He appeared in one of most beloved musicals of all time, this despite composer Frederick Loewe having once remarked that the actor for whom he wrote, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” had a vocal range of one and a half notes. Consequently, the “singer” developed a technique in which he mostly talked his way through a song………….and it worked. His portrayal of Professor Higgins on Broadway earned Rex Harrison his second Tony Award, and an Academy Award for Best Actor when he reprised the role in the screen adaptation of My Fair Lady.
Below is a snippet of his “singing” style and performance:
Rex Harrison would eventually be knighted in 1989, a year before he passed away at the age of 82, but before he left this earthly realm, he appeared in more than 40 films and many stage productions, had won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his performance in ‘My Fair Lady,’ as well as a Tony Award for the stage version of the same production (this, according to one source, despite never had an acting lesson and being entirely self taught). Harrison was awarded two stars on the ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame,’ and in 1979, was inducted in the American Theater Hall of Fame. Harrison was an accomplished painter, and a linguist who spoke several languages fluently, including French and German.
Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins alongside Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle in the musical, My Fair Lady; Photo credit: Richard Maney/Photo by Friedman-Abele. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30370926
Still, it wasn’t a life one could describe as a “bed of roses.” A childhood bout of measles had left him mostly blind in his left eye; He had six marriages, one which ended in Rachel Robert’s suicide after a failed attempt to patch things up with Harrison, while an affair with actress Carole Landis also ended in suicide, a scandal that had a negative impact on his career.
Rex Harrison, we note, was an avid animal lover all his life. His best mate was likely ‘Homer,’ a Basset Hound from whom he was inseparable. Indeed, in 1998, the Telegraph reported that Harrison said he preferred Homer to any of his six wives, despite the dog’s reputation for being a little flatulent. Harrison brushed Homer’s ears daily, and allowed him special privileges such as joining him for breakfast in bed. He, himself, described Homer as “the most spoilt dog.” How spoilt? When finishing his autobiography, his latest marriage in a state of stress, Harrison asked his wife, “Are we going to be together when the book is published or aren’t we?” When she asked why it was urgent, he replied that he needed to know whether to dedicate the volume to her or his dog, Homer.
It’s reported that Harrison and Homer spent time together at Harrison’s small hillside estate in Portofino on the Italian Riviera, and there is mention of the pair making wine from their own grapes grown on the estate, though we suspect Harrison did the actual work, and Homer supervised.
We came across a blog in which walking a Basset Hound is described as about as much fun as hitching up a file cabinet (something do with with a walking a Basset Hound being a process that includes at least one cycle), so perhaps this is why Harrison took to walking Homer while riding a bicycle (Rex Harrison, not the dog). We don’t have permission to share any photos of Harrison with Homer, but you can see the bike photo here.
Rex Harrison’s last known on-screen appearance was in the TV movie “Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna” in 1986, and his final stage performance was in about three weeks before his death on June 2, 1990. This is to say that no one under the age of thirty-five has seen Rex Harrison perform live on stage or in a new on-screen production. We like to mention celebrities that predate younger readers, and share the breeds they owned.
Top image by John LaFree with his kind consent.
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