Rosemary Harris

Rosemary Ann Harris (born 19 September 1927) is an English actress best known for her role as Aunt May in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy. She is a 1986 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee.
Harris began her stage career in 1948, before making her Broadway debut in 1952. For her New York stage work she is a four-time Drama Desk Award winner and nine-time Tony Award nominee, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1966 for The Lion in Winter. On television, she won an Emmy Award for the 1974 TV serial Notorious Woman, and a Golden Globe for the 1978 miniseries Holocaust. For the 1994 film Tom & Viv, she received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination. She is the mother of actress Jennifer Ehle.

Harris was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, the daughter of Enid Maude Frances (née Campion) and Stafford Berkely Harris. One of her grandmothers, born into a family of boyars in Muntenia, was Romanian. Her father was in the Royal Air Force and as a result, Harris' family lived in India during her childhood. She attended convent schools, and later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1951 to 1952.

Early in her acting career, she gained experience in English repertory theatre. In 1948, she acted in Kiss and Tell at Eastbourne with Tilsa Page and John Clark and later with Anthony Cundell's company at Penzance, where she played the mother in Black Chiffon. She went from Penzance to train at RADA. She first appeared in New York in 1951 in Moss Hart's Climate of Eden, and then returned to Britain for her West End debut in The Seven Year Itch which ran for a year at the Aldwich.

Harris at the Chichester Festival Theatre, 1962.

Harris then entered a classical acting period in productions with the Bristol Old Vic and then the Old Vic, appearing at the latter as Ophelia in the National Theatre Company's opening production of Hamlet in October 1963, alongside Peter O'Toole in the title role. Writing in UK newspaper The Guardian in 2003 as part of a series on landmark theatre productions, playwright Samantha Ellis noted of the National Theatre's opening night:

"Olivier gloomily anticipated bad reviews. But RB Marriott, in The Stage, found O'Toole to be 'a magnificent Prince' and Rosemary Harris 'the most real and touching Ophelia'. (In contrast, Felix Barker, in the Evening News, called her 'an embarrassing deb who has had too much gin'.) And Harold Hobson, in The Sunday Times, was overcome."

Her first film followed, Beau Brummel (1954) 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. She met Ellis Rabb who had plans to start his own producing company on Broadway. By 1959, the Association of Producing Artist (APA) was established, and she and Rabb were married in December of that year.

In 1962, she returned to Britain and Chichester Festival Theatre during its opening season when the director was Laurence Olivier; she appeared as Elena in Olivier's celebrated 1962-63 Chichester production of Uncle Vanya. In 1964, she was Ophelia to Peter O'Toole's Hamlet in the inaugural production of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain.

Returning to New York, she worked further with the APA, and then was cast as Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, a performance that garnered her a Tony Award in 1966. Rabb directed her one last time as Natasha in War and Peace in 1967, the same year they agreed to divorce. A little while later, Harris married the American writer John Ehle. They settled in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where their daughter, Jennifer, was born in 1969. Jennifer Ehle followed in her mother's footsteps by becoming a noted film, television and Broadway actress. In 1974, Harris starred in the BBC TV serial Notorious Woman, which aired on PBS in the US as part of Masterpiece Theatre. For this role, she won the 1976 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - TV Drama for the 1978 NBC miniseries Holocaust, which also starred Meryl Streep. Reviewing the BBC's 1983 production of To the Lighthouse, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name, The New York Times' John J. O'Connor wrote: "A luminous, flawless performance by Miss Harris makes Mrs. Ramsay as memorable on film as she is on the printed page." She received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for the 1994 film Tom & Viv. Harris and her daughter Ehle, played the young and elderly incarnations, respectively, of the same character in István Szabó's 1999 film Sunshine, about a Hungarian Jewish family. They had previously played the young and old Calypso in the 1992 Channel 4 adaptation of The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley.

Harris appeared in the rotating cast of the Off-Broadway staged reading of Wit & Wisdom. In 2007, she received the North Carolina Award for fine arts. Her husband, John Ehle, won the same award in 1972 for literature.

In 2002, she appeared as Aunt May Parker in the first film adaptation of Spider-Man, reprising the role in the sequels Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).

Stage

• The Road to Mecca [16 December 2011 - 4 March 2012] - Miss Helen [Broadway-Revival]
• The Royal Family [8 October – 13 December 2009] – Fanny Cavendish [Broadway-Revival]
• Oscar and the Lady in Pink [15 January – 10 February 2008] – George Street Playhouse
• Oscar and the Lady in Pink [September, 2007]– Solo performance Old Globe Theatre, San Diego]
• Wit & Wisdom [March 2003] – Arclight Theatre [Off-Broadway-Original]
• Waiting in the Wings [16 December 1999 – 28 May 2000] – May Davenport [Broadway-Original Play]
• A Delicate Balance [21 April 1996 – 29 September 1996] – Agnes [Broadway-Revival]
• An Inspector Calls [27 April 1994 – 28 May 1995] – Sybil Birling [Broadway-Revival]
• Lost in Yonkers [21 February 1991 – 3 January 1993] – Grandma Kurnitz [Broadway-Original]
• Hay Fever [12 December 1985 – 29 March 1986]– Judith Bliss [Broadway-Revival]
• Pack of Lies [11 February 1985 – 25 May 1985] – Barbara Jackson[Broadway-Original]
• Heartbreak House [7 December 1983 – 5 February 1984] – Hesione Hushabye [Broadway- Revival]
• The Royal Family [30 December 1975 – 18 July 1976] – Julie Cavendish [Broadway-Revival]
• A Streetcar Named Desire [26 April 1973 – 29 July 1973] – Blanche Du Bois [Broadway-Revival]
• The Merchant of Venice [1 March 1973 – 7 April 1973] – Portia [Broadway-Revival]
• Old Times [16 November 1971 – 26 February 1972] – Anna [Broadway-Original]
• War and Peace [21 March 1967 – 17 June 1967] – Natasha [Broadway-Original]
• You Can't Take It with You [10 February 1967 – February 1967]– Alice Sycamore [Broadway-Revival]
• The Wild Duck [11 January 1967 – 17 June 1967] – Gina (alternate)[Broadway-Revival]
• We, Comrades Three [20 December 1966 – December 1966] – Young Woman (Alternate) [Broadway-Original]
• Right You Are If You Think You Are [22 November 1966 – December 1966] – Signora Ponza (Alternate) [Broadway-Revival]
• The School for Scandal [21 November 1966 – January 1967] – Lady Teazle, Epilogue [Broadway-Revival]
• The Lion in Winter [3 March 1966 – 21 May 1966] – Eleanor [Broadway-Original]
• You Can't Take It With You [23 November 1965 – 18 June 1966] – Alice Sycamore[Broadway-Revival]
• 'Uncle Vanya (1963), Chichester Festival Theatre
• The Tumbler [24 February 1960 – 27 February 1960] – Lennie [Broadway-Original]
• The Disenchanted [3 December 1958 – 16 May 1959]– Jere Halliday [Broadway-Original]
• Interlock [6 February 1958 – 8 February 1958] – Hilde [Broadway- Original]
• Troilus and Cressida [26 December 1956 – 12 January 1957]– Cressida [Broadway-Revival]
• The Climate of Eden [13 November 1952 – 22 November 1952 – Mabel [Broadway-Original]

Filmography

• This Means War (2012)
• Is Anybody There? (2009)
• Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
• Spider-Man 3 (2007)
• Being Julia (2004)
• Spider-Man 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man (2002)
• Blow Dry (2001)
• The Gift (2000)
• My Life So Far (1999)
• Sunshine (1999)
• Hamlet (1996)
• Looking for Richard (1996)
• Death of a Salesman (1996)
• Tom & Viv (1994)
• The Bridge (1992)
• The Delinquents (1989)
• Crossing Delancey (1988)
• To the Lighthouse (1983)
• The Ploughman's Lunch (1983)
• The Chisholms (1979 and 1980) as Minerva Chisholm
• The Boys from Brazil (1978)
• Holocaust (1978)
• Notorious Woman (1974, BBC)
• A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
• Uncle Vanya (1963)
• A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
• The Shiralee (1957)
• Beau Brummell (1954)

• Harry Haun After six decades on stage, Rosemary Harris finds Mecca in a meaty new role Playbill January 17, 2012

• 1953: Theatre World Award - The Climate of Eden (won)
• 1962: Obie Award for Best Actress - The Tavern & The School for Scandal & The Seagull (won)
• 1965: Obie Award for Best Actress - Judith & Man and Superman & War and Peace (won)
• 1966: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - The Lion in Winter (won)
• 1972: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance - Old Times (won)
• 1972: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - Old Times (nominated)
• 1973: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance - A Streetcar Named Desire / The Merchant of Venice (won)
• 1976: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play - The Royal Family (won)
• 1976: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - The Royal Family (nominated)
• 1976: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series - Notorious Woman (Masterpiece Theatre, PBS) (won)
• 1978: Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series - Holocaust (NBC) (nominated)
• 1978: Golden Globe Award for Best Television Actress in a Drama - Holocaust (1978, NBC) (won)
• 1984: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play - Heartbreak House (nominated)
• 1984: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - Heartbreak House (nominated)
• 1985: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play - Pack of Lies (won)
• 1985: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - Pack of Lies (nominated)
• 1986: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - Hayfever (nominated)
• 1994: National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress - Tom & Viv (won)
• 1994: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Tom & Viv (nominated)
• 1996: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play - A Delicate Balance (nominated)
• 1996: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - A Delicate Balance (nominated)
• 2000: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play - Waiting in the Wings (nominated)
• 2001: Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama - Sunshine (won) (shared with her daughter, Jennifer Ehle).
• 2002: Obie Award for Best Actress - All Over (won)
• 2010: Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play - The Royal Family (nominated)