Harriet Medin

Harriet White Medin (March 14, 1914 – May 20, 2005) was an American actress, dialogue coach, and Broadway performer who worked across Italian and American film, television, and stage productions over several decades. She was also credited under the names Harriet White, Harriet Medin, and Rietta Medin throughout her career.

Born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to Dr. and Mrs. Edward P. White, Medin was one of five children. She graduated from Winthrop High School in 1932, having participated in numerous school theatrical productions, and subsequently took part in amateur theater in the surrounding area. She later earned a degree from The Forsyth Institute, where she studied dentistry, and spent five years working as a dental assistant. Among her patients during that period were John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. She eventually relocated to New York City to pursue acting professionally.

During World War II, Medin joined the United Service Organizations as an entertainer, touring American military bases in the United States and Europe as part of a production of Junior Miss. Following the war, she was among a group of American actors recruited by Rod E. Geiger to travel to Italy to appear in Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946), which marked her film debut. On that production she also encountered Federico Fellini, who served as the film's dialogue coach. Medin remained in Italy and became one of the first American actresses to establish a sustained presence in Italian postwar cinema.

Her work in Italy was wide-ranging. She appeared in films, coached actors in dialogue, dubbed Italian productions into English, and served as a coach and personal assistant to Gina Lollobrigida. On the set of Prince of Foxes (1949), she met Orson Welles, who hired her to teach diction to actress Lea Padovani, whom Welles intended to cast as Desdemona in his production of Othello (released 1951). Medin had originally been set to play Emilia in that production but withdrew due to the extended shooting schedule. While living in Italy she also met and married Gastone Medin; the two separated, though did not divorce, in 1964. Her casting and dialogue coaching work extended to productions including John Huston's Beat the Devil (1954) and The Hills Run Red (1966). Her final Italian film credit was Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), after which she accompanied Lollobrigida to the United States to coach her on The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968).

Medin subsequently settled in Hollywood, where she guest-starred in American television series and continued making films. Her acquaintance with director John Landis, whom she knew through her friend director Andrew Marton and his wife, led to a role in Landis's Schlock. She also appeared in the Roger Corman-produced cult film Death Race 2000 (1975), a role she believed she secured after Shelley Winters declined it; her performance included an impression of Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1981, Medin appeared on Broadway in My Fair Ladies.

Medin died on May 20, 2005, from a combination of Parkinson's disease, a mild stroke, internal bleeding, and related illnesses.