Actors - Phil Harris

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	Actors - Phil Harris

Phil Harris (b. Wonga Philip Harris, June 24, 1904, Linton, Indiana; d. August 11, 1995, Palm Springs, California) was a United States singer, songwriter, jazz musician and comedian. Though he was successful (if not what we'd call a superstar today) as a musician, Harris is remembered best for the radio situation comedy in which he co-starred with his second wife, singer-actress Alice Faye, for eight years.

Bandleader

Though Indiana-born, Harris actually spent much of his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee, which accounted for both his trace of a Southern accent and, in later years, the self-deprecating Southern jokes of his radio character. Harris began his music career as a drummer in San Francisco, forming an orchestra with Carol Lofner in the latter 1920s and starting a long engagement at the St. Francis Hotel. The partnership ended by 1932, and Harris led and sang with his own band, now based in Los Angeles. In the interim, he married his first wife, Australian Marcia Ralston. The couple adopted a son, Phil Harris, Jr. (b. 1935) but divorced in 1939.

To radio

Three years before his divorce, however, Harris became musical director of The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny (later re-named The Jack Benny Program), singing and leading his band and---when his knack for snappy one-liners became apparent---joining the Benny ensemble playing Phil Harris, scripted as a hipster-talking, hard-drinking, brash Southerner whose good nature overcame his ego. His trademark was his jive-talk nicknaming of the others in the Benny orbit (Benny was "Jackson," for example; Harris's usual entry was a cheerful "Hiya, Jackson!") And his signature song, ironic considering his actual Hoosier roots, was "That's What I Like About The South."

Phil and Alice

Harris married Alice Faye in 1941; it was a second marriage for both (Faye was married briefly to singer-actor Tony Martin), and it lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. He enlisted himself and his entire band in the U.S. Navy for World War II service in 1942, but by 1946 Faye had all but ended her film career (she drove off the 20th Century Fox lot after studio czar Darryl F. Zanuck's reputedly edited her scenes out of the 1945 film Fallen Angel
to pump up his protege Linda Darnell) and Harris and Faye were invited to join a radio program, The Fitch Bandwagon.

Originally a vehicle for big bands, including Harris's own, the show became something else entirely when Harris and Faye became popular enough in their own right. Coinciding with the couple's desire to settle down in southern California to raise their children without having to hit the road constantly, Bandwagon evolved to a situation comedy known as The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show.

After radio

After the show ended, Harris revived his music career to a certain extent. He made numerous guest appearances on popular television programs during the 1960s and into the 1970s, including the Kraft Music Hall, The Dean Martin Show, Hollywood Palace and other musical variety programs. He also worked as a vocalist and voice actor for animated films, with performances in the Disney animated features The Aristocats
, playing Thomas O'Malley, and The Jungle Book
.

The last of those was probably his greatest success in the years following his radio heyday. He voiced the character of Baloo the Bear and sang one of the film's showstoppers, "The Bare Necessities," a performance that introduced Harris to a new generation of young fans who had no idea he was once one of the nation's most popular radio stars. Harris also joins Louis Prima in "I Wanna Be Like You", delivering a memorable scat-singing performance.

He was also the voice of Little John in the 1973 animated movie Robin Hood. One of his last animated film projects was in the 1991 film Rock-A-Doodle
directed by Don Bluth, in which he played the friendly, laid back farm dog Patou.

Song hits by Harris included the early 1950s novelty record, "The Thing." The song describes the hapless finder of a box with a mysterious secret and his efforts to rid himself of it. Harris also spent time in the 1970s and early 1980s leading a band that appeared often in Las Vegas, often on the same bill with swing era legend Harry James.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Phil Harris ]

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Actors - Phil Harris

Bandleader

To radio

Phil and Alice

After radio

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