Rex harrison biography
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Rex: An autobiography
Rex discusses his life and career (up through ) and how he became an stage and screen actor. He toured with road companies and acted in plays that were hits. He also took roles in movies that sometimes led to acclaim, and at other times led to poor reviews. Throughout the pages, he was honest and upfront with his successes and failures, professional and personal, and brought the reader into his world. Not only does the reader experience the highs of his life in the theater and movies, they also experience the lows of his professional life along with the lows of his numerous divorces.
Again, this was a pretty good book about an acclaimed actor; one worth reading once, though inom don't think I will want to reread it. At times it was dry, and at times
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Rex Harrison was born Reginald Carey Harrison in Huyton, Lancashire, England, to Edith Mary (Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He changed his name to Rex as a young boy, knowing it was the Latin word for "King". Starting out on his theater career at age 18, his first job at the Liverpool Rep Theatre was nearly his last - dashing across the stage to say his one line, made his entrance and promptly blew it. Fates were kind, however, and soon he began landing roles in the West End. "French Without Tears", a play by Terence Rattigan, proved to be his breakthrough role. Soon he was being called the "greatest actor of light comedy in the world". Having divorced his first wife Collette Thomas in , he married German actress Lilli Palmer. The two began appearing together in many plays and British films. He attained international fame when he portrayed the King in Anna and the King of Siam (), his first American film. After a sex scandal, i
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No one could do better that particular thing Rex Harrison did: the quizzical, elegant, sexually predatory man-about-town. The film that enshrines the persona most vividly is The Rake's Progress (d. Sidney Gilliat, ), in which he plays the caddish philanderer who redeems himself in World War II (Harrison himself had served in the RAF).
The facts of his own life are not entirely remote from the type he made his own on stage (from ) and screen (from ): he married five times, including three rounds with famous actresses - Lilli Palmer (2), Kay Kendall (3), and Rachel Roberts (4) - and seems to have left much to be desired as husband and home-maker; and he was famously involved with American star Carole Landis who, allegedly, killed herself for love of him. The press of course dubbed him 'Sexy Rexy', and this personal history made him safe casting as the ageing homosexual in the British-set, French-made, US-financed Staircase (d. Stanley Donen, ) .
The other great role