A budding stage and screen actor who switched strides in the late 1940s, Harvey dropped out of RADA and appeared in the feature "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1945) before finding work as a film editor. He worked on a number of films directed by the Boulting brothers (e.g., "Private's Progress" 1956, "Happy Is the Bride" 1958) as well as such high profile helmers as Anthony Asquith ("On Such a Night" 1955, "The Millionairess" 1960), Bryan Forbes ("The L-Shaped Room" 1962 and "The Whisperers" 1967) and Stanley Kubrick ("Lolita" 1962 and "Dr. Strangelove; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" 1964). Harvey segued to directing in 1967 and displayed a sure sense of pace and an adept handler of actors with "Dutchman" (1967), starring Shirley Knight and Al Freeman, Jr, and "The Lion in Winter" (1968), with Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. Harvey went on to collaborate with Hepburn again on the TV adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" (ABC, 1973) and the big screen misfire "Grace Quigley" (1985). Harvey's other films have been uneven, at best, although most feature strong performances.