Jed Harris (born Jacob Hirsch Horowitz; February 25, 1900 – November 15, 1979) was an Austrian-born American theatrical producer and director.

[citation needed] Described by The New York Times as "a flamboyant man of intermittent charm", Harris was famous for his self-confidence, appeal to women, and sometimes outrageous and abusive behavior.

"[2] Although Katharine Hepburn received scathing reviews in the New York production of The Lake (1933)—an experience she later described as "a slow walk to the gallows"—Harris insisted that she and the show go to Chicago.

[4] Laurence Olivier, whom Harris had directed on Broadway in The Green Bay Tree (1933),[2] called him "the most loathsome man I'd ever met."

[5]: 125 However despised he may have been in the theatrical community, Harris directed and produced actors including Leo G. Carroll, Laurence Olivier, Lillian Gish, Basil Rathbone, Elaine Stritch, Ruth Gordon, Walter Huston, Osgood Perkins and Katharine Hepburn.

Although they never married, Gordon and Harris provided their son with a normal upbringing, and his parentage became public knowledge as social conventions changed.

Harris recalled his life and career in five consecutive 30-minute episodes taped for The Dick Cavett Show, broadcast posthumously,[12][13] and in an autobiography, Dance on the High Wire, published a week before his death.

[2] Jed Harris and screenwriter Tom Reed were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story, for the 1954 film, Night People.

[55] Harris, Arthur Carter and Blake Edwards were nominated for a 1958 Writers Guild of America Award for the screenplay for Operation Mad Ball (1957).

[2][58] John Houseman wrote "Ben Hecht in A Jew in Love has described the mixture of deadly cruelty and ineffable charm of which Harris was capable; when he really wanted something or somebody — and even when he did not — no effort was too great, no means too elaborate or circuitous if it helped to satisfy his craving for personal power.

[62] One of the major characters in Ed Ifkovic's Downtown Strut: an Edna Ferber Mystery is Jed Harris, based on him as the director of the Broadway play The Royal Family [1] Archived 2016-07-14 at the Wayback Machine.