening with Harrison, during which he told her in no uncertain terms that he would never leave his wife for her. His involvement in the scandal, by waiting several hours before calling a doctor and police, briefly damaged his career and his contract with Twentieth Century-Fox was ended by mutual consent. Wanting to escape the scrutiny of the tabloids, Rex and his wife left the Hollywood film studios for the bright lights of the stage and settled in New York City, mostly appearing in productions there.

My Fair Lady

He won his first Tony Award for his appearance at the Shubert Theatre as Henry VIII in the play 'Anne of a Thousand Days' (1949). Harrison and Palmer then seperated amicably leaving Rex free to move in with his mistress, Kay Kendall, two decades his junior, with whom he had been having an affair since appearing together in 'The Constant Husband' (1955) . He was later informed by her doctor that Kay had a form of leukemia that would most certainly take her life in a matter of months, but he refused to inform Kay, but instead called his estranged wife to tell her. She told Rex that they should get divorced, and that he should marry Kay and take care of her until her inevitable passing. This he did, divorcing Lilli in 1957 and marrying Kay. The next two years were heavenly as Rex achieved international stardom, as well as a second Tony, for his portrayal of Henry Higgins in the stage musical 'My Fair Lady', appearing opposite Julie Andrews (1956-59). This musical adaptation of Pygmalion on stage in NY and London was his greatest stage triumph. Because he was hopeless as a singer—Loewe once remarking that Harrison had a vocal range of one and a half notes—Harrison developed a technique of talking his way through songs that proved highly effective. Sadly Kay died of myeloid leukaemia in 1959. Rex repeated the role of Henry Higgins for Warner Brothers's lavish 1964 screen adaptation for which he was awarded an Oscar for best actor. He had married his fourth wife, the Welsh actress Rachel Roberts two years earlier in 1962 but they divorced in 1971. That year saw him marry again, now to the Welsh socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams, who he had met a decade earlier. However the marriage was not a happy one, characterised by Harrison's bad temper and coldness, jaded by his four failed marriages, and it too ended in divorce in 1975. Finally, in 1978, he married Mercia Tinker, his sixth and final wife. During the 1970s he had continued to appear in motion pictures and on New York and London stages, releasing his first autobiography in 1975 and in 1980 he recreated the role of Higgins in a successful touring production of 'My Fair Lady'. He then gave his greatest performance of his later years as the philosophical and mystical Captain Shotover in the 1983 Broadway and London productions of Shaw’s 'Heartbreak House', which was adapted into a television film in 1986. In June 1989, he was knighted by the Queen. He continued working in stage productions with his final performance in a 1990 revival of Somerset Maugham’s 'The Circle', in which he appeared until one month before his death from pancreatic cancer in June 1990 at the age of 82. His second autobiography, 'A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy', was published posthumously in 1991. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/09/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-donald.html