--- name: "Rex Harrison" canonical: "https://film.one/person/rex-harrison" roles: ["Actor"] born: "5 March 1908" died: "2 June 1990" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 67 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-19T23:44:06.734139+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Rex Harrison Actor. Born 5 March 1908 in Huyton, Lancashire, England, UK. Died 2 June 1990. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 5 March 1908, Huyton, Lancashire, England, UK - **Died:** 2 June 1990 - **Active:** 1938–1963 - **Also known as:** Reginald Carey Harrison, رکس هریسون - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 1 nominated) - **Average Fi1m score:** 67, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 74 (1), 1960s 60 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Harrison, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q181887, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001322/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/35321 ## Fi1m on Rex Harrison > Rex Harrison made a career of Englishmen who had already seen the trick and were only mildly impressed. The diction was exact, the temperature low, and when a script gave him something to argue about, as *Cleopatra* did, few actors were better company. When Elizabeth Taylor is unrolled from a carpet at his feet in *Cleopatra* (1963), Rex Harrison does not gasp. He asks her what she wants. That is the Harrison manner in one beat: a man who has seen this done before, is quietly pleased by how well it has been done this time, and would like to get on with the paperwork. He plays Julius Caesar as a tired administrator rather than a marble bust, and for the first two hours of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's spectacle he turns the largest sets in the picture into a talky, sceptical chamber drama. Then he leaves the film, as history requires, and it never gets its tone back. The manner was built on stage. He apprenticed with Liverpool Rep from 1924, reached the West End in 1930 and became a name in Terence Rattigan's *French Without Tears* in 1936. What the theatre gave him was diction: every consonant in place, every line delivered as if the speaker had thought of it a moment ago and was faintly bored by how good it was. Noël Coward's *Blithe Spirit* (1945) fixed the screen version, Charles Condomine putting up with a dead wife the way other men put up with damp, and Coward rated him the finest light comedian going, bar one. Hollywood followed, and *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir* (1947) put the same dry Englishman in a sea captain's coat. Then came Henry Higgins. He played the part on Broadway from 1956, in London in 1958 and on film for George Cukor in *My Fair Lady* (1964), and because he could not really sing he spoke the songs in rhythm instead, which made a limitation into the character. A man who lectures a girl about her vowels ought to sound exactly like that. The children came later, with *Doctor Dolittle* (1967). What he could not do, or would not, was warmth. The complaint followed him for forty years and it is fair; the eyes stay dry, and the case against him usually cites *Unfaithfully Yours* (1948). In *Cleopatra*, though, the coldness is the point. Caesar cannot afford to be moved, and Harrison lets the feeling show only in how much he enjoys being argued with. We laughed at the carpet scene more than at anything in the film's second half, and then, to our surprise, felt a little sad, because it is the last time in four hours that anyone speaks to Cleopatra as an equal. Mankiewicz, who directed him three times, knew what he needed: an intelligent opponent and a subject other than love. Grain, gods, who gets to be a king. He was, by most accounts, difficult on a set, and none of it reaches the screen, which is the professional's trick. Start *Cleopatra* from the beginning and stop when he does. The rest is Burton's problem. ## Biography Rex Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. He began his stage career with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre in the mid-1920s and made his West End debut in 1930. He appeared in British films from the 1930s and later worked extensively in Hollywood. Harrison received critical acclaim for stage and screen roles including *Blithe Spirit* (1945) and *Anna and the King of Siam* (1946). He played Julius Caesar in *Cleopatra* (1963) and reprised his stage role as Professor Henry Higgins in the 1964 film *My Fair Lady*, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was knighted in 1989. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Cleopatra* (1963), Fi1m 60, as Julius Caesar — [page](https://film.one/film/cleopatra.md) - *The Citadel* (1938), Fi1m 74, as Dr. Frederick Lawford — [page](https://film.one/film/the-citadel.md) ## Complete filmography (56) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1960's* (2009), as (archive footage) - *Anastasia - The Mystery of Anna* (1986), series, as Grand Duke Cyril Romanov - *The Kingfisher* (1983), as Cecil - *A Time to Die* (1982), as Van Osten - *The Fifth Musketeer* (1979), as Colbert - *Ashanti* (1979), as Brian Walker - *Shalimar* (1978), as Sir John Locksley - *The Prince and the Pauper* (1977), as The Duke of Norfolk - *The Adventures Of Don Quixote* (1973), as Don Quixote - *Platonov* (1971), as Mikhail Platonov - *Great Performances* (1971), series, as Captain Shotover - *Staircase* (1969), as Charles Dyer - *A Flea in Her Ear* (1968), as Victor Chandebisse / Poche - *Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen* (1968), as A man in the street (uncredited) - *Doctor Dolittle* (1967), as Dr. John Dolittle - *The Honey Pot* (1967), as Cecil Fox - *BBC Play of the Month* (1965), series, as Mikhail Platonov, Don Quixote - *The Agony and the Ecstasy* (1965), as Papa Giulio II - *The Car That Became a Star* (1965), as The Marquess of Frinton (archive footage) - *The Yellow Rolls-Royce* (1964), as The Marquess of Frinton - *My Fair Lady* (1964), as Professor Henry Higgins - *Cleopatra* (1963), as Julius Caesar — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/cleopatra.md) - *The Happy Thieves* (1961), as Jimmy Bourne - *Midnight Lace* (1960), as Anthony Preston - *The Dow Hour of Great Mysteries* (1960), series, as Cyril Paxton - *Startime* (1959), series, as Fred Cortin - *Zwischen Glück und Krone* (1959), Actor - *The Reluctant Debutante* (1958), as Jimmy Broadbent - *DuPont Show of the Month* (1957), series, as Mr. Sir - *The Constant Husband* (1955), as William Egerton - *King Richard and the Crusaders* (1954), as Emir Hderim Sultan Saladin - *The Four Poster* (1952), as John Edwards - *The Long Dark Hall* (1951), as Arthur Groome · Associate Producer - *Your Show of Shows* (1950), series, Actor - *Unfaithfully Yours* (1948), as Sir Alfred de Carter - *Escape* (1948), as Matt Denant - *The Foxes of Harrow* (1947), as Stephen Fox - *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir* (1947), as Capt. Daniel Gregg - *Anna and the King of Siam* (1946), as King Mongkut - *The Rake's Progress* (1945), as Vivian Kenway - *Journey Together* (1945), as Guest (uncredited) - *I Live in Grosvenor Square* (1945), as Major David Bruce - *Blithe Spirit* (1945), as Charles Condomine - *Major Barbara* (1941), as Adolphus Cusins - *Night Train to Munich* (1940), as Gus Bennett - *Ten Days in Paris* (1940), as Bob Stevens - *Over the Moon* (1939), as Dr. Freddie Jarvis - *The Silent Battle* (1939), as Jacques Sauvin - *The Citadel* (1938), as Dr. Frederick Lawford — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/the-citadel.md) - *St. Martin's Lane* (1938), as Harley Prentiss - *School for Husbands* (1937), as Leonard Drummond - *Storm in a Teacup* (1937), as Frank Burdon - *Men Are Not Gods* (1936), as Tommy Stapleton - *All at Sea* (1936), as Aubrey Bellingham - *The School for Scandal* (1930), as Man (uncredited) - *The Great Game* (1930), as George ## Gallery - ![Sir Rex Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-6c13052f0469.jpg) Sir Rex Harrison — Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Rex_Harrison_7_Allan_Warren.jpg/1280px-Rex_Harrison_7_Allan_Warren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Rex Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-e62e7fc1cf2f.jpg) Rex Harrison — Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Rex_Harrison_Allan_Warren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Rex Harrison (1973)](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-836542e796fb.jpg) Rex Harrison (1973) — Allan warren, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Rex_Harrison_2_Allan_Warren.jpg/1280px-Rex_Harrison_2_Allan_Warren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Rex Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-5ba829b13799.jpg) Rex Harrison — Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Rex_Harrison_42_Allan_Warren.jpg/1280px-Rex_Harrison_42_Allan_Warren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Rex Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-be2cc406a58a.jpg) Rex Harrison — Image via TMDB - ![Rex Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-da3d8463bf75.jpg) Rex Harrison — Image via TMDB - ![Rex Harrison](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-5475bf6101c4.jpg) Rex Harrison — Image via TMDB - ![Sir Rex Harrison taken at his home Wilton Crescent, Belgravia, London (1976)](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-6898b80cde6a.jpg) Sir Rex Harrison taken at his home Wilton Crescent, Belgravia, London (1976) — Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Rex_Harrison_8_Allan_Warren.jpg/1280px-Rex_Harrison_8_Allan_Warren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Rex Harrison in his study (1976)](https://film.one/media/person/1226862/gallery-1d2bd0a2bf35.jpg) Rex Harrison in his study (1976) — Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Rex_Harrison_Study_Allan_Warren.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 1 won, 1 nominated - 1965: Best Actor (won), for *My Fair Lady* - 1964: Best Actor (nominated), for *Cleopatra* ### Other awards — 2 won, 1 nominated - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1984: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (nominated) - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical 1957: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical (won) - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1949: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/rex-harrison