Harrow 

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Biography

Lisa Harrow played Madeleine in "Sunday". She was born in 1943 in New Zealand. After three years as an Aukland primary school teacher, Harrow gave up the academic life and was accepted to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA).

Harrow is a veteran of British theater. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1969. Her stage credits include "Twelfth Night" (Olivia); "Othello" (Desdemona"); "Winter's Tale" (Dorcas); "Richard II" (The Queen); "Henry VIII" (Anne Boleyn); "The Island of the MIghty"; "Major Barbara"; "The Hollow Crown": "The Plebians Rehearse the Uprising"; "The Lower Depths". Harrow's major theater credits include "Twelfth Night" (Viola), Newcastle; "Romeo and Juliet" (Juliet), Coventry; "The Great Caper" (The Perfect Woman), Royal Court Theatre; "Pygmalion" (Eliza), Cambridge Theatre Co; "Wild Oats" (Lady Amarantha), RSC and West End; "Merchant of Venice" (Portia), RSC; "Man and Superman" (Ann Whitfield), West End; "Double Act", Windsor and Playhouse Theatre, Chichester; "Widower's House" (Sartorious), Chelsea Theatre; "The Eagle Has Two Heads" (The Queen), Lilian Bayliss Theatre; "Dove in Dogspot", Nuffield Theatre, Southhampton; "In Praise of Love" (Lydia), West End.

Harrow has also starred in many TV productions both in the UK and Australia, such as "Kavanah Q.C." Her film career started in Rome, where she starred in "The Temper", for which she won the Variety Club's "Most Promising Artist" award in 1975.

In the seventies Harrow played mostly cool, calm Englishwomen, such as Helen Herriot in "All Creatures Great and Small" and Nancy Astor for the BBC. Her other film credits include "Omen III, The Final Conflict", "Other Halves", "Shaker Run", "The Last Days of Chez Nous", for which she won Australian Oscar for Best Actress. She also won Special Jury Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival and was nominated for Independent Spirit Award (Best Actress) for "Sunday". Her recent film is "Country" (2000), psychological drama/indie about Irish family.

Lisa Harrow has a son Timothy (born in 1983). Timothy's father is Sam Neill, a fellow New Zealander, with whom Harrow had a five-year relationship. The two split up shortly after she became pregnant. In 1992, while taking part in a Greenpeace rally in America (she made a speech against the Government prospect issuing oil-exploration licenses in Antarctica), Lisa Harrow met Roger Payne, founder of the Whale Watch Institute and the biologist famous for recording the proof that whales communicate by singing. Harrow and Payne married six weeks later. Payne had the foresight to ask Timothy for his mother's hand. Their wedding was at a friend's house in Vermont. In 1997 they decided to move to Vermont as well. Harrow left her house in south London and moved to White River Junction.

Harrow now lives there happily with Roger Payne and Timothy. She continues her stage career in America. Last year she performed off-Broadway in "Wit", a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Margaret Edson about a woman who was dying of cancer. It was a demanding part -- she even had to shave her head to play it. Her performance in "Wit" was highly appreciated by the spectators and theater critics. It was definitely her triumph.

On September 27th -- October 28th, 2001, Harrow will perform in Euripides' "Medea" in Pittsburgh Public Theater.

Harrow:  Interviews  | |  Photos

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