There are many milestone movies that I have not gotten around to seeing. I have never seen Lawrence Of Arabia, & I have only first viewed To Kill A Mockingbird, The Women, & Double Indemnity in the past 5 years. I don’t know why I get embarrassed,but as a film fan who has taken Film History & Film Theory classes, & I had not seen the original Manchurian Candidate, but had managed to fit in a showing of Love & Other Drugs because Jake Gyllenhaal was naked.
Thin, dry, sexy Laurence Harvey was one of Hollywood's stranger success stories; never a major star, or even the subject of a cult following, his films were rarely hits, & those that were often seemed to achieve their popularity in spite of him. A cold, remote actor, he proved highly unsuited to the majority of the roles which came his way, & his performances were often the subject of unanimous critical dismissal; even his fellow actors derided his abilities. Yet, Harvey had a career much longer & more prolific than many of his contemporaries, & was one of the most important screen presences of the 1960s. His resumé includes at least a single classic- 1962's The Manchurian Candidate.
In his late teens, Harvey became involved with Hermione Baddeley, an actress, 2 times his age. He was married 3 times, in 1957 to actress Margaret Leighton, a woman of style, but old enough to be his mother, in 1957, to Joan Perry Cohn in 1968, the very rich widow of movie mogul Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures, & to Paulene Stone. Harvey had met Stone on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, & while still married to Cohn he became a father for the first time when Stone gave birth to a daughter in 1969. Eventually, Harvey divorced Cohn to marry Stone in 1972.
But shocking,Laurence Harvey was actually gay! Frank Sinatra's valet, author of Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra, George Jacobs recounts that Harvey often made passes at him while visiting Sinatra. According to Jacobs, Sinatra was aware of Harvey's sexuality but did not mind, joking that he had the handicaps of being" "a homo, a Jew, & a Polock, so people should go easy on him."
In his memoir- Close Up, British actor John Frasier wrote that Harvey was gay & that his long-term lover was his manager James Wolfe, who "discovered" Harvey in the 1950s.
A heavy drinker, Harvey died from stomach cancer at age of 45. Domino Harvey was his openly gay & disarmingly beautiful daughter. She became a Beverly Hills socialite & later launched a career as a model in NYC. She eventually became a famous bounty hunter who also died at an early age from drug abuse. They are buried together in Santa Barbara Cemetery in California.
Thin, dry, sexy Laurence Harvey was one of Hollywood's stranger success stories; never a major star, or even the subject of a cult following, his films were rarely hits, & those that were often seemed to achieve their popularity in spite of him. A cold, remote actor, he proved highly unsuited to the majority of the roles which came his way, & his performances were often the subject of unanimous critical dismissal; even his fellow actors derided his abilities. Yet, Harvey had a career much longer & more prolific than many of his contemporaries, & was one of the most important screen presences of the 1960s. His resumé includes at least a single classic- 1962's The Manchurian Candidate.
In his late teens, Harvey became involved with Hermione Baddeley, an actress, 2 times his age. He was married 3 times, in 1957 to actress Margaret Leighton, a woman of style, but old enough to be his mother, in 1957, to Joan Perry Cohn in 1968, the very rich widow of movie mogul Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures, & to Paulene Stone. Harvey had met Stone on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, & while still married to Cohn he became a father for the first time when Stone gave birth to a daughter in 1969. Eventually, Harvey divorced Cohn to marry Stone in 1972.
But shocking,Laurence Harvey was actually gay! Frank Sinatra's valet, author of Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra, George Jacobs recounts that Harvey often made passes at him while visiting Sinatra. According to Jacobs, Sinatra was aware of Harvey's sexuality but did not mind, joking that he had the handicaps of being" "a homo, a Jew, & a Polock, so people should go easy on him."
In his memoir- Close Up, British actor John Frasier wrote that Harvey was gay & that his long-term lover was his manager James Wolfe, who "discovered" Harvey in the 1950s.
A heavy drinker, Harvey died from stomach cancer at age of 45. Domino Harvey was his openly gay & disarmingly beautiful daughter. She became a Beverly Hills socialite & later launched a career as a model in NYC. She eventually became a famous bounty hunter who also died at an early age from drug abuse. They are buried together in Santa Barbara Cemetery in California.
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