Kathleen Harrison

Kathleen Harrison
Born	(1892-02-23)23 February 1892 Blackburn, Lancashire, England
Died	7 December 1995(1995-12-07) (aged 103) Merton, London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1915–79
Spouse	John Henry Back ​ ​ (m. 1916; died 1961)​
Children	3

Kathleen Harrison (23 February 1892 – 7 December 1995) was a prolific English w: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, The Huggetts. She later played the charwoman Mrs. Dilber opposite Alastair Sim in the 1951 film Scrooge (US: A Christmas Carol, 1951) and a Cockney charwoman who inherits a fortune in the television series Mrs Thursday (1966–67).

Life and career

Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, Harrison was brought up in London, her father having become borough engineer for Southwark. She was educated at Clapham high school before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1914–15). She 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, Ducks and Drakes, The Winslow Boy and Watch It Sailor!.

She had already made her film debut with a minor role in Our Boys (1915), when she appeared in the film Hobson's Choice (1931). Another 50 films followed, including Gaslight (1940), In Which We Serve (1942) and Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), 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), Temptation Harbour (1947), and Oliver Twist (1948), and had a small but scene-stealing role as Mrs. Dilber in Scrooge (US: A Christmas Carol, 1951).

Harrison also played Kaney in The Ghoul (1933) and the matriarch in s (1962), as well as two BBC productions of Charles Dickens's novels, Martin Chuzzlewit (1964) and Our Mutual Friend (1976). She later commented that Dickens was her favourite author. As her cinema appearances became more infrequent, Harrison turned to television. She starred on television as Mrs Thursday (1966–67), a charwoman who inherits £10 million and the controlling interest in a major company.

The Huggett family

Further information: The Huggetts Trilogy

The Huggett family made their first appearance in Holiday Camp (1947). Harrison played the London East End charwoman Mrs Huggett. The actress continued with the role, alongside Jack Warner as her screen husband, in Here Come the Huggetts (1948), Vote for Huggett and The Huggetts Abroad (both 1949), as well as a radio series, Meet the Huggetts, which ran from 1953 to 1961. Although disliked by critics, almost immediately it became one of the most popular programmes of its day. Harrison turned down the title role in writer Jeremy Sandford's Play for Today Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971).

Harrison also starred with Warner in the film Home and Away (1956), about a working-class family that wins the football pools.

Personal life

Harrison married John Henry Beck in 1916; the couple had three children, two sons, and a daughter. She always pretended to be six years younger than her age, but in 1992 she owned up to reaching 100 and received her telegram from the Queen. Harrison died in 1995 at the age of 103. She was predeceased by her husband, John, and a son.

Filmography

• Hobson's Choice (1931)
• Aren't We All? (1932)
• The Man from Toronto (1933)
• The Ghoul (1933)
• The Great Defender (1934)
• What Happened Then? (1934)
• Dandy Dick (1935)
• Line Engaged (1935)
• Broken Blossoms (1936)
• The Tenth Man (1936)
• Jury's Evidence (1936)
• Everybody Dance (1936)
• Aren't Men Beasts! (1937)
• Wanted! (1937)
• Night Must Fall (1937)
• Jane Steps Out (1938)
• Bank Holiday (1938)
• The Terror (1938)
• Almost a Gentleman (1938)
• Convict 99 (1938)
• I've Got a Horse (1938)
• The Outsider (1939)
• A Girl Must Live (1939)
• Home from Home (1939)
• Discoveries (1939)
• I Killed the Count (1939)
• The Girl in the News (1940)
• An Englishman's Home (1940)
• They Came by Night (1940)
• A Call for Arms (1940)
• The Big Blockade (1940)
• Gaslight (1940)
• Tilly of Bloomsbury (1940)
• The Flying Squad (1940)
• Salvage with a Smile (1940, short)
• The Ghost Train (1941)
• Major Barbara (1941)
• Kipps (1941)
• Once a Crook (1941)
• I Thank You (1941)
• A Letter from Home (1941)
• In Which We Serve (1942)
• Much Too Shy (1942)
• The New Lot (1943)
• Dear Octopus (1943)

• It Happened One Sunday (1944)
• Meet Sexton Blake! (1945)
• Great Day (1945)
• Waterloo Road (1945)
• Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
• Wanted for Murder (1946)
• I See a Dark Stranger (1946)
• Carnival (1946)
• Temptation Harbour (1947)
• Code of Scotland Yard (1947)
• Holiday Camp (1947)
• Bond Street (1948)
• Oliver Twist (1948) as Mrs. Sowerberry
• The Winslow Boy (1948)
• Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
• Vote for Huggett (1949)
• Now Barabbas (1949)
• The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
• Landfall (1949)
• Golden Arrow (1949)
• Double Confession (1950)
• Waterfront (1950)
• Trio (1950)
• Scrooge (US: A Christmas Carol, 1951)
• The Magic Box (1951)
• The Happy Family (1952)
• The Pickwick Papers (1952)
• Turn the Key Softly (1953)
• The Dog and the Diamonds (1953)
• Lilacs in the Spring (1954)
• Where There's a Will (1955)
• Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
• All for Mary (1955)
• It's a Wonderful World (1956)
• Home and Away (1956)
• Seven Thunders (1957)
• The Big Money (1958)
• A Cry from the Streets (1958)
• Alive and Kicking (1959)
• On the Fiddle (1961)
• Mrs. Gibbons' Boys (1962)
• The Fast Lady (1962)
• West 11 (1963)
• Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969)
• The London Connection (1979)

External links

• Kathleen Harrison at IMDb