Laurence Harvey (October 1, 1928 - November 25, 1973) was a Lithuanian-born actor.
Born Laruschka Mischa Skikne in Joniskis, Lithuania, he immigrated to South Africa at the age of 5. He grew up in Johannesburg, moving to London in 1946, at age 16. He enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and from there moved to stage and film stardom. His first major role was in Room at the Top, for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
During the 1950s and 1960s, he starred in several major films, including Butterfield 8, The Alamo, Darling and The Manchurian Candidate.
According to "Close Up," the 2004 memoirs of the British actor John Fraser, Harvey was gay and his lover was his manager Jimmy Woolf . "As a teenager, he started out living with Hermione Baddeley, a ... blowsy star of intimate revue more than twice his age. Then he married Margaret Leighton - old enough to be his mother, but a woman of style ... when this marriage was over he married Joan Cohn , widow of the managing director of Columbia Studios ... and throughout all these career marriages, he still managed to string Jimmy Woolf along." Fraser's memories of Harvey may be accurate but his reference to Leighton, however, is faulty; she was only six years Harvey's senior.
