Dame Catherine Winifred Harcourt (née Fulton; born 16 June 1927), known professionally as Kate Harcourt, is a New Zealand actress. Over her long career she has worked in comedy as well as drama in theatre, film, TV and radio.
Personal life
Harcourt was born and grew up on a sheep station in the rural area of Amberley, New Zealand.[1] Her Australian mother was Winifred Harriet (née Austin) and her father was Gordon Fulton. Harcourt was the youngest of three children, with an older brother, John Fulton, a prominent Canterbury farmer, and president of the Canterbury Jockey Club, as well as an older sister.[2] From age nine onward she attended boarding school, first at Amberley House and then at Woodford House (Hawke's Bay).[3]
Music was important to Harcourt in her early years as it was to her mother too. She went to Christchurch to train as a kindergarten teacher partly so she could continue with her singing and piano. She also attended the Joan Cross Opera School in London.[3]
Harcourt returned to New Zealand from London and took up a teaching position at Woodfood House in Havelock North. After that she moved to Wellington initially teaching at Marsden College, before working at the department store Kirkaldie and Stains organising and MC'ing weekly fashion shows for seven years.[11][3]
Her entry into national entertainment came as a regular voice in the morning Listen with Mother which was a radio show for pre-schoolers on Radio New Zealand. She was later host of the children's TV show Junior Magazine.[12]
Harcourt has acted in numerous stage and screen works. Stage work includes comedy with Hens' Teeth, and acting in a version of Hedda Gabler. She had a long association with theatre company Downstage starting out putting up posters for them. She lists acting in New Zealand playwright Renée'sWednesday to Come as one of her career favourites. Harcourt played Mary in the world premiere at Downstage Theatre in 1984.[13][12]
In 1998 Harcourt performed on stage alongside her daughter Miranda Harcourt in the biographical Flowers from my Mother's Garden at the New Zealand Festival of the Arts. Written by Harcourt's daughter and son-in-law Stuart McKenzie, it was partly based on letters between mother and daughter.[14][1] A review stated that the play shared "the experiences of a mother, daughter and extended family with an ingenious simplicity that belies the depth of insight. It's a prime example of how universal the particular can be."[12]
^Harcourt, Catherine Winifred (Dame) (21 February 1994). "Interview with Kate Harcourt". Interview with Kate Harcourt | Items | National Library of New Zealand | National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
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