Kathleen Harrison

Sharp-featured, sharp-tongued British actress Kathleen Harrison was everyone's favorite Cockney, even though she was born in Lancashire. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kathleen made her stage bow in 1926 (nine years earlier, she had appeared fleetingly in a silent picture). Her first talkie was 1931's Hobson's Choice; within only a few years, she was one of the best-loved actresses on the British screen. Her wide range encompassed suspense films (The Ghoul [1933], The Ghost Train [1941]), G. B. Shaw (Major Barbara [1941], Caesar and Cleopatra [1946]) and Dickens (A Christmas Carol [1951], The Pickwick Papers [1952]). In 1947, Harrison was costarred with Jack Warner in Holiday Camp; the actors played the heads of the Huggett family, a British equivalent to MGM's Hardy brood. This led to a popular series of Huggett films, and other well-received teamings of Warner and Harrison. Active in films until 1979, Kathleen Harrison worked almost exclusively in England; her one American production, Night Must Fall (1937), was based on a British stage success.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide