Bio: Born on Sept. 19, 1927, in Suffolk, England, Rosemary Harris spent her childhood in India with aspirations to become a nurse before turning to the New York stage in the 1950s. Working on both sides of the Atlantic, she amassed an impressive string of theater credits and went on to receive eight Tony nominations, winning once for originating the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter" (1966).

Due to her hectic theater schedule, the actress appeared in television and films only sporadically but scored a career highlight with her Academy Award-nominated performance as T.S. Eliot's mother-in-law in Tom & Viv (1994). She subsequently appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996) before starring with her daughter, actress Jennifer Ehle, in Istvan Szabo's Sunshine (1999).

The new millennium found her mothering a teenage superhero in the Spider-Man franchise.