After graduating in 1964, he attended Columbia University in New York, then briefly worked as a stock broker before returning to school.
[1] Harrison has directed 32 projects, and written 21, most of which won, or were nominated for, numerous awards in acting and craft categories.
His 1992 film The Sound and the Silence, which he wrote and directed, won the 1994 CableACE Award for best International Movie or Miniseries/Comedy or Dramatic Special or Series.
Harrison won the 2018 Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction, Children’s or Youth, for Anne of Green Gables: Fire and Dew.
In 1969, following graduation from university, Harrison and a friend paddled an 18-foot canoe from their home town of London, Ontario, through the Canadian river systems to Lake Erie, then down the Mississippi to New Orleans, where Mayor Victor H. Schiro awarded them Honorary Citizenship and the Key to the City.