Rosemary Harris

 ( 1927 Births ) 

Rosemary Ann Harris (born 19 September 1927) is an English actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and three Laurence Olivier Awards. Harris was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1986, and she won the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2017.

Harris began her stage career in 1948, before making her Broadway debut in 1952. For her New York stage work, she is a four-time Drama Desk Award winner and nine-time Tony Award nominee, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in for portraying Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter (1966). Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Old Times (1972), The Royal Family (1976), Heartbreak House (1984), Pack of Lies (1985), Hay Fever (1986), A Delicate Balance (1996), Waiting in the Wings (2000), and The Royal Family (2010).

She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her portrayal of George Sand in the BBC serial Notorious Woman (1976), and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for playing Berta Palitz Weiss in the miniseries Holocaust (1978). For her performance in the historical drama film Tom & Viv (1994) she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Harris is also known for her portrayal of Aunt May, the paternal aunt of Spider-Man, in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007).

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Early life Harris was born on 19 September 1927 in Ashby De La Zouch, Leicestershire, the daughter of Enid Maude Frances (née Campion) and Stafford Berkeley Harris. One of her grandmothers was from Kronstadt in the Habsburg Empire (today Romania). Rosemary Harris and the Picture: Madonna of the Slaughtered Jews . Nmia.com. Retrieved on 27 August 2011. Hollywood made in Romania (partea a II-a). eroiiromanieichic.ro (8 December). Retrieved on 13 January 2013. Her father was in the Royal Air Force, and as a result, Harris' family lived in British India during her early childhood. She attended convent schools, and later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1951 to 1952.

Thomas S. Hischak (2026). 9780195123470, Oxford University Press. . ISBN 9780195123470

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Career

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1948–1965: Rise to prominence Early in her acting career, she gained experience in English repertory theatre. In 1948, she acted in Kiss and Tell at Eastbourne and Margate with Tilsa Page and John Clark and later with Anthony Cundell's company at Penzance, where she played the mother in Black Chiffon. She went from Penzance to train at RADA. She first appeared in New York City in 1951 in Moss Hart's Climate of Eden,

(2026). 9780195169867, Oxford University Press. . ISBN 9780195169867

and then returned to Britain for her West End debut in The Seven Year Itch which ran for a year at the Aldwych.

J. P. Wearing (2026). 9780810893078, Rowman & Littlefield. . ISBN 9780810893078

Harris then entered a classical acting period in productions with the Bristol Old Vic and then the Old Vic, appearing at the latter as Ophelia in the National Theatre Company's opening production of Hamlet in October 1963, alongside Peter O'Toole in the title role. Writing in UK newspaper The Guardian in 2003 as part of a series on landmark theatre productions, playwright Samantha Ellis noted of the National Theatre's opening night:

Her first film followed, Beau Brummell (1954) with Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor, and then a touring season with the Old Vic brought her back to Broadway in Tyrone Guthrie's production of Troilus and Cressida. She met Ellis Rabb who had plans to start his own producing company on Broadway. The following year she portrayed Desdemona in a television production of William Shakespeare's Othello directed by Tony Richardson Harris acted opposite Paul Rogers, Robert Hardy, and Nigel Davenport. In 1957 she appeared in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1958 she acted alongside John Williams, and Maurice Evans in the NBC production of Dial M for Murder. That same year she portrayed Catherine Linton acting alongside Richard Burton who portrayed Heathcliff in the CBS television production of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. By 1959, the Association of Producing Artist (APA) was established, and she and Rabb were married on 4 December of that year.

In 1962, she returned to Britain and Chichester Festival Theatre during its opening season when the director was Laurence Olivier; she appeared as Elena in Olivier's celebrated 1962–63 Chichester production of Uncle Vanya.See the VHS recording of this performance issued by Arthur Cantor Films, New York. She reprised her role in the 1963 British film adaptation acting opposite Olivier, Michael Redgrave, and Joan Plowright. In 1964, she was Ophelia to Peter O'Toole's Hamlet in the inaugural production of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. She returned to Broadway portraying Megara in Herakles at the Lyceum Theatre. That same year she portrayed Alice Sycamore in You Can't Take It with You. She also appeared in an off-Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman at the Phoenix Theatre.

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1966–1999: Theatre roles and acclaim Harris gained acclaim working further with the APA, and was cast as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter opposite Robert Preston's Henry II at the Ambassador Theatre. She received praise for the role as well as the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Rabb directed her one last time as Natasha in War and Peace in 1967, the same year they agreed to divorce. A little while later, Harris married the American writer John Ehle. The two of them can be heard interviewing prospective candidates, Black public school student candidates for scholarships to all-white private "Segregation academies", on surviving recordings. A transcript is also available. Ehle was the manager for this Stouffer Foundation program. In 1968 she portrayed Gabrielle Chandebisse in the film A Flea in Her Ear based on the 1907 French farce of the same name by Georges Feydeau. She acted with Rex Harrison and Louis Jourdan. She received Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play nominations for her roles as Anna in Harold Pinter's Old Times (1971) and Julie Cavendish in George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's The Royal Family (1975).

During this time she portrayed Blanche DuBois in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire (1973) and Portia in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1973). In 1974, Harris starred in the BBC TV serial Notorious Woman, which aired on PBS in the US as part of Masterpiece Theatre. For this role, she won the 1976 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – TV Drama for the 1978 NBC miniseries Holocaust, which also starred Meryl Streep and James Woods. Also in 1978 she acted in Franklin J. Schaffner's science-fiction thriller The Boys from Brazil acting with Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, and Denholm Elliott. The film received critical acclaim and earned three Academy Award nominations.

From 1979 to 1980 she starred in the CBS Western miniseries The Chisholms opposite Robert Preston. Reviewing the BBC's 1983 production of To the Lighthouse, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name, John J. O'Connor of The New York Times wrote: "A luminous, flawless performance by Miss Harris makes Mrs. Ramsay as memorable on film as she is on the printed page." She played Ann Barrington in the Richard Eyre directed The Ploughman's Lunch (1983) written by Ian McEwan. She acted with Jonathan Pryce and Tim Curry. The film looks at the media world in Margaret Thatcher's Britain around the time of the Falklands War. Vincent Canby of The New York Times declared, "the film's most arresting character is Ann, a beautiful woman whose intelligence is demonstrated both in the writing and in Miss Harris's superlative performance." She also took film roles in Crossing Delancey (1988) and The Delinquents (1989), and The Bridge (1992). She returned to Broadway acting in Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers (1991).

For her role as Rose Haigh-Wood in the historical drama Tom & Viv, she won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Harris acted with Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson. The film was based on the 1984 play of the same name by Michael Hastings. She returned to Broadway in a revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (1996) for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. That same year she had a brief role as Player Queen in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Hamlet (1996). Harris and her daughter Jennifer Ehle, played the young and elderly incarnations, respectively, of the same character in István Szabó's 1999 film Sunshine, about a Hungarian-Jewish family. They previously played the young and old Calypso in the Channel 4 production of The Camomile Lawn (1992). In 1999 she starred in the Hugh Hudson directed film My Life So Far based on the Denis Forman book of the same name. Harris acted with Colin Firth, Irène Jacob, Malcolm McDowell, and Kelly Macdonald.

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2000–present

Harris had a recurring role as Aunt May in the first film adaptation of Spider-Man, reprising the role in the sequels Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). These films were critically acclaimed and were commercially successful. Directed by Sam Raimi, the films also starred Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, J. K. Simmons, Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina. Her film roles during this period included the supernatural horror film The Gift (2000) starring Cate Blanchett, the romantic comedy Blow Dry (2001) with Alan Rickman and Natasha Richardson, and the comedy-drama Being Julia starring Annette Bening. Harris appeared in the rotating cast of the Off-Broadway staged reading of Wit & Wisdom. "Synopsis of Wit & Wisdom" at Theater Mania In 2007, she received the North Carolina Award for fine arts. Her husband, John Ehle, won the same award in 1972 for literature. North Carolina Award profile Also in 2007 she acted in Sidney Lumet's crime thriller Before the Devil Knows You're Dead for which she received the Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast along with the cast.

Harris took limited film roles in the drama Is Anybody There? with Michael Caine, the romantic comedy This Means War starring Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and Tom Hardy, and the musical drama (2015) with Matthew Macfadyen. She had a guest starring role in (2010). On 11 September 2018, a week before her 91st birthday, Harris took over the role of Mrs Higgins in the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady from Diana Rigg. She recently acted in the HBO limited series The Undoing (2020) as a guest actress and had a recurring role in the HBO Max comedy series Search Party (2022).

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Personal life

From 1959 to 1967, she was married to actor and director Ellis Rabb. In 1967, she married writer John Ehle and they settled in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where their daughter, Jennifer Ehle, was born in 1969. Jennifer followed in her mother's footsteps by becoming a noted film, television and Broadway actress. Harris' archive is part of the performing arts collections at the Harry Ransom Center, which include her scripts, photographs, posters, correspondence, playbills, and other ephemera.

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Acting credits

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Film

1954	Beau Brummell	Mrs. Fitzherbert	film debut
1957	The Shiralee	Lily Parker
1963	Uncle Vanya	Yelena
1968	A Flea in Her Ear	Gabrielle Chandebisse
1978	The Boys from Brazil	Mrs. Doring
1983	The Ploughman's Lunch	Ann Barrington
1988	Crossing Delancey	Pauline Swift
1989	The Delinquents	Isobel
1992	The Bridge	Aunt Jude
1994	Tom & Viv	Rose Haigh-Wood
1996	Hamlet	Player Queen
1999	My Life So Far	Gamma
	Sunshine	Valerie Sors
2000	The Gift	Annie's Granny
2001	Blow Dry	Daisy
2002	Spider-Man	Aunt May
2004	Spider-Man 2
	Being Julia	Julia's mother
2007	Spider-Man 3	Aunt May Parker
	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead	Nanette
2008	Is Anybody There?	Elsie
	The Monday Before Thanksgiving	Lillian Cotlo	Short film
2010	Radio Free Albemuth	VALIS (voice role)
2012	This Means War	Nana Foster
2015		Older Agathe von Trapp

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Television

1952	A Cradle of Wlllow	Tansy Clampett	Television debut; Television film
	Studio One in Hollywood	Herself	Episode: "The Great Lady"
1955	Othello	Desdemona	Television film
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Louise Rogers / Countess Helen Sorrington-Mattoni	Season 2 Episodes 26 and 27: "I Killed the Count Parts 2 & 3"
		Dorothy Whitely	Season 3 Episode 1: "The Glass Eye"
	Twelfth Night	Viola	Television film
1958	Suspicion	Sybil Merton	Episode: "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime"
	Omnibus	Cordelia	Episode: "Moment of Truth"
	Dial M for Murder	Margot Wendice	Television film
	Folio	Dynamene	Episode: "A Phoenix Too Frequent"
	DuPont Show of the Month	Cathy Linton	Episode: Wuthering Heights
1959	Encounter	Norah Marsh	Episode: "The Land of Promise"
1964	Profiles in Courage	Mary S. McDowell	Episode: "Mary S. McDowell"
1966	Blithe Spirit	Elvira Condomine	Television film
1967	Uncle Vanya	Jelena Andrejewna	Television film
1974	Notorious Woman	George Sand	Television miniseries; 7 episodes
1977	The Royal Family	Julie Cavendish	Television film
1978	Holocaust	Berta Palitz Weiss	Television miniseries; 4 episodes
1979–1980	The Chisholms	Minerva Chisholm	Television miniseries; 13 episodes
1983	To the Lighthouse	Mrs. Ramsay	Television film
1992	The Camomile Lawn	Calypso (older)	Television miniseries; 2 episodes
1994	Under the Hammer	Hester Bovington	Episode: "The Spectre at the Feast"
	Summer Day's Dream	Margaret Dawlish	One-off production in the BBC's Performance series
1996	The Little Riders	Grandma Roden	Television film
	Death of a Salesman	Linda	Television film
2004	Belonging	May	Television film
2010		Francine Brooks	Episode: ""
2014	The Money	Ellen Knox	Television film
2020	The Undoing	Janet Fraser	Episode: "Trial by Fury"
2022	Search Party	Beatrice	2 episodes

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Theatre

1952	The Climate of Eden	Mabel	Martin Beck Theatre, Broadway
1953–54	The Seven Year Itch	The Girl	Aldwych Theatre, London
1954	The Crucible	Elizabeth Proctor	Bristol Old Vic, London
1956	Troilus and Cressida	Cressida	Winter Garden Theatre, Broadway
1957	The Glass Eye	Dorothy Witley	ANTA Playhouse, New York
1958	Interlock	Hilde	ANTA Playhouse, New York
	The Disenchanted	Jere Halliday	Coronet Theatre, Broadway
1960	The Tumbler	Lennie	Helen Hayes Theatre, Broadway
1963	Uncle Vanya	Ilyena	Chichester Festival Theatre, London
	Hamlet	Ophelia	Old Vic Theatre, London
1965	Judith	Judith	Phoenix Theatre, Off-Broadway
	Man and Superman	Violet Robinson
	War and Peace	Natasha Rostova
	Herakles	Megara	Lyceum Theatre, Broadway
1966	The Lion in Winter	Eleanor	Ambassador Theatre, Broadway
1966–67	The School for Scandal	Lady Teazle	Lyceum Theatre, Broadway
1966	Right You Are If You Think You Are	Signora Ponza
	We, Comrades Three	Young Woman
1967	The Wild Duck	Gina
	You Can't Take it With You	Alice Sycamore
	War and Peace	Natasha Rostova
1971–72	Old Times	Anna	Billy Rose Theatre, Broadway
1973	The Merchant of Venice	Portia	Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Broadway
	A Streetcar Named Desire	Blanche DuBois
1975–76	The Royal Family	Julie Cavendish	Brooklyn Academy of Music Fulton Theatre, Broadway
Brooklyn Academy of Music
	Olga
1983	Heartbreak House	Hesione Hushabye	Circle in the Square Theatre, Off-Broadway
			Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
1985	Pack of Lies	Barbara Jackson	Royale Theatre, Broadway
1985–86	Hay Fever	Judith Bliss	Music Box Theatre, Broadway
1991–93	Lost in Yonkers	Grandma Kurnitz	Richard Rodgers Theatre, Broadway Novello Theatre, London
1994–95	An Inspector Calls	Sybil Birling	Royale Theatre, Broadway
1996	A Delicate Balance	Agnes	Plymouth Theatre, Broadway
1999	Waiting in the Wings	May Davenport	Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Broadway
2002	All Over	The Wife	Gramercy Theatre, New York City
2005	The Other Side	Levana Julak	Manhattan Theatre Club, Off-Broadway
2007	Oscar and the Lady in Pink	Performer	Old Globe Theatre, San Diego
2008			Florence Gould Hall, New York City
2009	The Royal Family	Fanny Cavendish	Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Broadway
2012	The Road to Mecca	Miss Helen	American Airlines Theatre, Broadway
2014	Indian Ink	Eleanor Swan	Laura Pels Theatre, Off-Broadway
2018−19	My Fair Lady	Mrs. Higgins	Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Broadway

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Video games

1998		Miner Woman (voice role)	PC game version for Windows 95/98

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Awards and nominations

Film and television

1976	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series	Notorious Woman
1976	Golden Globe Award	Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama
1978	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series	Holocaust
1978	Golden Globe Award	Best actress in a Television Series - Drama
1984	BAFTA Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	The Ploughman's Lunch
1994	Academy Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Tom & Viv
1994	National Board of Review	Best Supporting Actress
2007	Critics' Choice Movie Award	Best Acting Ensemble	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2007	Gotham Award	Best Ensemble Cast

Theatre accolades

1966	Tony Awards	Best Actress in a Play	The Lion in Winter
1972			Old Times
1976			The Royal Family
1984			Heartbreak House
1985			Pack of Lies
1986			Hay Fever
1996			A Delicate Balance
2000			Waiting in the Wings
2010		Best Featured Actress in a Play	The Royal Family
2019		Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
1972	Drama Desk Award	Best Performance	Old Times
1973			A Streetcar Named Desire
1973			The Merchant of Venice
1976		Actress in a Play	The Royal Family
1984			Heartbreak House
1985			Pack of Lies
1996			A Delicate Balance
1967	Drama League Award	Distinguished Performance	The Wild Duck
1981	Laurence Olivier Award	Actress in a Revival	All My Sons
1983			Heartbreak House
1993		Supporting Actress	Lost in Yonkers
1962	Obie Award	Distinguished Performance by an Actress	The Tavern, The School for Scandal, The Seagull
1965			Judith, Man and Superman, War and Peace
2003			All Over

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External links

• Presenting Rosemary Harris website: articles and images
• Rosemary Harris – Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org

Categories: 1927 Births, 20th-century English Actresses, 21st-century English Actresses, Alumni Of The Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art, Best Drama Actress Golden Globe Winners, Drama Desk Award Winners, English Film Actresses, English People Of Romanian Descent, English Stage Actresses, English Television Actresses, English Voice Actresses, Living People, Obie Award Recipients, Special Tony Award Recipients, Tony Award Winners, English Expatriate Actresses In The United States, English Shakespearean Actresses, Actresses From Suffolk

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