Surely everyone remembers the charming aunt May from the movie Spider-Man. This role went to British actress Rosemary Harris, who turns ninety years old this year. And in the middle of the last century, she managed to play on the American and English stages.
Biography
Rosemary Harris was born in 1927 in the English county of Leicestershire in the small town of Ashby.
The girl’s father served in the Royal Air Force in India, so her childhood passed in India. Then she was sent to the monastery school, where Rosemary received an excellent education and already there decided to connect life with acting.
Fate was supportive of the girl and before entering the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rosemary Harris began to appear on the stage of the Eastbourne Theater. This happened in 1947, and the production was called Kiss and Tell or “Kiss and Speak.”
First successes
The experience was useful to Rosemary, who in 1951 entered the Royal Academy. In the same year she was invited to Broadway to participate in the play "Climate of Eden." Rosemary could not miss such a chance, her game was successful, but the actress soon returned to her homeland. It was no accident, as the young woman was invited to the West End Theater, where she made her debut in the play "Itching of the Seventh Year".
After was London's Old Wick Theater, where Rosemary Harris got almost the same classic roles, and in 1954 the actress made her film debut. It was a drama directed by Bernhard "Dandy Brummell", in which the main role was played by Elizabeth Taylor. After this picture, the British actress returned to Broadway again to participate in the play “Troll and Cressida”.
The personal life of the actress
At the same time, she met her first husband - Ellis Rabb. He was an actor and theatrical figure and created a fairly successful acting association (ARA), in which Rosemary Harris worked for ten years. In the same period, the actress won the Tony Award for her role as Elizabeth in the production of “The Lion in Winter”.
Unfortunately, the marriage of Rosemary and Ellis was short-lived, and in 1967 they divorced by mutual decision. Rosemary Harris became a successful actress who starred in film and television films. So, she got a role in Leslie Norman’s drama “Shiraly”, also in the film “Uncle Vanya”, directed by Stuart Burge (based on Chekhov’s play of the same name), where Rosemary convincingly played the beautiful Elena; starred in the comedy of David Green's "Twelfth Night", which was broadcast on English television, and still participated in many other projects. At the same time, Rosemary Harris did not forget about the theater, where she managed to play Ophelia directed by Peter O'Tuls “Hamlet”.
Second marriage
In 1967, some time after the divorce, Rosemary met with American writer John Elem. They got married, and soon (in 1969) they had a daughter - Jennifer El, who in the future will follow in the footsteps of her mother and become a successful and beloved actress.
The couple began to live in the state of North Carolina in the city of Winston-Salem, but, apparently, Rosemary’s acting talent was so contagious that her second husband did not refuse to try on the image of a hypocrite and played in some productions. Subsequently, John El wrote two screenplays.
In 1978, the actress got a serious role in the movie drama "Holocaust", which tells about Jewish and Christian families living during the Second World War. And after many years, in 1999, our heroine, along with her daughter Jennifer, played the same heroine in their youth and old age in the melodrama Taste of Sunlight.
Rosemary Harris Movies
During a long acting career, Rosemary was lucky to play in many films, a list of which is given below:
- "Dandy Brummell";
- Othello
- "Boys from Brazil";
- The Holocaust
- "Dilence Crossroads";
- "Tom and Viv";
- "Hamlet";
- "Taste of sunlight";
- "Gift";
- "The English Barber";
- Spider-Man
- "Spider-Man 2";
- "Be Julia";
- "Spider-Man 3. The Enemy in Reflection";
- "Games of the devil";
- "Is anybody here?";
- "Means war";
- "Free Albemouth Radio."
Rosemary Harris, whose photo can be seen above, has been awarded several awards, such as Tony, Emmy, Golden Globe and many others.