Trivia

Noted for his toughness and rudeness. Walt Disney based his animated character the 'Big Bad Wolf' on Harris.

Children: a son, Jones, born 16 October 1929 (his mother was Ruth Gordon); and a daughter, Abigail, born 27 April 1941 (her mother was the Louise Platt, Harris' second wife).

Harris was envied (he had a record 4 consecutive theatrical hits within 18 months by the age of 28) and despised (arrogant, egotistical, tyrannical) by his peers on Broadway. Laurence Olivier was said to have based his characterization of Richard III on Harris' personality. He was a notorious womanizer, fathering an illegitimate child with Ruth Gordon in 1929, a scandal that destroyed the first of his four rather brief marriages. George S. Kaufman, who had worked with Harris on monster hit "The Front Page," disliked him intensely, expressing the desire that, when he died, he be cremated so his ashes could be thrown in the face of Jed Harris. Despite his innumerable shortcomings, Harris is still regarded as one of the most successful talents ever to work on Broadway.

Joseph Losey began as his assistant.

Was lampooned in the films Twentieth Century (1934) and The Saxon Charm (1948).