Harris, a 6-time Tony Award Winner (5 Competitive, 1 Lifetime Achievement), 3-time Emmy Winner & Oscar nominee, passed away on August 24th, 2013. She was 87.
The brilliant actress played such real-life ladies as Emily Dickinson, Joan of Arc, Mary Todd Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Florence Nightingale, Queen Victoria and Charlotte Bronte.
Her first love was the stage, but Harris also made her mark on film and TV.
Film roles of note include:
Recreating her Broadway triumph-
12 year old Frankie Adams in Carson McCullers
THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING
With MEMBER director Fred Zinnemann
Harris, Ethel Waters and Brandon De Wilde goof around on
the MEMBER set
Harris was nominated for a 1952 Best Actress Oscar for her performance
Abra in EAST OF EDEN with James Dean
The E OF E cast relaxes between takes: Richard Davalos, Harris, Albert Dekker, Lois Smith and Dean
The first big screen Sally Bowles in 1955's
I AM A CAMERA opposite her chum Laurence Harvey
Harris had won a Tony Award for her work in the Bwdy. production of CAMERA
Anthony Quinn's love interest in the Rod Serling written REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT
My favorite Harris role, the damaged & doomed Eleanor 'Neil' Lance
in the Robert Wise 1963 ghost story classic, THE HAUNTING
The crazy, junkie lounge singer Betty Fraley
in HARPER Starring Paul Newman and directed by workhorse Jack Smight
The self-destructive and suicidal wife of Brian Keith in REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE
Sigourney Weaver's host in GORILLAS IN THE MIST
Harris also shined on TV:
She snared 11 Emmy nominations, winning 3--HALLMARK HALL OF FAME's ''Little Moon of Alban'' & ''Victoria Regina' and her voice over performance as Susan B. Anthony in NOT FOR OURSELVES ALONE: THE STORY OF ELIZABETH STANTON & SUSAN B. ANTHONY
With Red Buttons on KNOT'S LANDING
Harris played country singer Lillmae Clements from 1980-87 on the prime time soap
Mary Todd in the 1976 gem THE LAST OF MRS. LINCOLN with Robby Benson as Tad and Micheal Cristofer as Robert
Harris had won a Tony for playing Abe's babe on Broadway
Anthony Perkins sister in the 1970 chiller HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN
Glenn Ford's wife and Lance Kerwin & Elizabeth Cheshire's mom in
the short-lived 1975 drama THE FAMILY HOLVAK
4 appearances as missionary Charity Jones on TARZAN with Ron Ely
And of course, the stage:
A Tony win for playing Emily Dickinson
Harris appeared on Broadway in over 30 plays and musicals from 1945 to 1997
She teamed up with Charles Durning in THE AU PAIR MAN & THE GIN GAME
Other White Way roles for Harris included:
Joan of Arc in THE LARK
1956 Tony Award Winner Best Actress in a Play
THE GLASS MENAGERIE with Calista Flockhart
A SHOT IN THE DARK with William Shatner
SKYSCRAPER with her future THE BELLE OF AMHERST & THE GIN GAME director Charles Nelson Reilly and Peter Marshall
Another Tony win for FORTY CARATS
All told, Harris was honored with 10 Tony nominations, 5 wins and a Lifetime Achievement Award
Did you know...?
In 2005 she was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
She has one son, Peter Gurian
Harris suffered a stroke in 2001.