In its series on actors originating in Lithuania, the website bernardinai.lt recently featured Laurence Harvey. A British actor famous for his roles in many American movies, he was nominated for an Oscar for best actor in the film Room at the Top. Although he was highly popular in Hollywood at the time, Charlton Heston won the award that year for Ben Hur.
The article notes that in 1960, at the zenith of his career, Harvey was a guest on the American TV game show “What’s My Line?”. (For an interesting blast from the past, click on the YouTube video of the show at: https://www.bernardinai.lt/lietuviai-pasaulio-ekranuose-xv-lietuvos-laurencas-is-virsutinio-auksto/. Laurence Harvey appears at minute 18:38 of the video.
During the show, Harvey explained to the panel that he was born in Lithuania, grew up in South Africa, and relocated to England as an adult. American Lithuanians were thrilled that the famous actor mentioned his Lithuanian roots. In the US Lithuanian press, however, reviews varied. Some articles confused his name and facts about him, such as whether he spoke Lithuanian, or donated to Lithuanian organizations, others dismissed him for changing his true Lithuanian name and for his humble Jewish background. He was born in Joniškis, Lithuania, on October 2, 1928. His father was a tinsmith, and exported Lithuanian eggs and geese, but moved to South Africa when Laurence was 2 years old, where he earned enough from construction work to bring his wife and children to Johannesburg three years later.
Laurence, who was actually born Hershel (Hiršas), later called Harry, grew up there. He learned English and became enamoured with films. He would beg family and friends for money for movies and acted out dialogue after hours of viewing. As a teenager he decided to become an actor, joining the drama club at school. Embellishing his credentials, he joined the military entertainment USO troupe at 16, toward the end of 1944.
After serving in the army he used his stipend to join the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Although it took him longer than he had hoped, by the mid-60’s he was a well-known star of British stage and screen. Many critics thought his best performances were on stage – as Romeo, Henry V, and King Arthur. He sometimes passed up more lucrative movie roles to peform in the theatre. However he did love acting in films. The movie Room at the Top took him to the upper echelons of Hollywood by 1959. Later he performed in The Alamo with director and acting legend John Wayne (1960), and later that year in Butterfield 8. Today he is best remembered for his role in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) with Frank Sinatra. He was known to be a workaholic, and for good reason – his spending was also legendary, and he worked until his death from stomach cancer in 1973, barely reaching the age of 45.
Filming in Romania in the 70’s, he wrote to his parents that he yet hoped to visit Lithuania, but after roles such as he had as a soldier brainwashed by the Soviets in The Manchurian Candidate and a dissident in Escape to the Sun, being admitted to the Soviet Union was unlikely.
