Fatal Charm: The Life of Rex Harrison

by Alexander Walker

Charm has always been a dangerous gift. For Rex Harrison - who drove two women to suicide for love of him - it was fatal. For decades, Rex Harrison was the king of the English stage. My Fair Lady immortalized his persona as the epitomal English gentleman; yet, beneath those easy manners, that cool wit and sophistication, lurked an ego of tyrannical proportions. Always in need of a woman to stand at his side, Harrison married six times; both Carole Landis, a young starlet, and Rachel Roberts, the troubled actress who was his fourth wife, killed themselves. And yet his devotion to his third wife, Kay Kendall, was such that he protected her from knowledge of the tragic illness that would fell her just two years into their marriage. Drawing on unpublished sources to which he has had sole access, and on conversations with Harrison himself and nearly one hundred of his friends and family, Alexander Walker traces the public and private life of this brilliant actor, from his genteel beginnings in the suburbs of Liverpool through hard times and triumph on the English stage to his arrival in - and eventual retreat from - a Hollywood he found prurient and unkind. And he reveals the dark nostalgia of the actor's last years, when the man who had made famous such British symbols as Henry Higgins and Doctor Dolittle grew embittered as he was denied, almost to the end, the honor he coveted - the title of Sir Rex. The definitive biography, Alexander Walker's Fatal Charm portrays brilliantly Rex Harrison the greatest high-comedy actor of his generation - and Rex Harrison the man, whose charm was fatal indeed.

Genres: Biography

457 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Alexander Walker was a film critic and author of a number of biographies and books on the film industry.

Reviews

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's me, hi. Reading books about problematic men again.

Reviewing a biography is always a fun challenge. You have to separate out the life of the subject from how the book went about portraying their life. By all accounts, (Sir) Rex Harrison was a total Nightmare Human. And yet, that made this book truly such an entertaining read. Even while being impossibly difficult, Harrison was also incredibly good at what he did. He was, in his day, the master of high comedy on stage and screen on both sides of the Atlantic - putting such an indelible stamp on characters such as Henry Higgins that shall likely never be removed.

Add to that his complex personal life, his mastery of the sickest of verbal burns, and his - as the title of the book attests - fatal charm, and you have one hell of a life. There were definitely areas I would have liked more detail on, but at the same time, it was covering eighty highly active years, and so I have to exercise some forgiveness. It was obviously well researched and drew from a whole range of extremely credible sources, and pulled few punches as to Harrison's magnetic and yet temperamental aura. This book also really managed to capture the essence of Harrison's way to life: always moving forward, like a shark dressed in the sharpest tweed - and yet, it also took pains to point out that this approach masked a highly insecure and anxiety-ridden man, who made up for these "flaws" by enforcing his will - and rakish charm - on others.

I'm genuinely sad to have finished reading this. It seems, I too, have been sucked into that circle that seems to have surrounded Harrison his whole life: seeing, with open eyes, his truly roguish behaviour, and forgiving it anyway.

[Debi Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! For many people, especially those who don't live in New York City, the name Rex Harrison is synonymous with the Henry Higgins of "My Fair Lady". In this well written, well researched and very detailed account of his life, it is clear he was so very much more.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...Guilty of the most ungentlemanly behavior to colleagues and to ladies in everyday life, (Harrison) came to represent on stage the most virtuous and courageous of Englishmen," From Harrison's 1990 obituary. Alexander Walker's legendary tome is wonderfully researched and involving. The details drawing me to read this book were all awfully true: Harrison lost two wives to suicide and yet another was known to drink excessively and crawl on all fours pretending to be a dog. I needed a scoresheet to keep up with the wives and mistresses. Harrison was incredibly complex; brilliant and insecure, charming and venomous, and this wonderfully written biography covers all sides.

[Katharine Holden · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rather a silly book. Immense amount of trivial data. Most of the interesting moments already reported in the book of Rachel Roberts' journals and in Elizabeth Harrison's memoir.