Anita Harris

Anita Madeleine Harris was born on June 3, 1942, in Midsomer Norton, Somerset, England. Her family moved to Bournemouth when she was seven, where her early talent emerged, winning a talent contest at age three. Her passion for figure skating led her to perform at the Queens Ice Rink in London. At age 15, a talent scout offered her a position as a dancer in a chorus line at the El Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas, marking her professional debut in the entertainment industry.

Upon returning to the UK in June 1959, Harris performed with the vocal group the Granadiers before spending three years with the Cliff Adams Singers from 1961. In 1961, she secured a recording contract with EMI and made her first recordings with the John Barry Seven. She later released singles with Vocalion and Decca, and performed at the San Remo Music Festival in January 1965. In 1966, she moved to CBS Records, where her debut album, “Somebody’s in My Orchard,” was released. Her chart breakthrough came in the summer of 1967 with the single “Just Loving You,” a Tom Springfield composition that reached number 6 on the UK chart and sold 625,000 copies in six months, also charting in Ireland and South Africa. Her subsequent singles, “The Playground” and “Anniversary Waltz,” also achieved chart success in the UK. Her album “Just Loving You” reached number 29 on the UK album chart in January 1968.

Throughout her career, Harris has made numerous television and film appearances. She is known for her roles in the “Carry On” films, “Carry on Follow That Camel” (1967) and “Carry on Doctor” (1967), and as a casino singer in “Death Is a Woman” (1966). From 1970 to 1971, she co-produced and starred as Witch Witt Witty in the children’s television series “Jumbleland.” She also toured with her one-woman stage show, “Anita Harris in the Act!”, and performed at the Royal Variety Performance in 1981. Harris also played Grizabella in the West End production of “Cats” for two years beginning in 1986. More recently, she appeared in TV shows like “Casualty” (2015), “Midsomer Murders” (2019), and “EastEnders” (2019), and toured with her show “An Evening with Anita Harris” and in stage productions of “Strangers on a Train” and “Cabaret.”