Rosemary Harris

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Rosemary Harris as Aunt May Parker in the Spider-Man films.

Rosemary Harris was born on September 19, 1927 in Ashby, Suffolk, England. She is an Academy Award nominated English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Her early years gained her experience in English repertory theatre - she was in Kiss and Tell at Eastbourne with Tilsa Page and John Clark in 1948 - before training at RADA. She first appeared in New York in Moss Hart's Climate of Eden in 1951, but returned to England for her West End debut in The Seven Year Itch which ran for a year at the Aldwich. She then entered a classical acting period with the Bristol Old Vic and then the Old Vic.

Her first film followed, Beau Brummel with Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor, and then a touring season with The Old Vic brought her back to Broadway in Tyrone Guthrie's production of Troilus and Cressida. Preferring to base herself in New York, she knew she would be able to work on both sides of the Atlantic.

Her plans changed, however, when she met a young man with a plan to start his own producing company on Broadway, always a risky proposition. By 1959, the Association of Producing Artists (APA) was established, and she and Ellis Rabb were married in December 1959, and over the next two years their energies were combined into making the APA a ten year success. The year 1962 brought her back to England and Laurence Olivier's Chichester Festival Theatre, and in 1964 again, when she was Ophelia to Peter O'Toole's Hamlet, for the inaugural production of the new Royal National Theatre of Great Britain.

Returning to New York, further work with the APA, and then she was cast as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, which brought her a Tony Award in 1966.

Ellis Rabb directed her one last time as Masha in War and Peace in 1967, the same year they agreed to split up. And a little while later, Rosemary was to marry again, this time her husband was the distinguished writer John Ehle, and they settled down in the countryside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and it was there that their daughter Jennifer was born, destined herself to become a Broadway star in her own name, Jennifer Ehle.

Her credits in film, television and theatre are long and varied, and can be found below. At this time, now in her seventies and finishing up her third Spiderman film as Aunt May, enough to say that this versatile actress has remained a much-loved, modest and accessible star, with long and warm memories for her equally loyal friends.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] Awards

Theatre World award, The Climate of Eden, 1953.
Tony award, best actress in a play, The Lion in Winter, 1966.
Drama Desk award, outstanding actress in a play, Old Times, 1972.
Drama Desk award, outstanding actress in a play, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Merchant of Venice, 1973.
Drama Desk award, outstanding actress in a play, The Royal Family, 1976.
Emmy Award, outstanding lead actress in a limited series, 1976, Notorious Woman (Masterpiece Theatre, PBS).
Emmy Award, outstanding lead actress in a limited series, 1978, Holocaust (NBC).
Golden Globe Award, best television actress--drama, 1979, Holocaust (1978, NBC).
Golden Satellite Award, best performance by an actress in a supporting role, drama, Sunshine, 2001 (shared with her daughter, Jennifer Ehle).
NBR Award, National Board of Review, best supporting actress, 1994, Tom & Viv.
Tony award, best actress in a play, Pack of Lies, 1985.
Obie award, performance, All Over, 2002.