Laurence Harvey Biography

Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born South African actor best known for his role in ‘Room at the Top’ which earned him an Academy Award nomination. An accomplished actor of the stage and film, he also made several television appearances in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Lithuania, he moved to South Africa with his family when he was a young child. Having developed an early interest in acting, he served with the entertainment unit of the South African Army as a teenager during the World War II. He then moved to London on a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The academy failed to hold his interest for long and he left after just three months to pursue a career as an actor. Talented and good looking, he was able to find roles in lower-budget movies which helped him in stabilizing his acting career. An extravagant spender from a young age, he often struggled with money issues. His appearance in ‘Women of Twilight’ gave his career a much-needed boost. Having established himself as a film actor he also ventured into Broadway. He was an internationally famous actor by the 1960s though he was also notorious for being a difficult person to work with. A heavy drinker and smoker, he became ill with cancer while still in his forties and succumbed to the disease at the peak of his career.