Julie Harris, Celebrated Actress of Range and Intensity, Dies at 87

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/arts/julie-harris-celebrated-actress-of-range-and-intensity-dies-at-87.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0 ^ | August 25, 2013 | Bruce Weber

[John W]

Julie Harris, the unprepossessing anti-diva who, in the guises of Joan of Arc, Mary Todd Lincoln, Emily Dickinson and many other characters both fictional and real, became the most decorated performer in the history of Broadway, died on Saturday at her home in Chatham, Mass.

She was 87. The cause was not immediately known, said Francesca James, a longtime friend who was with her when she died.

Ms. Harris had a lengthy, overstuffed résumé as an actress, with dozens of movie and television credits, including the 1955 film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel of brotherly rivalry, “East of Eden,” in which she played the girl who falls for the tormented younger sibling played by James Dean, and nearly eight years in the 1980s as an eccentric country singer on the prime time soap opera “Knots Landing.”

[John W]

[bgill]

She was a good actress. RIP.

[shibumi]

In my mind
She will always be
"Eleanor."

[Sans-Culotte]

One of the greats. I love THE HAUNTING!

[LostInBayport]

I remember her from Knots Landing during the '80s. Her character was a failed country singer trying to make it up to her daughter for being an absentee mother. Knots was a soap, but a cut above the rest in terms of acting.

I still remember her character Lilimae lighting into evil Joshua (Alec Baldwin) and he was so shocked he fell off a roof. Who doesn't like to see Alec Baldwin fall of a roof?

[SunkenCiv]

thanks John W, additional:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058488/posts

[Ancient Man]

For me too, shibumi. To me, “The Haunting” was the scariest movie ever made, and as a kid at the time, I watched most of it through my fingers.

[Miss Didi]

President George W. Bush and Laura Bush pose with the Kennedy Center honorees, from left to right, actress Julie Harris, actor Robert Redford, singer Tina Turner, ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell and singer Tony Bennett, Sunday, December 4, 2005, during the reception in the Blue Room at the White House

[TheOldLady]

Thank you for the ping, Sensei.

This post brings back plenty of memories for me.

[ReformationFan]

RIP.

[stylecouncilor]

Ping

[Huskrrrr]

Yes! The Haunting is still the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.

[shibumi]

We all found “The Haunting” memorable and a true classic in the horror genre.

It’s interesting to note that this place in our memories was earned without a single hacked-off limb, no hideous creature that took six hours in make-up and a special effects team to create and not even one little explosion with bodies and parts thereof flying through the air.

The real key to horror is and always been in the mind.

But of course to do that today would be nearly impossible, requiring as it does, real actors with talent, scripts with depth and directors with vision.

[Sans-Culotte]

We all found “The Haunting” memorable and a true classic in the horror genre. It’s interesting to note that this place in our memories was earned without a single hacked-off limb, no hideous creature that took six hours in make-up and a special effects team to create and not even one little explosion with bodies and parts thereof flying through the air. The real key to horror is and always been in the mind. But of course to do that today would be nearly impossible, requiring as it does, real actors with talent, scripts with depth and directors with vision.

Jack Clayton's The Innocents is equally effective, IMO.

[TheOldLady]

Well said, Sensei.