Jed Harris
Encyclopedia
Jed Harris (February 25, 1900 - November 15, 1979) was a renowned Austrian-American theater producer and director, and writer of film.
, Austria
, on February 25, 1900.
By the time he was 28, Harris had produced a record four consecutive Broadway hits, over the course of eighteen months.
Harris was married three times, first to Anita Green (December 11, 1925–1929), then to Louise Platt (1939–1941) — with whom he collaborated on The Traitor and Spring Dance, and finally to Beatrice Allen (April 1, 1957 – December 1957). His romances included one with the American fashion designer Pauline Fairfax Potter, and he had a son, Jones, with renowned actress and playwright Ruth Gordon
born in 1929. He also had a daughter, Abigail, with Louise Platt in 1943. He had a relationship with Henry Fonda
's first wife Margaret Sullavan
around 1932/4.
award and Pulitzer Prize
for playwright Thornton Wilder
. Harris directed four actors in award-winning roles in Child of Fortune, The Crucible
, The Traitor, The Heiress
, and Our Town
.
Harris was known for being particularly hard to work with, as depicted in many famous satires of his character.
According to historian Louis Botto, the playwright and director "George S. Kaufman
(who worked with Harris on both The Front Page
and The Royal Family) hated him and once said when he died, he wanted to be cremated and have somebody throw his ashes in Jed Harris' face." The 1932 play Twentieth Century
became a huge scandal in the theater world, as it was clearly based on Harris. Similarly, "Laurence Olivier
, [who] was directed by Jed Harris in the 1930s play The Green Bay Tree, hated him so much that years later when he played the evil Richard III
, he said he based his whole character on Jed Harris."
However loathed he may have been in the theatrical community, Jed Harris directed and produced such luminaries as Leo G. Carroll
, Laurence Olivier
, Lillian Gish
, Basil Rathbone
, Elaine Stritch
, Ruth Gordon
, Walter Huston
, Osgood Perkins
(father of Anthony Perkins
), and Katharine Hepburn
.
Harris was inducted, posthumously, into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
in 1981.
, starring George Sanders
, Harris wrote the story for a trio of films including Night People
starring Gregory Peck
and Buddy Ebsen
, and Operation Mad Ball
, starring Jack Lemmon
, Dick York
, and Mickey Rooney
.
Harris also appeared on The Dick Cavett Show on PBS.
Personal history
Jed Harris was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, on February 25, 1900.
By the time he was 28, Harris had produced a record four consecutive Broadway hits, over the course of eighteen months.
Harris was married three times, first to Anita Green (December 11, 1925–1929), then to Louise Platt (1939–1941) — with whom he collaborated on The Traitor and Spring Dance, and finally to Beatrice Allen (April 1, 1957 – December 1957). His romances included one with the American fashion designer Pauline Fairfax Potter, and he had a son, Jones, with renowned actress and playwright Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...
born in 1929. He also had a daughter, Abigail, with Louise Platt in 1943. He had a relationship with Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
's first wife Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday...
around 1932/4.
Theatre
Jed Harris produced and directed 31 shows between 1925 and 1956. His productions garnered 7 awards, including a TonyTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
award and Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for playwright Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
. Harris directed four actors in award-winning roles in Child of Fortune, The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
, The Traitor, The Heiress
The Heiress
The Heiress is a 1949 American drama film. It was written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, adapted from their 1947 play of the same title that was based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James. The film was directed by William Wyler, with starring performances by Olivia de Havilland as...
, and Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
.
Harris was known for being particularly hard to work with, as depicted in many famous satires of his character.
According to historian Louis Botto, the playwright and director "George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
(who worked with Harris on both The Front Page
The Front Page
The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:...
and The Royal Family) hated him and once said when he died, he wanted to be cremated and have somebody throw his ashes in Jed Harris' face." The 1932 play Twentieth Century
Twentieth Century (play)
Twentieth Century is a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur based on the unproduced play Napoleon of Broadway by Charles B. Millholland, inspired by his experience working for the eccentric Broadway impresario David Belasco....
became a huge scandal in the theater world, as it was clearly based on Harris. Similarly, "Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
, [who] was directed by Jed Harris in the 1930s play The Green Bay Tree, hated him so much that years later when he played the evil Richard III
Richard III (1955 film)
Richard III is a 1955 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's historical play of the same name, also incorporating elements from his Henry VI, Part 3. It was directed and produced by Sir Laurence Olivier, who also played the lead role. The cast includes many noted Shakespearean actors,...
, he said he based his whole character on Jed Harris."
However loathed he may have been in the theatrical community, Jed Harris directed and produced such luminaries as Leo G. Carroll
Leo G. Carroll
Leo Gratten Carroll was an English-born actor. He was best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Topper.-Early life:...
, Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
, Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
, Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
, Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
, Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...
, Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
, Osgood Perkins
Osgood Perkins
Osgood Perkins was an American actor.-Life and career:Perkins was born James Ripley Osgood Perkins in West Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Helen Virginia and Henry Phelps Perkins. He is a descendant of a Mayflower passenger John Howland. Perkins made his Broadway debut in 1924 in the George S...
(father of Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
), and Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
.
Harris was inducted, posthumously, into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
American Theatre Hall of Fame
The American Theatre Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the Executive Committee. In an announcement at a luncheon meeting on March 1972, he said that the new Theater Hall of Fame would be located in the Uris Theatre . James M...
in 1981.
Theatrical history
| Year | Title | Position | Run |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 | Child of Fortune | Director/Producer | Nov 13, 1956 - Dec 1, 1956 |
| 1953 | The Crucible The Crucible The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists... |
Director | Jan 22, 1953 - Jul 11, 1953 |
| 1949 | The Traitor | Producer/Director | Mar 31, 1949 - May 28, 1949 |
| 1948 | Red Gloves | Director | Dec 4, 1948 - Mar 12, 1949 |
| 1947 | The Heiress The Heiress The Heiress is a 1949 American drama film. It was written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, adapted from their 1947 play of the same title that was based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James. The film was directed by William Wyler, with starring performances by Olivia de Havilland as... |
Director | Sep 29, 1947 - Sep 18, 1948 |
| 1946 | Loco | Producer/Director | Oct 16, 1946 - Nov 16, 1946 |
| Apple of His Eye | Producer/Director | Feb 5, 1946 - May 18, 1946 | |
| 1945 | One-Man Show | Producer/Director | Feb 8, 1945 - Mar 10, 1945 |
| 1943 | The World's Full of Girls | Producer | Dec 6, 1943 - Dec 12, 1943 |
| Dark Eyes Dark Eyes (play) Dark Eyes is a play written by Elena Miramova that premiered in 1943. The comedy centres around three Russian-American actresses who have fallen into serious financial trouble and are urgently seeking a backer for their new play... |
Producer/Director | Jan 14, 1943 - Jul 31, 1943 | |
| 1938 | Our Town Our Town Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives... |
Producer/Director | Feb 4, 1938 - Nov 1938 |
| 1937 | A Doll's House A Doll's House A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month.... |
Producer/Director | Dec 27, 1937 - May 1938 |
| 1936 | Spring Dance | Producer/Director | Aug 25, 1936 - Sep 1936 |
| 1935 | Life's Too Short | Producer/Director | Sep 20, 1935 - Sep 1935 |
| 1933 | The Lake The Lake The Lake was a British play written by Dorothy Massingham and Murray MacDonald. It debuted on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on December 26, 1933 and was one of acting legend Katharine Hepburn's first major Broadway roles.... |
Producer | Dec 26, 1933 - Feb 1934 |
| The Green Bay Tree | Producer/Director | Oct 20, 1933 - Mar 1934 | |
| 1932 | The Fatal Alibi Alibi (play) Alibi is a 1928 play by Michael Morton based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a novel by British crime writer Agatha Christie.It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End on May 15, 1928, starring Charles Laughton as Hercule Poirot. It was deemed a success and ran for 250... |
Producer | Feb 8, 1932 - Mar 1, 1932 |
| 1931 | Wonder Boy Wonder Boy is a series of video games published by SEGA and developed by Westone Bit Entertainment .The series itself consists of the main Wonder Boy series, and the Monster World sub-series. Games may be part of one, the other, or both. This has resulted in a sometimes confusing naming structure resulting in... |
Producer/Director | Oct 22, 1931 - Nov 1931 |
| The Wiser They Are | Producer | Apr 6, 1931 - May 1931 | |
| 1931 | The Inspector General | Producer | Dec 23, 1930 - Dec 1930 |
| Mr. Gilhooley | Producer/Director | Sep 30, 1930 - Oct 1930 | |
| Uncle Vanya Uncle Vanya Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski.... |
Producer/Director | Sep 22, 1930 - Oct 1930 | |
| Uncle Vanya Uncle Vanya Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski.... |
Producer/Director | Apr 15, 1930 - Jul 1930 | |
| 1929 | Serena Blandish | Producer | Jan 23, 1929 - Apr 1929 |
| 1928 | The Front Page The Front Page The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:... |
Producer | Aug 14, 1928 - Apr 1929 |
| 1927 | The Royal Family | Producer | Dec 28, 1927 - Oct 1928 |
| Coquette | Producer | Nov 8, 1927 - Sep 1928 | |
| Spread Eagle | Producer | Apr 4, 1927 - Jun 1927 | |
| 1926 | Broadway | Producer | Sep 16, 1926 - Feb 11, 1928 |
| Love 'em and Leave 'em Love 'Em and Leave 'Em Love'Em And Leave'Em is a Roxx Gang album.-Track listing:All songs written by Kevin Steele, except where noted.# Too Cool For School# No Easy Way Out# Scratch My Back # Live Fast Die Young... |
Producer | Feb 3, 1926 - Jun 1926 | |
| 1925 | Weak Sisters | Producer | Oct 13, 1925 - Nov 1925 |
Film
While many of his hit plays were translated for the silver screen, Jed Harris was hesitant to make the jump to working on films. His first foray into film was when a play he collaborated on, entitled Broadway, was adapted in 1929. However starting with the 1952 film The Light TouchThe Light Touch
The Light Touch is a 1952 film starring Stewart Granger, Pier Angeli, and George Sanders, and directed by Richard Brooks.-Cast:Stewart Granger ... Sam ConridePier Angeli ... Anna VasarriGeorge Sanders ... Felix GuignolKurt Kasznar ......
, starring George Sanders
George Sanders
George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...
, Harris wrote the story for a trio of films including Night People
Night People (1954 film)
Night People is a 1954 motion picture drama starring Gregory Peck, Broderick Crawford, Anita Bjork and Buddy Ebsen, directed by Nunnally Johnson. It was co-written by Jed Harris, a noted theatrical producer....
starring Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
and Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
, and Operation Mad Ball
Operation Mad Ball
Operation Mad Ball is a 1957 military comedy starring Jack Lemmon, Kathryn Grant, Ernie Kovacs, Dick York, Arthur O'Connell, and Mickey Rooney and directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by Blake Edwards and Jed Harris is based on an unproduced play by Arthur Carter.-Plot:In a hospital unit in...
, starring Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, Dick York
Dick York
Richard Allen "Dick" York was an American actor. He is best remembered for his role as the first Darrin Stephens on the ABC television fantasy sitcom Bewitched...
, and Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
.
Harris also appeared on The Dick Cavett Show on PBS.