Julie Harris

Julia Ann Harris (December 2, 1925 – August 24, 2013) was an American actress. Widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of the American theater, she earned numerous accolades including a record five Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Play, as well as three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, the Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2002, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2005.

After making her Broadway debut in 1945 Harris went on to win five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for her roles in I Am a Camera (1952), The Lark (1956), Forty Carats (1969), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973), and The Belle of Amherst (1977). Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Marathon '33 (1964), Skyscraper (1966), The au Pair Man (1974), Lucifer's Child (1991), and The Gin Game (1997).

She starred in the 1950 play The Member of the Wedding, a role she reprised in the 1952 film of the same name, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other notable film roles include East of Eden (1955), I Am a Camera (1955), The Haunting (1963), and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). Harris received three Primetime Emmy Awards, for her roles in Little Moon of Alban (1958), Victoria Regina (1962), and Not for Ourselves Alone (1999). She won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for The Belle of Amherst (1978).

Life and career Early years and education Julia Ann Harris was born on December 2, 1925, in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, the daughter of Elsie L. (née Smith), a nurse, and William Pickett Harris, an investment banker and authority on zoology. She had an older brother, William, and a younger brother, Richard. She graduated from Grosse Pointe Country Day School, which later merged with two others to form the University Liggett School. In New York City, she attended The Hewitt School. As a teenager, she also trained at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp in Colorado with Charlotte Perry, a mentor who encouraged Harris to apply to the Yale School of Drama, which she soon attended for a year. In 2007, Yale bestowed an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree upon Harris. As a founding member of Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, Harris studied method acting, which emphasized psychology and emotions, and although it was strongly associated with male actors, she was able to successfully employ its techniques.

1945–1959: Early roles

In 1952, Harris won her first Best Actress Tony Award for originating the role of insouciant Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera, the stage version of Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (later adapted as the Broadway musical Cabaret (1966) and as the 1972 film, with Liza Minnelli as Sally). Harris repeated her stage role in the film version of I Am a Camera (1955). Harris's screen debut was in 1952, repeating her Broadway success as the lonely teenaged girl Frankie in Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Director Elia Kazan cast her in East of Eden (1955) opposite James Dean in his first major screen role.

Harris was nominated for 11 Primetime Emmy Awards for her television work, winning three. She starred as Nora Helmer opposite Christopher Plummer in A Doll's House (1959), a 90-minute television adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play. She made more appearances in leading roles on the Hallmark Hall of Fame than any other actress, also appearing in two different adaptations of the play Little Moon of Alban, her performance in the 1958 TV movie of the same name earning her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

1960–1989: Breakthrough and acclaim

She played the ethereal Eleanor Lance in The Haunting (1963), director Robert Wise's screen adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson. Another cast member recalled Harris refusing to socialize with 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. Other notable films Harris appeared in during the 1960s include Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), Harper (with Paul Newman) (1966), and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). Another noteworthy film appearance was the World War II drama The Hiding Place (1975).

Her second Emmy win came for her role as Queen Victoria in the 1961 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Laurence Housman's Victoria Regina. She received further Emmy nominations for a range of roles including Anastasia (1967), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1976)—where she reprised her Tony-winning role as Mary Todd Lincoln from the 1973 play of the same name—and The Woman He Loved (1988). She won her third Emmy award in 2000 for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her voice role of Susan B. Anthony in Not for Ourselves Alone.

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 received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording for the audio recording of the play. She first performed the play in 1976 and subsequently appeared in other solo shows, including Luce's Brontë. Harris holds the Tonys record as the person with most wins (5) and nominations (9) in the Lead Actress in a Play category. Other 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, A Doll's House, The Gin Game, and a North American tour in 1992 of Lettice and Lovage in the lead part originated by Maggie Smith on Broadway.

In 1980, Harris guest starred in the series Knots Landing as country singer Lilimae Clements, the eccentric and protective mother of Valene Ewing (Joan Van Ark); she returned to the series as a regular character from 1981 to 1987. The role earned Harris a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and two Soap Opera Digest Award nominations. In 1983, Harris became a company member of The Mirror Theater Ltd's Mirror Repertory Company. She became a mentor to the company, having urged Founding Artistic Director Sabra Jones to create the company from 1976 forward, when Jones married John Strasberg. Harris and Jones met at a performance of The Belle of Amherst, a revival of which The Mirror Theater Ltd recently performed in their summer home in Vermont.

1990–2009: Established actress Harris made two recordings of narrations of E. B. White's children's book Stuart Little for the Pathways of Sound record label: the last six chapters for a single LP record in 1965, and the entire book for a two-record set in 1979. She also recorded narrations of many children's books for Caedmon Records. Harris also did extensive voiceover work for documentary maker Ken Burns: the voices of Emily Warren Roebling in Brooklyn Bridge (1981), Ann Lee in The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God (1984), and most notably Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut for Burns' 1990 series The Civil War.

In the summer of 2008, she appeared on stage again in Chatham, Massachusetts, as "Nanny" in a Monomoy Theater production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. Harris continued to work until 2009, well into her eighties, 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 (WHAT). In 2007, when the company built a new, additional theater, also in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Ms Harris declined to have the building named for her. However, she consented to their naming "a piece of it after me"; WHAT named their stage the "Julie Harris Stage".

Personal life and death Harris lived in West Chatham, Cape Cod, for many years until her death. Three times divorced, she had one son, Peter Alston Gurian. A breast cancer survivor,

Harris died on August 24, 2013, of congestive heart failure at her home in West Chatham, Massachusetts. Harris was cremated after her death.

Acting credits Film Year Title Role Notes 1952 The Member of the Wedding Frances "Frankie" Addams Film debut 1955 East of Eden Abra Bacon I Am a Camera Sally Bowles 1957 The Truth About Women Helen Cooper 1958 Sally's Irish Rogue Sally Hamil 1962 Requiem for a Heavyweight Grace Miller 1963 The Haunting Eleanor "Nell" Lance 1964 Hamlet Ophelia 1966 Harper Betty Fraley You're a Big Boy Now Miss Nora Thing 1967 Reflections in a Golden Eye Alison Langdon 1968 The Split Gladys Journey to Midnight Leona Gillings "The Indian Spirit Guide" 1970 The People Next Door Gerrie Mason 1975 The Hiding Place Betsie Ten Boom 1976 Voyage of the Damned Alice Fienchild 1979 The Bell Jar Mrs. Greenwood 1983 Brontë Charlotte Brontë 1985 Crimewave Uncredited 1986 Nutcracker: The Motion Picture Clara (voice) 1988 Gorillas in the Mist Roz Carr 1992 Housesitter Edna Davis 1993 The Dark Half Reggie Delesseps 1996 Carried Away Joseph's Mother 1997 Bad Manners Professor Harper 1998 Passage to Paradise Martha McGraw The First of May Carlotta 2006 The Way Back Home Jo McMillen 2008 The Golden Boys Melodeon Player 2009 The Lightkeepers Mrs. Deacon

Television Year Title Role Notes 1948–1949 Actors Studio 4 episodes 1951 Starlight Theatre Bernice episode: "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" 1951–1953 Goodyear Television Playhouse 2 episodes 1955 The United States Steel Hour Shevawn episode: "A Wind from the South" 1956 The Good Fairy Lu TV movie 1957 The Lark Joan of Arc TV movie 1958 Little Moon of Alban Bridgid Mary Mangan TV movie Johnny Belinda Belinda TV movie 1959 A Doll's House Nora Helmer TV movie 1960 NBC Sunday Showcase Francesca episode: "Turn the Key Deftly" 1960–1961 DuPont Show of the Month Mattie Silver/Julia 2 episodes 1961 Play of the Week episode: "He Who Gets Slapped" The Heiress Catherine Sloper TV movie The Power and the Glory Maria (Priest's Mistress) TV movie Victoria Regina Queen Victoria TV movie 1963 Pygmalion Eliza Doolittle TV movie 1964 Little Moon of Alban Brigid Mary Mangan TV movie Kraft Suspense Theatre Lucy Bram episode: "The Roborioz Ring" 1965 The Holy Terror Florence Nightingale TV movie Rawhide Emma Teall episode: "The Calf Women" Laredo Annamay episode: "Rendezvous at Arillo" 1966 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Isobel Cain/Vicky Cain episode: "Nightmare" 1967 Anastasia Anastasia TV movie 1967–1968 Tarzan Charity Jones 4 episodes 1968 Garrison's Gorillas Therese Donet episode: "Run from Death" Run for Your Life Lucrece Lawrence episode: "The Rape of Lucrece" Daniel Boone Faith episode: "Faith's Way" Bonanza Sarah Carter episode: "A Dream to Dream" Journey to the Unknown Leona Gillings episode: "The Indian Spirit Guide" The Big Valley Jennie Hall episode: "A Stranger Everywhere" 1969–1970 The Name of the Game Verna Ward/Ruth 'Doc' Harmon 2 episodes 1970 House on Greenapple Road Leona Miller TV movie How Awful About Allan Katherine TV movie 1971 The Virginian Jenny episode: "Wolf Track" 1972 Home for the Holidays Elizabeth Hall Morgan TV movie 1973 Thicker than Water Nellie Paine 9 episodes Medical Center Helen episode: "The Guilty" Columbo Karen Fielding episode: "Any Old Port in a Storm" Hawkins Janet Hubbard episode: "Die, Darling, Die" The Evil Touch Aunt Carrie/Jenny 2 episodes 1974 The Greatest Gift Elizabeth Holvak TV movie 1975 Long Way Home TV movie The Family Holvak 10 episodes Match Game Herself (panelist) 6 total episodes (1 for syndication) 1976 The Last of Mrs. Lincoln Mary Todd Lincoln TV movie The Belle of Amherst Emily Dickinson TV movie 1978 Stubby Pringle's Christmas Georgia Henderson TV movie 1979 Backstairs at the White House Mrs. Helen 'Nellie' Taft miniseries Tales of the Unexpected Mrs. Bixby/Mrs. Foster 2 episodes The Gift Anne Devlin TV movie 1980–1987 Knots Landing Lilimae Clements 165 episodes 1986 Annihilator Girl TV movie Family Ties Margaret episode: "The Freshman and the Senior" 1987 The Love Boat Irene Culver episode: "Who Killed Maxwell Thorn?" 1988 The Woman He Loved Alice TV movie Too Good to Be True Margaret Berent TV movie The Christmas Wife Iris TV movie 1989 Single Women Married Men Lucille Frankyl TV movie 1990 The Civil War Mary Chestnut (voice) miniseries; 9 episodes 1993 Vanished Without a Trace Odessa Ray TV movie When Love Kills: The Seduction of John Hearn Alice Hearn TV movie 1994 Scarlett Eleanor Butler miniseries One Christmas Sook TV movie 1995 Secrets Caroline Phelan TV movie Lucifer's Child Isak Dinesen TV movie 1996 Little Surprises Ethel TV short The Christmas Tree Sister Anthony TV movie 1997 Ellen Foster Leonora Nelson TV movie 1998 The Outer Limits Hera episode: "Lithia" 1999 Love Is Strange Sylvia McClain TV movie Not for Ourselves Alone Susan B. Anthony (voice) TV documentary

Theater

Sound recordings Harris played Laura in a 1964 Caedmon Records production of The Glass Menagerie, with Montgomery Clift as Tom and Jessica Tandy in Harris's later role of Amanda . Harris can also be heard reading poetry on poetry albums she recorded for Caedmon and on the original Broadway cast recording of Skyscaper .

Legacy and honors President George W. Bush and Laura Bush pose with the Kennedy Center honorees (L to R): Julie Harris, Robert Redford, Tina Turner, Suzanne Farrell, and Tony Bennett in 2005

Harris is often recognized as one of the greatest and most decorated actresses in the history of the American theater. Ben Brantley, theater critic for The New York Times, considered her "the actress who towered most luminously ... rather like a Statue of Liberty for Broadway." Alec Baldwin, who played Harris's son on Knots Landing, praised her in a tribute in the Huffington Post: "Her voice was like rainfall. Her eyes connected directly to and channeled the depths of her powerful and tender heart. Her talent, a gift from God."

Harris ties with Angela Lansbury with five Tony Award wins (Audra McDonald has since passed them both, with six wins). However, she holds the record (alongside Chita Rivera) for the most individual Tony Award nominations, with 10 (Audra McDonald has also since received her 10th nomination). In 1966, Harris won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.

On December 5, 2005, Harris 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."

On August 28, 2013, Broadway theaters dimmed their lights for one minute in honor of Harris. On December 3, 2013, Joan Van Ark announced at a Broadway memorial service the creation of the Julie Harris Scholarship, which provides annual support to an actor studying at the Yale School of Drama. Alec Baldwin made the first contribution. In 2021, Yale Drama became tuition-free and was rebranded the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. Awards and nominations