Julie Harris

Julie Harris Headshot

Actress

Birth Date: December 2, 1925

Death Date: August 24, 2013

Birth Place: Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan

A Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy-winning actress and an Academy Award nominee, Julie Harris distinguished herself early in her diverse career a model for perseverance in the American entertainment industry. Though she made her Broadway debut in the forgotten 1945 flop, "It's a Gift," Harris returned to the Great White Way in a string of critical successes, drawing raves for her lead roles in "The Member of the Wedding" in 1951 and "I Am a Camera" the following year. In Hollywood, Harris coaxed a charismatic but inexperienced James Dean through his film debut in Elia Kazan's "East of Eden" (1955) and later specialized in neurotic older woman roles, from the psychic spinster of "The Haunting" (1964) to the self-mutilating Southern belle of "Reflections in a Golden Eye" (1969). As lead roles in film dried up, Harris dove into work on stage and television, where she recreated several of her theatrical successes, including "The Belle of Amherst" (1976) and "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln" (1976). A diagnosis of breast cancer did not stop Harris from becoming a series regular on the long-running primetime soap opera "Knots Landing" (CBS, 1979-1993), nor did a stroke in 2001 keep the elderly actress from plying her trade by sculpting her characterizations around her physical limitations. Awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 1994, Harris was also the recipient of a 2002 Tony Award for lifetime achievement and a 2005 citation from the Kennedy Center for contributions to American culture through the performing arts. Julie Harris died at the age of 87 in August 2013.

Credits

The Way Back Home

Actor
Movie
2006

Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony

Voice
TV Show
1999

Love Is Strange

Actor
Sylvia McClain
Movie
1999

The First of May

Actor
Carlotta
Movie
1998

Frank Lloyd Wright

Voice
Movie
1998

Ellen Foster

Actor
TV Show
1997

Bad Manners

Actor
Professor Harper
Movie
1997

Ellen Foster

Actor
Leonora Nelson
Movie
1997

Passaggio Per Il Paradiso

Actor
Martha McGraw
Movie
1996

The Christmas Tree

Actor
Sister Anthony
Movie
1996

Gentle Into the Night

Actor
Martha McGraw
Movie
1996

Ruth Orkin: Frames of Life

Narrator
Movie
1996

Lucifer's Child

Actor
TV Show
1995

The Outer LimitsStream

Actor
TV Show
1995

Secrets

Actor
Caroline Phelan
Movie
1995

Carried Away

Actor
Joseph's Mother
Movie
1995

ScarlettStream

Actor
Eleanor Butler
TV Show
1994

Directed By

Actor
TV Show
1994

One Christmas

Actor
Sook
Movie
1994

They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping Story

Actor
Odessa Ray
Movie
1993

The Dark Half

Actor
Reggie DeLesseps
Movie
1993

When Love Kills: The Seduction of John Hearn

Actor
Alice Hearn
Movie
1993

Fais comme chez toi

Actor
Movie
1992

Housesitter

Actor
Edna Davis
Movie
1992

The Civil WarStream

Voice
Mary Chestnut
TV Show
1990

Single Women, Married Men

Actor
Lucille Frankyl
Movie
1989

Isadora Duncan: Movement From the Soul

Voice
Isadora Duncan
Movie
1989

The Christmas Wife

Actor
Iris
Movie
1988

The Woman He Loved

Actor
Alice
Movie
1988

Gorillas in the MistStream

Actor
Roz Carr
Movie
1988
84%

Too Good to Be True

Actor
Margaret Berent
Movie
1988

Mortelle rencontre

Actor
Movie
1988

Family TiesStream

Guest Star
TV Show
1982

The Voyage of Odysseus

Actor
TV Show
1982

Brooklyn Bridge

Voice
Movie
1981

Knots Landing

Actor
Lilimae Clements
TV Show
1979

Knots Landing DFN

Actor
TV Show
1979

Tales of the Unexpected

Actor
Mrs Foster
TV Show
1979

The Bell Jar

Actor
Mrs. Greenwood
Movie
1979

The Gift

Actor
Elizabeth Holvak
Movie
1979

Voyage of the Damned

Actor
Alice Fienchild
Movie
1976

Family Holvak

Actor
Elizabeth Holvak
TV Show
1975

My Love

Actor
Elizabeth Holvak
Movie
1975

Long Way Home

Actor
Elizabeth Holvak
Movie
1975

The Hiding Place

Actor
Betsie ten Boom
Movie
1975

The Greatest Gift

Actor
Elizabeth Holvak
Movie
1974

Hawkins

Guest Star
TV Show
1973

Thicker Than Water

Actor
Nellie Paine
TV Show
1973

Die, Darling, Die

Actor
Janet Hubbard
Movie
1973

Columbo: Any Old Port in a Storm

Actor
Movie
1973

Quand le vin est tiré

Actor
Movie
1973

Home for the Holidays

Actor
Elizabeth Hall Morgan
Movie
1972

ColumboStream

Guest Star
Karen Fielding
TV Show
1971

Men From Shiloh

Guest Star
TV Show
1970

How Awful About Alan

Actor
Movie
1970

The House on Greenapple Road

Actor
Leona Miller
Movie
1970

The People Next Door

Actor
Gerrie Mason
Movie
1970

How Awful About Allan

Actor
Katherine
Movie
1970

So Long Baby, and Amen

Actor
Ruth "Doc" Harmon
Movie
1970

Name of the Game

Guest Star
TV Show
1968

The Split

Actor
Gladys
Movie
1968

Journey Into Midnight

Actor
Leona Gillings
Movie
1968

The Bobby Currier Story

Actor
Verna Ward
Movie
1968

Garrison's Gorillas

Guest Star
TV Show
1967

Reflections in a Golden Eye

Actor
Alison Langdon
Movie
1967

Tarzan

Guest Star
Charity Jones
TV Show
1966

Harper

Actor
Betty Fraley
Movie
1966

Laredo

Guest Star
TV Show
1965

The Big ValleyStream

Guest Star
TV Show
1965

The Holy Terror

Actor
Florence Nightingale
Movie
1965

Daniel Boone

Guest Star
TV Show
1964

Pygmalion

Actor
Eliza Doolittle
TV Show
1963

The HauntingStream

Actor
Eleanor "Nell" Lance
Movie
1963
87%

Requiem for a HeavyweightStream

Actor
Grace Miller
Movie
1962
89%

The Heiress

Actor
Catherine Sloper
TV Show
1961

The Power and the Glory

Actor
Maria
Movie
1961

Victoria Regina

Actor
Queen Victoria
Movie
1961

The Poacher's Daughter

Actor
Sally Hamil
Movie
1960

BonanzaStream

Guest Star
TV Show
1959

RawhideStream

Guest Star
TV Show
1959

A Doll's House

Actor
Nora Helmer
Movie
1959

Little Moon of Alban

Actor
Brigid Mary Managan
Movie
1958

The Truth About Women

Actor
Helen Cooper
Movie
1958

I Am a Camera

Actor
Sally Bowles
Movie
1955

East of EdenStream

Actor
Abra
Movie
1955
86%

The United States Steel Hour

Actor
Shevawn
TV Show
1953

Cruel Desengaño

Actor
Movie
1953

La Boda de mi Hermano

Actor
Movie
1953

The Member of the Wedding

Actor
Frankie Addams
Movie
1952

What's My Line?Stream

Guest
TV Show
1950

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Julie Harris