Rex Harrison - ©Theda Bara

In this post, I will highlight the British stage and film actor, Sir. Rex Harrison, who won the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film “My Fair Lady” (1962), playing the role of phonetics professor “Henry Higgins”, tasked with making a flower-selling beggar woman pass herself off as a lady of high society.

Rex Harrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) in July 1989. The official ceremony took place at Buckingham Palace on July 25, 1989, when he was 81 years old.

In addition to the Oscar, Rex Harrison won two Tony Awards: in 1953 for “The Four Poster” (1952), playing “John Edwards”, and in 1957 for “My Fair Lady” (on Broadway). He also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical in 1963 for “My Fair Lady”.

Sir. Rex Harrison has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6390 Hollywood Boulevard in the Television category and at 6904 Hollywood Boulevard in the Film category.

Reginald Carey Harrison was born on March 5, 1908, in the Huyton-Roby neighborhood of Lancashire, England, and died on June 2, 1990, in New York City, United States, at the age of 82, one year after receiving the title of Sir.

The actor was married six times. His first wife was French teacher Noel Marjorie Collette Thomas (1911-1991), with whom he lived from 1934 to 1942. The couple had one son, British actor Noel John Christopher Harrison (1934-2013); his second wife was German actress and writer Lilli Palmer (1914-1986), with whom he lived from 1943 to 1957; his third wife was English actress and singer Justine Kay Kendall McCarthy (1927-1959), with whom he lived from 1957 to 1959; His fourth wife was British actress Rachel Roberts (1920-1980), to whom he was married from 1962 to 1971. Rex Harrison’s fifth marriage occurred in the same year as his separation from his fourth wife. He met British actress and socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams (1936-2022), a romance that lasted four years, from 1971 to 1975. Later, she married British actor Richard St. John Harris (1930-2002), famous for playing “Albus Dumbledore”, the headmaster of “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”, in the first two “Harry Potter” films: “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and “Harry Potter and the  Chamber of Secrets”. He played the character until his death in 2002, when Sir. Michael John Gambon (1940-2023) took over the role from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” onwards. Finally, Rex Harrison’s last marriage was to the Franco-British fashion designer Mercia Tinker (1938-), from 1978 to 1990, leaving her a widow.