Early Life and Career
Born in London, Harper began elocution lessons at the Italia Conti Academy as a child in 1955, at the encouragement of his mother who was worried that he was developing a cockney accent. This led to him being cast as Master Bardell in an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel The Pickwick Papers for the independent television company Associated-Rediffusion, when the company approached the Academy asking if they had a boy with bright red hair for the role, and they recommended Harper.
Further television work followed in the late 1950s, appearing in children's serials for BBC Television under producer / director Shaun Sutton. From the ages of sixteen to twenty-one Harper worked predominantly in the theatre, not only as an actor but also as a stage manager. After further television work, however, he decided that acting was not the career he would like, and he would instead rather be behind the scenes. One of his main ambitions for becoming involved in the production side of the industry was to make Westerns.
While applying for production jobs in television, he worked for a time as a driving instructor. One of his pupils was the personal secretary of film director Stanley Kubrick, who arranged for him to visit the sound stages at MGM-British Studios where Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey was then being produced. During this visit, Harper briefly met Kubrick.
Read more about this topic: Graeme Harper
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“After us they’ll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they’ll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, “Oh! Life is so hard!” and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)