1904-1995
Song and dance man, actor and American comedian Wonga Philip (Phil) Harris was born on this date in Linton, Indiana to circus performers. He may have been born in Indiana, but he grew up in Nashville, Tennessee--a place that would have a profound affect on his life. It is hardly surprising that his first performance job came with the very circus that his parents worked for, in the capacity of a boy drummer in the circus band of which his father was a bandleader. This started him off squarely down the path of music. By the 1920's, he was playing music professionally in San Francisco, where he formed his first band/orchestra. The group secured a contractural engagement there at the St. Francis Hotel some time after 1925, that situation would last into the 1930's, quite impressive considering the coming of the depression. The contract ended when his orchestra disbanded in 1932, but he had an additional gig playing drums in yet another band at the time. Harris made his first film appearance, yes, as a drummer, in 1929 in Why Be Good?--the film was released in two formats: one silent and one in mono with Vitaphone sound. It was directed by William Seiter and starred Neil Hamilton and Colleen Moore. He wouldn't appear in another film until 1933, but it could be described as the most historically important film appearance of his career. He was the subject of the short So This Is Harris!, a comedic musical short directed and partially penned by Mark Sandrich, it would go to win the Oscar for Best Live Action Short. His first full length full sound film appearance also came in 1933 with Melody Cruise. What Harris is really known for his both his band-leading orchestral work and the proditious time his spent on the radio, which he started in 1936 on The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny when he became the show's band leader. He and his orchestra, in the meantime, were also the subjects of numerous short films during this time as well. Also, in 1942, he and his entire orchestra enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served until the end of World War II. Harris made his television debut in the made-for-television musical Saturday Spectacular: Manhattan Tower; and, in 1958, he made he first appearance in an actual television series Shower of Stars in the episode Jack Benny Celebrated Celebrates his 40th Birthday, in an homage to his long time radio boss (by this time, Harris had moved on in radio, co-hosting a comedic family show with his wife Alice Faye). He did eventually get into a few acting jobs on television as well, and later in life, he added voice work to his list of credits. He is well remembered for his turn in the 1967 animated version of The Jungle Book as the voice for Baloo The Bear. He continued to work in television, both in live parts and in voice-over, unitl 1981, when he retired. He was persuaded to come out of retirement, however, in 1991--then in his late 80's--for one last voice role in the animated Rock-A-Doodle. Harris died of a heart attack brought on by worsening heart failure at the age of 91 in Rancho Mirage, California on the 11th of August 1995. He was cremated and his ashes were kept privately by his wife, until her death 3 years later, when both of their urns were interred on display at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Palm Springs Mausoleum (now called the Cathedral City location).
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