Kathleen Harrison - Life and Career

Life and Career

Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Harrison was one of the first 84 pupils of St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School in 1903. She studied at RADA in 1914–15, and then spent some years living in Argentina and Madeira before making her professional acting debut in the UK in the 1920s.

Harrison made her stage debut as Mrs. Judd in The Constant Flirt at the Pier Theatre, Eastbourne in 1926. The following year she appeared in London's West End for the first time as Winnie in The Cage at the Savoy Theatre. Her subsequent West End plays included A Damsel in Distress, Happy Families, The Merchant and Venus, Lovers' Meeting, Line Engaged, Night Must Fall—also acting in the 1937 film version—Flare Path, The Winslow Boy and Watch It Sailor!.

She had already made her film debut with a minor role in Our Boys in 1915, when she appeared in the 1931 film Hobson's Choice. Another 50 films followed, including Gaslight, In Which We Serve and Caesar and Cleopatra, before making her name in later films.

Before and during World War II, she played small parts in numerous British films, including The Ghost Train (1941), In Which We Serve (1942), Temptation Harbour (1947), Oliver Twist (1948) and a small but scene-stealing role as Mrs. Dilber in Scrooge (1951, entitled A Christmas Carol in the US).

Harrison also played Kaney in The Ghoul (1933) and the matriarch in Mrs. Gibbons' Boys (1962), as well as two BBC productions of Charles Dickens's novels, Our Mutual Friend and Martin Chuzzlewit. She later commented that Dickens was her favourite author.