The Suffolk Theater is celebrating the birthday today of stage and film legend Rex Harrison with a showing of his 1964 film My Fair Lady and a talk by the actor’s son, Carey Harrison, “Rex Harrison’s Hollywood: Tales from the Golden Age of Movies.”
Reginald Cary Harrison was born on this date in 1908 in Lancashire, England. He won an Oscar for his performance as Henry Higgins in the film, an adaptation of the stage musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.
The film, released on Christmas Day, 1964, won eight Academy Awards, including Harrison’s Best Actor, Best Picture and Best Director. It also stars Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, a young woman who seeks speech lessons from Harrison’s snobbish Higgins, who holds himself out as a phonetics expert and accepts a wager that he can make Eliza presentable in high society.
Harrison began his acting career on stage in Liverpool in 1924 and went on to win his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949.
He became an international superstar and won a second Tony Award for his performance as Henry Higgins in the Broadway musical My Fair Lady, in which he appeared opposite Julie Andrews.
Harrison starred in dozens of films and stage productions during his lifetime. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on July 25, 1989. He died of pancreatic cancer on June 2, 1990, at age 82.
In his talk tonight before the showing of the film, Harrison’s son, Carey, will present a very personal look into the life and career of his father and the Hollywood of his time.
There will be time for questions and answers.
Harrison, a professor of English at Brooklyn College and the artistic director of The Woodstock Players Theater Company, is the author of more than 40 stage plays and 16 novels.
The talk begins at 7 p.m. and the film screening at 8 p.m. Tickets are $22 for both, $18 for the lecture only and $8 for the film only.
“We celebrate our first month with an unusual and thoughtful variety that showcases the history of the entertainment industry through film and live performance,” Suffolk Theater executive director Bob Spiotto said.
To see the calendar of performances and events this month and purchase tickets online, click here.
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