Fatal Charm: The Life of Rex Harrison

by Alexander Walker

For decades Rex Harrison was the king of the English stage. My Fair Lady immortalised his persona, the epitome of the English gentleman, but beneath those easy manners and cool wit lurked a tyrannical egoism. Rex always needed a woman beside him and he married six times; both Carole Landis, a young starlet, and Rachel Roberts, the actress who was his fourth wife, committed suicide. Alexander Walker traces the public and private life of this brilliant actor, from his genteel beginnings in the suburbs of Liverpool through hard graft and triumph on the English stage, to a prurient Hollywood from which scandal forced him to flee. Drawing on unpublished sources, on conversations with Rex Harrison and on interviews with Harrison's closest family and friends, Alexander Walker portrays Rex Harrison, the high-comedy actor, and Rex Harrison, the incomparable despot.

Genres: Biography

608 pages, Paperback

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.