Joan Perry
Who was the spouse of Laurence Harvey from 1968 to 1972?
Laurence Harvey Laurence Harvey ( born Zvi Mosheh Skikne ; 1 October 192825 November 1973 ) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director . He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to South Africa at an early age , before later settling in the United Kingdom after World War II . In a career that spanned a quarter of a century , Harvey appeared in stage , film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States . Known for his clipped , refined accent and cool , debonair screen persona ; his performance in Room at the Top ( 1959 ) resulted in an Academy Award nomination . That success was followed by the roles of William Barret Travis in The Alamo and Weston Liggett in Butterfield 8 , both films released in the autumn of 1960 . He also appeared as the brainwashed Sergeant Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate ( 1962 ) . He made his directorial debut with The Ceremony ( 1963 ) . He continued acting into the 1970s , until his sudden death in 1973 of cancer . Early life and career . South Africa . Harvey was born in Joniškis , Lithuania , the youngest of three sons of Ella ( née Zotnickaita ) and Ber Skikne , Lithuanian Jewish parents . His civil birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne . His Hebrew name was Zvi Mosheh . When he was five years old , his family traveled with the family of Riva Segal and her two sons , Louis and Charles Segal on the to South Africa , where he was known as Harry Skikne . Harvey grew up in Johannesburg . He was only fifteen when he auditioned to join the Entertainment Unit of the South African Army during the Second World War . Sid James managed the Unit and approved his audition . They become long-time friends . As the Mystery Guest on USA TV show Whats My Line ? screened 1 May 1960 , he states he arrived in South Africa in 1934 and moved to the UK in 1946 . Move to Britain . After moving to London , he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , but left RADA after three months . Billed as Larry Skikne , he appeared in the play Uprooted at the Comedy Theatre in 1947 . He also appeared on stage at the Library Theatre in Manchester . His performances in Manchester led to him being cast in his first film . Film debut and new name . Harvey made his cinema debut in the British film House of Darkness ( 1948 ) , but its distributor British Lion thought someone named Larry Skikne was not commercially viable . Accounts vary as to how the actor acquired his stage name of Laurence Harvey . One version has it that it was the idea of talent agent Gordon Harbord who decided Laurence would be an appropriate first name . In choosing a British-sounding last name , Harbord thought of two British retail institutions , Harvey Nichols and Harrods . Another is that Skikne was travelling on a London bus with Sid James who exclaimed during their journey : Its either Laurence Nichols or Laurence Harvey . Harveys own account differed over time . Associated British Picture Corporation and leading man . Associated British Picture Corporation quickly offered him a two-year contract , which Harvey accepted . He appeared in supporting roles in several of their lower-budget films such as Man on the Run ( 1949 ) , Landfall ( 1949 ) ( directed by Ken Annakin ) and The Dancing Years ( 1950 ) . For International Motion Pictures he was in The Man from Yesterday ( 1949 ) . Mayflower Productions , which released through Associated British , gave Harvey his first lead , appearing alongside Eric Portman in the Egypt-set police film Cairo Road ( 1950 ) . It was a minor success . He had a small role in the Hollywood financed The Black Rose ( 1950 ) , starring Tyrone Power and Orson Welles , directed by Henry Hathaway . It was Harveys first experience in a Hollywood film . He played Cassio in a version of Othello for BBC TV starring Andre Morell . Harvey starred in leading roles for two B-pictures for director Lewis Gilbert at Nettleford Films : Scarlet Thread ( 1951 ) and There Is Another Sun ( 1951 ) . For Ealing , he made I Believe in You ( 1952 ) , directed by Basil Dearden . According to Sight and Sound this performance gave an indication of Harveys true metier . While Basil Deardens direction focused on honest Harry Fowler , it was Harveys Jordie who supplied an authentic glimpse of pin-table thuggery , his clothes and hairstyle on the cusp between cosh-boy and ted and his manner redolent of a languorous sexuality no amount of National Service could quell . He starred in the low-budget thriller A Killer Walks ( 1952 ) . In 1951 he appeared on stage in Hassan at the Cambridge Theatre . Romulus Films . Harveys career gained a boost when he appeared in Women of Twilight ( 1952 ) ; this was made by Romulus Films run by brothers John and James Woolf , who signed Harvey to a long-term contract . James Woolf in particular was a big admirer of Harvey and played an important role in turning the actor into a star . In 1953 he played Orlando on a BBC TV version of As You Like It , opposite Margaret Leighton , whom he would later marry . Romulus put him in two ensemble films : a comedy , Innocents in Paris ( 1953 ) and a crime thriller , The Good Die Young ( 1954 ) . He had an especially strong role in the latter , which was directed by Lewis Gilbert , and featured Hollywood actors such as John Ireland , Richard Basehart and Gloria Grahame , along with Leighton . This has been called his first performance of note . Harvey received an offer to play the juvenile male lead in the Hollywood spectacular King Richard and the Crusaders ( 1954 ) , a medieval swashbuckler for Warner Bros starring Rex Harrison , Virginia Mayo and George Sanders . It was a box-office disappointment , although Harveys performance was well received . Harvey played Romeo in Renato Castellanis adaptation of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet ( 1954 ) , narrated by John Gielgud . His performance was generally not well received . According to a contemporary interview , he turned down an offer to appear in Helen of Troy ( 1955 ) to act at Stratford-upon-Avon , where he again performed in Romeo and Juliet , this time on stage . Romulus gave Harvey another excellent chance when he was cast as the writer Christopher Isherwood in I Am A Camera ( 1955 ) , with Julie Harris as Sally Bowles . He and Leighton starred in an adaptation of A Month in the Country for ITV Play of the Week ( 1955 ) . He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play Island of Goats , a flop that closed after one week , though his performance won him a 1956 Theatre World Award . While in the US he appeared on TV in an episode of The Alcoa Hour called The Small Servant , co starring Diane Cilento . Zoltan Korda used him as one of the soldiers in Storm Over the Nile ( 1955 ) , a remake of The Four Feathers ( 1939 ) , playing the part taken by Ralph Richardson in the 1939 version . It was popular in Britain as was the comedy Three Men in a Boat ( 1956 ) , made for Romulus under the direction of Ken Annakin . Harvey appeared in The Bet for ITV Television Playhouse ( 1956 ) then did another for Romulus , After the Ball ( 1957 ) , a biopic of Vesta Tilley , in which Harvey played Walter de Frece . He followed it with The Truth About Women ( 1958 ) , a comedy directed by Muriel Box for Beaconsfield Productions . Harvey returned to Broadway in 1957 to appear alongside Julie Harris , Pamela Brown and Colleen Dewhurst in William Wycherleys The Country Wife ( a production he had originally starred in at Londons Royal Court Theatre ) . For Romulus , Harvey starred in The Silent Enemy ( 1958 ) , with his old friend Sid James , a biopic of war hero Lionel Crabb . International stardom . Room at the Top . Harveys breakthrough to international stardom came after he was cast by director Jack Clayton as the social climber Joe Lampton in Room at the Top ( 1959 ) , produced by Romulus . For his performance , Harvey received a BAFTA Award nomination and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor . Simone Signoret and Heather Sears co-starred as Lamptons married lover and eventual wife respectively . It was the third most popular movie at the British box office in 1959 and a hit in the U.S . Harvey went to Broadway in 1958 , as Shakespeares Henry V , as part of the Old Vic company , which featured a young Judi Dench as Katherine , the daughter of the king of France . Harvey followed it with the musical Expresso Bongo ( 1959 ) , a film best remembered for introducing Cliff Richard . He did The Violent Years for the ITV Play of the Week ( 1959 ) . While in the US he appeared in Arthur , an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents directed by Hitchcock himself . Hollywood . The success of Room at the Top led to Hollywood offers and Harvey decided to spend the next three years focusing on films . He was in John Waynes epic The Alamo ( 1960 ) , being John Waynes personal choice to play Alamo commandant William Barret Travis . He had been impressed by Harveys talent and ability to project the aristocratic demeanor Wayne believed Travis possessed . Harvey and Wayne later expressed their mutual admiration and satisfaction at having worked together . The Alamo was a hit ( although the enormous cost meant the film lost money ) . Even more successful was Harveys next Hollywood film , MGMs BUtterfield 8 ( 1960 ) , which won Elizabeth Taylor her first Oscar . He was named for The Eddie Chapman Story but it was not made until years later , as Triple Cross with Christopher Plummer . Back in Britain , Harvey was cast in the film version of The Long and the Short and the Tall ( 1961 ) in a role originally performed by Peter OToole during the plays West End run . He clashed with Richard Todd and Richard Harris during filming but the movie was a hit in Britain . He was announced for some films that were not made ( The Disenchanted from the novel by Budd Schulberg , No Bail for the Judge , from Alfred Hitchcock The Lion , The Long Walk ) and films made with other actors The Greengage Summer ) . In the U.S. , he supported Shirley MacLaine in MGMs Two Loves ( 1961 ) and co-starred with Geraldine Page in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williamss Summer and Smoke ( 1961 ) , directed by Peter Glenville . He signed to appear in the film of Five Finger Exercise but was not in the eventual film . His fee around this time was $300,000 a film . Harvey played the male lead in Walk on the Wild Side ( 1962 ) , produced by Charles Feldman ; he was cast alongside Barbara Stanwyck , Jane Fonda and Capucine . Fonda was not positive about the experience of working with him : There are actors and actors – and then there are the Laurence Harveys . With them , its like acting by yourself . The same year , he recorded an album of spoken excerpts from the book This Is My Beloved by Walter Benton , accompanied by original music by Herbie Mann . It was released on the Atlantic label . He narrated a TV musical , The Flood ( 1962 ) . MGM cast Harvey as Wilhelm Grimm in the MGM film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm ( 1962 ) , produced by George Pal . Harveys performance earned him a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama . The fantasy movie filmed in 3-strip Cinerama was a box office disappointment . Harvey appeared as the brainwashed US Army Captain Raymond Shaw in the Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate ( 1962 ) , directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury . Film critic David Shipman wrote unkindly : Harveys role required him to act like a zombie and several critics cited it as his first convincing performance . The movie was a hit and has since become critically highly regarded , and is one of Harveys better-remembered films . Harvey went to Japan to make A Girl Named Tamiko ( 1962 ) with France Nuyen for director John Sturges and producer Hal Wallis . I have suddenly found the gates of Hollywood opened to me , he said at the time . He followed this with The Running Man ( 1963 ) , directed by Carol Reed , with Lee Remick and Alan Bates . Director . Harvey made his directorial debut with The Ceremony ( 1963 ) , in which he also starred . It was shot in Spain for United Artists . Harvey played King Arthur in the 1964 London production of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical Camelot at Drury Lane . He was the male lead in an adaptation of W . Somerset Maughams Of Human Bondage ( 1964 ) , co starring Kim Novak . Harvey had been connected to the project for several years . It was a troubled shoot , with Harvey and Novak clashing , and original director Henry Hathaway leaving during the shoot and being replaced by Ken Hughes . During filming , kidnap threats were made against both Harvey and Novak by student organisations . The Outrage ( 1964 ) was director Martin Ritts remake of Akira Kurosawas Japanese film Rashomon ( 1950 ) . Besides Harvey , the film starred Paul Newman and Claire Bloom , but was unsuccessful critically and commercially . Harvey reprised his role as Joe Lampton in Life at the Top ( 1965 ) , directed by Ted Kotcheff . This is considered one of his best later performances . Harvey had his first commercially successful film in a number of years with Darling ( 1965 ) , starring Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde . While Harveys role in the film is short , his involvement enabled director John Schlesinger to raise financial backing for the project . Harvey starred in a version of The Doctor and the Devils directed by Nicholas Ray from a script by Dylan Thomas but the film was not completed . Harvey co-starred with Israeli actress Daliah Lavi in the comedy The Spy with a Cold Nose ( 1966 ) , a parody of the James Bond films . Harvey did The Winters Tale ( 1967 ) and then Dial M for Murder ( 1967 ) for American TV . Charge of the Light Brigade . Harvey owned the rights to the book on which John Osbornes early script for the film The Charge of the Light Brigade ( 1968 ) was partially based , Cecil Woodham-Smiths book The Reason Why ( 1953 ) . He intended to make his own version . A lawsuit was filed against director Tony Richardsons company Woodfall Film Productions on behalf of the books author . There was a monetary settlement , and Harvey insisted on being cast in a cameo role ( being cast as Prince Radziwill ) as part of the agreement for which he was paid £60,000 . Charles Wood was brought in to re-write the script . Harveys scenes were cut from the movie at Richardsons insistence except for a brief glimpse as an anonymous member of a theatre audience which , technically , still met the requirements of the legal settlement . John Osborne asserted in his autobiography that Richardson shot the scenes with Harvey French , which is film jargon for a director going-through-the-motions because of some obligation , but with no film in the camera . Harvey completed direction of the spy thriller A Dandy in Aspic ( 1968 ) after director Anthony Mann died during production . The film co-stars Mia Farrow . This has been called his last effective cinema role.. . The critics greeted it with disdain but the plot was tailor-made for Harvey , who plays a Russian spy who has adopted an English identity so he can go undercover within British Intelligence . Harvey provided the narration for the Soviet film Tchaikovsky ( 1969 ) , directed by Igor Talankin . Later career . Harvey co-starred with Ann-Margret in Rebus ( 1969 ) then appeared in Kampf um Rom ( 1970 ) , a film set in Ancient Rome . The latter starred Orson Welles , who directed Harvey in The Deep , a thriller that was abandoned . Harvey starred in She and He ( 1969 ) which he helped produce . Harvey had a cameo role as himself in The Magic Christian ( 1969 ) , a film based on the Terry Southern novel of the same name . He gives a rendition of Hamlets soliloquy that develops unexpectedly into a campy striptease routine . He had a small role in WUSA ( 1970 ) and was guest murderer on Columbo : The Most Dangerous Match in 1973 , portraying a chess champion who kills his opponent . For British TV he appeared in a version of Arms and the Man for ITV Sunday Night Theatre ( 1971 ) . Joanna Pettet appeared with Harvey in an episode of Rod Serlings Night Gallery ( The Caterpillar , 1972 ) , in which Harveys character attempts to assassinate a romantic rival by having a burrowing insect dropped in the mans ear . Harvey starred in Escape to the Sun ( 1972 ) , directed by Menahem Golan and was reunited with Elizabeth Taylor in Night Watch ( 1973 ) . Night Watch was financed by Brut Productions who also financed Welcome to Arrow Beach ( 1974 ) which Harvey directed and starred in ; the cast also included his friend Pettet , John Ireland and Stuart Whitman . The film deals with a type of war-related post-traumatic stress disorder that turns a military veteran to cannibalism . Final plans . In August 1973,it was reported Harvey had been ill , but he assured people he was busier than ever . Just before he died , he was planning to star in and direct two films : one on Kitty Genovese , the other a Wolf Mankowitz comedy titled Cockatrice . His death put an end to any hope that Orson Welless The Deep would be completed . With Harvey and Jeanne Moreau in the leading roles , Welles worked on the film between his other projects , although the production was hampered by financial problems . Personal life . He met Hermione Baddeley , an established actress , when they were cast in the film “There is another sun” in 1950 . She became his “live-in” partner and a lucky charm for his career . She introduced him to Basil Dean and his first part on the London stage in “Hassan” , followed by a season at Stratford in 1952 with Glen Byam Shaw . Most significantly , she introduced him to James Woolf , of Romulus Films . He became his mentor , manager and lover , over the next 14 years . He made Laurence Harvey a star . Harvey left Baddeley in 1952 for actress Margaret Leighton , who was then married to publisher Max Reinhardt . Leighton and Reinhardt divorced in 1955 , and she married Harvey in 1957 off the Rock of Gibraltar . The couple divorced in 1961 . In 1968 he married Joan Perry , the widow of film mogul Harry Cohn . Her marriage to Harvey lasted until 1972 . His third marriage was to British fashion model Paulene Stone . She gave birth to their daughter Domino in 1969 while he was still married to Perry . Harvey and Stone married in 1972 and soon after , he adopted her child from her previous marriage , Sophie Norris ( now Sophie Harvey ) . The wedding took place at the home of Harold Robbins . In his account of being Frank Sinatras valet , Mr . S : My Life with Frank Sinatra ( 2003 ) , George Jacobs writes that Harvey often made passes at him while visiting Sinatra . According to Jacobs , Sinatra was aware of Harveys sexuality . In his autobiography Close Up ( 2004 ) , British actor John Fraser claimed Harvey was gay and that his long-term lover was Harveys manager James Woolf , who had cast Harvey in several of the films he produced in the 1950s . After working in two films with her , Harvey remained friends with Elizabeth Taylor for the rest of his life . She visited him three weeks before he died . Upon his death , Taylor issued the statement : He was one of the people I really loved in this world . He was part of the sun . For everyone who loved him , the sun is a bit dimmer . She and Peter Lawford held a memorial service for Harvey in California . Harvey once responded to an assertion about himself : Someone once asked me , Why is it so many people hate you ? and I said , Do they ? How super ! Im really quite pleased about it . Death . A heavy smoker and drinker , Harvey died at the age of 45 from stomach cancer in Hampstead , north London , on 25 November 1973 . His daughter Domino , who later became a bounty hunter , was only four years old at the time . She died at the age of 35 , in 2005 , after overdosing on painkillers . They are buried together in Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara , California . Appraisal . According to his obituary in The New York Times : With his clipped speech , cool smile and a cigarette dangling impudently from his lips , Laurence Harvey established himself as the screens perfect pin-striped cad . He could project such utter boredom that willowy debutantes would shrivel in his presence . He could also exude such charm that the same young ladies would gladly lend him their hearts , which were usually returned utterly broken.. . The image Mr Harvey carefully fostered for himself off screen was not far removed from some of the roles he played . Im a flamboyant character , an extrovert who doesnt want to reveal his feelings , he once said . To bare your soul to the world , I find unutterably boring . I think part of our profession is to have a quixotic personality . According to Sight and Sound Any young actor who delighted in pink bathroom suites and liked to compare himself favourably to Olivier , Gielgud and Richardson – preferably in the same sentence – was clearly going to find it hard to fit the mould of New Elizabethan chappism promoted by Rank and ABPC.. . Harvey flaunted a cigarette holder almost as parodie as Terry Thomas and boasted that his drainpipe trousers pre-dated the teddy boys . His hairstyle always tended towards the baroque and quickly became a trademark Awards and nominations . - 1956 Theatre World Award . - 1959 Nomination BAFTA Award for Best British Actor - 1960 Nomination BAFTA Award for Best British Actor - 1959 Nomination Academy Award for Best Actor - 1960 Nominated Laurel Award Top Male New Personality - 1963 Nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama . Acting credits . Film . Note : Where British Film Institute ( BFI ) and American Film Institute ( AFI ) differed on release year , or if the Wikipedia article title had a different release year , whichever source is the country of production is the year used . Further reading . - Hickey , Des and Smith , Gus . The Prince : The Public and Private Life of Laurence Harvey . Leslie Frewin . 1975 . - Stone , Paulene . One Tear is Enough : My Life with Laurence Harvey . 1975 . - Sinai , Anne . Reach for the Top : The Turbulent Life of Laurence Harvey . Scarecrow Press . 2003 . External links . - Laurence Harvey Britmovie