This year a new biography of the late British actor, Rex Harrison, will be published to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday this year. You will notice the title – Sexy Rexy – which came to be the actor’s nickname due to the many affairs he enjoyed throughout his life; and also his seemingly fatal effect on the women he loved and then left.
His wife Kay Kendall - supposedly the love of his life – died from cancer during their marriage; the doctors withheld her cancer diagnosis from her informing only Rex about her prognosis. He nursed her until she died. Another wife – Rachel Roberts - committed suicide after the breakup of their marriage.
But it was not just his wives who were fatally cursed by loving him; Harrison had a year long relationship with Hollywood actress of the early 40′s – Carole Landis – after a year of the relationship going nowhere, and unable to persuade Rex to marry her, Landis took an overdose of sleeping pills. She was reportedly still alive, barely, when Rex called to see her but wasted valuable time looking casually through her address book for her private doctor’s name, rather than call an ambulance. By the time he did call the paramedics Carole Landis was dead. Photographs were published of the dead actress curled up on the floor of her bedroom.
Rex Harrison, while greatly admired as an actor, was not widely liked by his peers who found him rude, offhand and lofty in his attitude to those around him. One time whilst appearing on stage in My Fair Lady he was leaving the theatre post-performance in the company of fellow actor Stanley Holloway. An elderly lady was waiting at the stagedoor in pouring rain to ask for Harrison to sign her programme. He refused telling her to ‘sod off’; the lady rolled up her programme and whacked him with it prompting Holloway to remark that it was the first time ‘the fan has hit the shit’.
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