Bill Clinton might have blushed Tuesday if he had been at the memorial for Julie Harris, the actress who starred with James Dean in “East of Eden” and became the most decorated performer in Broadway history, with five Tony Awards as well as a Tony for lifetime achievement. Harris died in August at age 87.
Harris’ longtime agent, Bill Liff, was too frail to take the stage, but the actress’ friend Francesca James read Liff’s recollection of how President Clinton had a long private conversation with Harris in 2005, when she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor.
“What was he talking to you about?” Liff said he asked her.
Harris smiled and said, “I think he likes me.”
The other speakers included actors Hal Holbrook, Christopher Plummer, Zoe Caldwell, Cherry Jones, Roberta Maxwell and Joan Van Ark, who played the daughter of Harris’ matriarch on “Knots Landing.”
Van Ark took the stage in layers of clothing, with a hat and a purse, and explained they were all gifts from Harris over the years.
Rosemary Harris — Aunt May from the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies — said she was once on a crosstown bus when a man put his hand on her knee and told her, “You were wonderful in ‘The Belle of Amherst.’ ” The man then rushed off the bus before she could correct him.
“I was thrilled to be mistaken for Julie,” Harris said.