Actress and “character actor” extraordinaire Harriet Sansom Harris has recently caused a stir in her scene-stealing cameo in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza as Mary Grady, the agent to lead character Gary Valentine, played by Cooper Hoffman. A Tony-winning actor for her performance in the 2001 musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, Harris is widely known in the theater community. Still, it is most likely her face, before her name, that gives her wider audience recognition beyond the stage. That may be changing now that the public at large has gone crazy for her stellar performance in this Oscar-nominated film. And while others may know her memorable supporting roles in films like Memento, Addams Family Values, and Anderson’s own The Phantom Thread, it has been on television where her talents have been showcased front and center.
Harris, as an actor, often takes on women with questionable scruples or Teflon skin and acid tongues that harken back to the sirens of films from the 1930s and '40s, played by such legends as Rosalind Russell and Ida Lupino. Harris embodies a bygone era with her signature Cheshire cat grin and lucid round tones. It’s no surprise that she’s twice played roles previously inhabited by Bea Arthur (Mame, the workshop of Millie) and Bette Davis (The Man Who Came To Dinner, Old Acquaintances) on stage. By Harris’ estimation, according to her website, she often plays women who are “mad, bad and dangerous to know” - from characters who persuade you against their better judgment, and who cut with words, to those who literally draw blood. Harris’ television resume drips with the women we love to hate or are secretly eager to be. So as a tribute to her most sinful characters, here are six of her best television performances. Just don’t let her fiery song seduce and manipulate you into shipwrecking yourself onto the deadly rocks of the shore.
Eve 6, 7, and 8, a.k.a Dr. Sally Kendrick in The X-Files (1993)
Considering how many television guest star appearances Harris racked up in the 1990s, what makes her guest spot on the Season 1 The X-Files episode "Eve” stand out is the fact that she plays multiple roles. Harris plays three adult clones named Eve, all with different agendas, and all in a mental institution - until Eve 7 and 8 escape. We first meet Eve 6, crazy and wild-eyed, in a straight jacket, who boasts of using her teeth to bite out a guard’s eye. One chomp of Harris’s teeth in Scully and Mulder's direction is nothing short of terrifying. Soon we see Harris as Eve 7 and 8, both of whom may have different game plans that include abducting two younger clones, who have been raised as in-vitro children on opposite coasts. And if Eve 6 sounds familiar, that’s because she is the namesake of the band Eve 6.
Eleanor Roosevelt in Atlantic Crossing (2020)
Harris played First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt over four different productions, across stage and screen. Harris first played Eleanor in 2002 in Paul Rudnick’s Rude Entertainment and most recently in the one-woman show Eleanor. While television audiences glimpsed her in the role in Ryan Murphy’s 2020 series Hollywood, it is her performance in the PBS miniseries Atlantic Crossing, where television audiences could see her take on the role more fully, although in a supporting role. Atlantic Crossing focuses on her husband's (Kyle MacLachlan) friendship (or perhaps crush) with Norway’s Crown Princess Martha (Sophia Helin) during World War Two. Harris conveys the gravitas she brings to all her roles and an understatedness that, unfortunately, Harris rarely is allowed to show due to her talent at playing exaggerated grand dames. Still, the show gives small moments for her comic gifts, like an Elisa Doolittle/Higgins/My Fair Lady type montage with Eleanor teaching the Princess how to excel at public speaking.
Ingrid Blix in Ratched (2020)
Considering how effortlessly Harris can vacillate her voice, both singing and speaking, undoubtedly due to her excellent vocal training at the Julliard School, it makes sense that Harris would play a diva opera singer at some point in her life. Inspired by Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (later a famous film), Ratched tells the origin story of a younger version of the novel’s principal villain, asylum nurse Mildred Ratched in the late 1940s. In the role of Ingrid Blix, Harris is able to meld her flair for over-the-top characters and nuanced dramatic work into the same role. An American horror story of a backward era, Ingrid admits herself into the Lucia State Hospital, where she works with the staff to help rid herself of what she calls “melancholia” - 1940s speak for depression. However, we soon find out that, like more than a few characters on the show, Ingrid’s true affliction is having to push down her true self: the fact that she is a queer woman in 1947. Something that at the time was considered “taboo” and so-called “curable” at the hands of doctors - or in this case, butchers. Harris’ performance is often painful to watch due to its tragic content but is an unforgettable performance nonetheless.
Vivian Buchanan in The Five Mrs. Buchanans (1994-1995)
After the cancellation of The Golden Palace, the spin-off of The Golden Girls, Marc Cherry and Jamie Wooten, writers on both series, created their own female-led sitcom for CBS in 1994. The series follows the four very different wives of the Buchanan brothers, plus the Buchanan mother, the mean-spirited matriarch of the family, who the wives can’t stand. Harris plays Vivian Buchanan, a well-dressed conservative with a mean temper and steely glare. Her often deadpan delivery of witty barbs at others' expense is only matched by her high-pitched screaming fits directed at her misbehaving twins off-camera. The series brings out all of Harris’ comic abilities and her aptness for working well in ensembles.
Felicia Tilman in Desperate Housewives (2005-2006, 2009-2011)
The reason that characters Harris refers to as “bad girls” are so delicious to watch is because their persistent evilness comes from a place of truth and their dogged passion toward one singular goal, no matter the moral or legal consequences. Felicia Tilman of Desperate Housewives is no different, because what is more truthful than the blind urge for revenge? While describing Tilman, Harris says, “I think she’s just determined.” And that determination means extreme, bloody lengths to get back at the person she suspects of killing her beloved sister.
Desperate Housewives, a campy prime time soap about the inner lives of women living on the same cul-de-sac, filled with whodunits, blackmailing, scheming, and plenty of sex, was created by Marc Cherry. Appearing halfway through Season 1, Felicia arrives in town not only to investigate the death of her sister but to seek retribution on the person who killed her. Harris's forte is playing dastardly characters able to mask their true wicked intentions to the surrounding characters. Felicia may wield a polite smile, but behind it, she is engineering chaos quicker than you can say “gaslight.”
Bebe Glazer in Frasier (1993-2003)
Harris’ greatest and most recognizable role on television is in Frasier, as the titular character’s amoral, fast-talking agent Bebe Glazer, in what may be her television comic magnum opus. Harris was already a sitcom veteran by 1993 when she made her first of many appearances on the Cheers spin-off starring Kelsey Grammer. Bebe sweeps into each episode like a hurricane, taking everything along with her. In a tour-de-force sitcom performance, Harris plays Bebe with all the ammo in her arsenal as an agent who cares more about her commission than her clients' needs. A mix of devilish purring flirtation, unholy ego-boosting, and pure unadulterated fun, Bebe isn’t just the agent from hell, she’s the devil, offering up Frasier the apple in the Garden Of Eden. The joy of her performance is witnessing Bebe, with sugary flattery and trilled vowels, cajoling Frasier to stray from his moral compass, siphoning everything out of him from money to sex. Bebe lets Harris show off her gift for language and humor, straight-faced joke-telling skills, and prowess for broad gestures and physical comedy. Her performance makes you rejoice at her arrival and fear the havoc she will bring in her wake. The fact that she was never nominated for an Emmy for the role is shocking and unjust.