Star Archive


Kathleen Harrison (1892 - 1995)

To say Kathleen Harrison was type-cast would be an understatement. She spent her whole career playing Cockney skivvies. A lesser actress would have been limited by these roles, but she gave them all she had. 

Surprisingly, considering how closely she was identified with cockney, she was born in Blackburn, but her family moved to London when she was small. After school she went to RADA, but left early to marry and live in Argentina. By the mid-twenties she was back and doing the cockney maid thing on stage.

From there it was a short step to roles in the booming film industry. She soon carved out a niche for herself in films but it was her stage role in Night Must Fall that made the difference to her career. The critics and her colleagues took notice and she was in demand for the best film and stage productions.

The film Holiday Camp teamed her with Jack Warner as Mr and Mrs Huggett. This lead to a short series of films and a long-running radio show. 

She kept busy in the 40s and 50s but filmed only rarely in the 60s. She still had a successful stage career and on TV starred in the fondly-remembered series Mrs Thursday as a char woman suddenly made rich.

Still of Kathleen Harrison from Holiday CampStill showing Kathleen Harrison in Here Come the HuggettsPressbook for Here Come the HuggettsThe cast pose for The Huggetts AbroadPressbook for The Huggetts AbroadPressbook for Double ConfessionScene from Turn the Key Softly with Kathleen Harrison

Filmography 

1931 Hobson's Choice
1932 Happy Ever After
1932 Aren't We All
1933 The Man from Toronto
1933 The Ghoul
1934 The Great Defender
1935 Line Engaged
1935 Broken Blossoms
1936 The Tenth Man
1936 Everybody Dance
1937 Aren't Men Beasts
1937 Wanted
1937 Night Must Fall
1938 Bank Holiday
1938 Jane Steps Out
1938 Almost a Gentleman
1938 Lovers Knot
1938 Convict 99
1939 I Got a Horse
1939 Home From Home
1939 The Outsider
1939 A Girl Must Live
1939 Discoveries
1939 I Killed the Count
1940 They Came By Night
1940 The Flying Squad
1940 Tilly of Bloomsbury
1940 The Girl in the News
1941 The Ghost Train
1941 Major Barbara
1941 Kipps
1941 Once a Crook
1941 I Thank You
1942 In Which We Serve
1942 Much Too Shy
1943 Dear Octopus
1944 It Happened One Sunday
1945 Meet Sexton Blake
1945 Caesar and Cleopatra
1946 Wanted for Murder
1946 I See a Dark Stranger
1946 The Shop at Sly Corner
1947 Temptation Harbour
1947 Holiday Camp
1948 Oliver Twist
1948 Bond Street
1948 The Winslow Boy
1948 Here Come the Huggetts
1949 Vote for Huggett
1949 The Huggetts Abroad
1949 Landfall
1949 Golden Arrow
1950 Double Confession
1950 Trio
1950 Waterfront
1951 The Magic Box
1951 Scrooge
1952 The Happy Family
1952 The Pickwick Papers
1953 Turn the Key Softly
1954 Lilacs in the Spring
1954 The Dog and the Diamonds
1955 Where There's a Will
1955 It's a Wonderful World
1955 Home and Away
1956 Cast a Dark Shadow
1956 The Big Money
1957 Seven Thunders
1958 Cry from the Streets
1958 Alive and Kicking
1961 On the Fiddle
1962 Mrs Gibbon's Boys
1962 The Fast Lady
1963 West 11
1969 Lock Up your Daughters
 

 Kathleen Harrison at Amazon UK

 Kathleen Harrison at Amazon US