Rex Harrison Started Acting When He Was 16 Years Of Age

Wanganui Chronicle, 18 February 1949, Page 7

Rex Harrison Started Acting When He Was 16 Years Of Age

Rex Harrison was born at Huyton, Lancashire in 1908, and has beer, acting ever since the age of sixteen, when he joined the Liverpool Repertory Company. Seven years later, he appeared for the first time in London in “Getting George Married,” after which he spent some years touring with leading companies, and establishing his reputation for an individual type of light comedy acting, with a flair for getting the best out of his lines by an uncanny accuracy in “timing” and “placing.’’ Soon after the advent of “talkies," Rex played in his first film, Sheridan's “The School for Scandal," and again with Miriam Hopkins in her only British film “Men Are Not Gods.” He now played regularly opposite some of the most important stars: with Vivien Leigh in Bridie’s “Storm in a Tea-Cup," and with Vivien Leigh and Charles Laughton in “St. Martin’s Lane;” with Diana Churchill in “School for Husbands;" with Merele Oberon in “Over the Moon" and with Wendy Hiller in “Major Barbara.” For this last film, just after the war broke out, Rex was released from his duties in the R.A.F., but he always considered his service duties appeared on the stage only once durmore important than acting, and lie ing the war, with Constance Cummings in “No Time for Comedy.” He starred again with Constance Cummings and Kay Hammond in “Blithe Spirit;” and with Anna Neagie in “I Live in Grosvenor Square.” But perhaps his. best performances in British films have been in "Night Train to Munich" and "The Rake's Progress." After this, he left England for America, where he made “Anna and the King of Siam." This proved a great success and his next American film was "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.” This was followed by the outstanding "The Foxes of Harrow.” He will shrortly be seen in "Escape" and “Unfaithfully Yours,” soon to be released in this country.

An "outdoor” man, Rex plays golf and tennis, and loves riding. He spends a lot of time in his pleasant garden just around the corner from the studios, with his wife Lilli Palmer, and thei r small son, Rex Carey.