Kathleen Harrison | |
---|---|
Born |
Blackburn, Lancashire, England |
23 February 1892
Died | 7 December 1995 Merton, London, England |
(aged 103)
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1915–79 |
Spouse(s) | John Henry Beck (1916–60, his death, 3 children) |
Children | 3 |
Kathleen Harrison (23 February 1892 – 7 December 1995) was a prolific English character actress best remembered for her role as Mrs Huggett (opposite Jack Warner and Petula Clark) in a trio of British post-war comedies about a working-class family's misadventures. To modern viewers she may be best remembered as the charwoman Mrs Dilber opposite Alastair Sim in the 1951 film A Christmas Carol, and as a Cockney charlady who inherits a fortune in Mrs Thursday.
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.