Line #13 Creator/RexHarrison


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rex_harrison.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:That's ''[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]]'' Rex Harrison to you.]]
3
4	->''"The important thing is to learn through experience.''\
5	''The more you do the more you learn. I don't think''\
6	''anyone can teach acting from a podium."''
7	-->--'''Rex Harrison'''
8
9	[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Reginald "Rex" Carey Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English stage and screen actor whose career encompassed six decades.
10
11	He started his theater career in his teens in [[OopNorth Liverpool]] and made his breakthrough appearance in a Terrence Rattigan play named ''French Without Tears'', followed by his film debut ''The Great Game'' in 1930, before putting it aside to serve in the Royal Air Force in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
12
13	He attained international fame in 1946 when he portrayed the King in ''Anna and the King of Siam'', his first American film. The following year he starred as the eponymous ghost in ''Film/TheGhostAndMrsMuir''. In spite of admittedly having a vocal range of "one and half notes," Harrison was offered the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the original production of ''Theatre/MyFairLady'' in 1956 and again later in the [[Film/MyFairLady film adaptation]] in 1964. He won the Tony for the play and an Oscar for the film version.
14
15	Off screen, he gained a reputation for being [[HostilityOnTheSet very domineering and hard to work with]], particularly after his success in ''My Fair Lady''. The 1967 musical ''Film/DoctorDolittle'' cast him at the height of his power and he annoyed everyone with unreasonable demands, such as vetoing Creator/SammyDavisJr being cast because he didn't want to work with an "entertainer" (read: someone who could sing better than him) and demanding Creator/SidneyPoitier instead, despite the inconvenient fact that Poitier was no musical performer. That was just the beginning of his antics, whether it was continually demanding pointless script changes or flinging anti-Semitic abuse at co-star Creator/AnthonyNewley. It got to the point where Harrison was fired and about to be replaced by Creator/ChristopherPlummer until he begged for the job back. As it was, Harrison's antics were one of many reasons why ''Doctor Dolittle'' failed spectacularly at the box office and his career never recovered.
16
17	He was also a serial philanderer, marrying six times in total and earning the nickname "Sexy Rexy." His marital problems, especially with his unstable fourth wife (actress Rachel Roberts), was known to disrupt filming almost as much as his own bad behavior. In one case, he divorced from actress Lilli Palmer to marry one of his mistresses, actress Kay Kendall, to provide for her care as she was dying of myeloid leukemia and wanted to remarry Palmer after her death, which ultimately didn't happen.
18
19	In 1989, Rex was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He later died of pancreatic cancer three weeks after his last stage appearance, as Lord Porteous in W. Somerset Maugham's ''The Circle''.
20	----
21	!Roles include:
22
23	* ''Film/TheCitadel'' (1938)
24	* ''Film/NightTrainToMunich'' (1940)
25	* ''Theatre/MajorBarbara'' (1941)
26	* ''Theatre/BlitheSpirit'' (1945)
27	* ''Film/TheGhostAndMrsMuir'' (1947)
28	* ''Film/UnfaithfullyYours'' (1948)
29	* ''Film/MidnightLace'' (1960)
30	* ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'' (1963)
31	* ''Theatre/MyFairLady'' -- Both the stage and film adaptations. (1964)
32	* ''Film/TheAgonyAndTheEcstasy'' (1965)
33	* ''Film/TheYellowRollsRoyce'' (1965)

Context Creator / RexHarrison