JULIE HARRIS
Name: Julia Ann Harris
Born: 2 December 1925 Grosse Pointe, Michigan, U.S.
Julie Harris (born December 2, 1925) is a distinguished American stage, screen,
and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards and three Emmy Awards, and
was nominated for an Academy Award. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall
of Fame.
Harris's screen debut was in 1952 in The Member of the Wedding, for which she
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. That same year, she won
her first Best Actress Tony for originating the role of Sally Bowles in I Am a
Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (later
musicalized as Cabaret). She repeated that role in the 1955 film version of I Am
a Camera. She also appeared in such seminal films as East of Eden, Reflections
in a Golden Eye, and Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Horror film fans remember Harris as the ethereal Eleanor Lance in The Haunting,
director Robert Wise's 1963 screen adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson, now
considered a classic of the horror genre. Another cast member recalled Harris
maintaining a social distance from the other actors while not on set, later
explaining that she had done so as a method of emphasizing the alienation from
the other characters experienced by her character in the film.
She reprised her Tony-winning role as Mary Todd Lincoln in 1973's play The Last
of Mrs. Lincoln in the film version, which appeared in 1976. Another noteworthy
film appearance was in the World War II drama The Hiding Place (1975).
Harris has received more Tony Award nominations (ten) and wins (five) than any
other performer and in 1966 won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago
theatre. Her Broadway credits include The Playboy of the Western World, Macbeth,
The Member of the Wedding, A Shot in the Dark, Skyscraper, And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little, Forty Carats, The Glass Menagerie, and The Gin Game.
Of particular note is her Tony-winning performance in The Belle of Amherst, a
one-woman play (written by William Luce and directed by Charles Nelson Reilly)
based on the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson. She first performed the play in
1976 and subsequently appeared in other solo shows, including Luce's Bronte.
On television, she is known for her role as Lilimae Clements on the soap opera
Knots Landing, a role she played as a recurring character from 1980 to 1981 and
as a series regular from 1981 to 1987. For her television work, Harris has won
three Emmy Awards and has been nominated eleven times.
On December 5, 2005, she was named a Kennedy Center Honoree. At a White House
ceremony, President George W. Bush remarked, "It's hard to imagine the American
stage without the face, the voice, and the limitless talent of Julie Harris. She
has found happiness in her life's work, and we thank her for sharing that
happiness with the whole world."
She continues to work - recently narrating five historical documentaries by
Christopher Seufert and Mooncusser Films, as well as being active as a director
on the board of the independent Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. She has also
done extensive voice work for documentary maker Ken Burns.
Name: Julia Ann Harris
Born: 2 December 1925 Grosse Pointe, Michigan, U.S.
Julie Harris (born December 2, 1925) is a distinguished American stage, screen,
and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards and three Emmy Awards, and
was nominated for an Academy Award. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall
of Fame.
Harris's screen debut was in 1952 in The Member of the Wedding, for which she
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. That same year, she won
her first Best Actress Tony for originating the role of Sally Bowles in I Am a
Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (later
musicalized as Cabaret). She repeated that role in the 1955 film version of I Am
a Camera. She also appeared in such seminal films as East of Eden, Reflections
in a Golden Eye, and Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Horror film fans remember Harris as the ethereal Eleanor Lance in The Haunting,
director Robert Wise's 1963 screen adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson, now
considered a classic of the horror genre. Another cast member recalled Harris
maintaining a social distance from the other actors while not on set, later
explaining that she had done so as a method of emphasizing the alienation from
the other characters experienced by her character in the film.
She reprised her Tony-winning role as Mary Todd Lincoln in 1973's play The Last
of Mrs. Lincoln in the film version, which appeared in 1976. Another noteworthy
film appearance was in the World War II drama The Hiding Place (1975).
Harris has received more Tony Award nominations (ten) and wins (five) than any
other performer and in 1966 won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago
theatre. Her Broadway credits include The Playboy of the Western World, Macbeth,
The Member of the Wedding, A Shot in the Dark, Skyscraper, And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little, Forty Carats, The Glass Menagerie, and The Gin Game.
Of particular note is her Tony-winning performance in The Belle of Amherst, a
one-woman play (written by William Luce and directed by Charles Nelson Reilly)
based on the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson. She first performed the play in
1976 and subsequently appeared in other solo shows, including Luce's Bronte.
On television, she is known for her role as Lilimae Clements on the soap opera
Knots Landing, a role she played as a recurring character from 1980 to 1981 and
as a series regular from 1981 to 1987. For her television work, Harris has won
three Emmy Awards and has been nominated eleven times.
On December 5, 2005, she was named a Kennedy Center Honoree. At a White House
ceremony, President George W. Bush remarked, "It's hard to imagine the American
stage without the face, the voice, and the limitless talent of Julie Harris. She
has found happiness in her life's work, and we thank her for sharing that
happiness with the whole world."
She continues to work - recently narrating five historical documentaries by
Christopher Seufert and Mooncusser Films, as well as being active as a director
on the board of the independent Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. She has also
done extensive voice work for documentary maker Ken Burns.