‘Wreck Junior’ : Noel Harrison takes another step toward establishing a separate identity from his famous father, Rex (‘Wreck Senior’) Harrison

Noel Harrison is convinced he has a psychic connection with Jacques Brel.

“When I first saw him perform--I was in my teens in a bar in Belgium--he absolutely blew me away,” recalled the actor-singer. “Years later, I had the idea for a show. Then I had the dream.” Harrison’s semi-prophetic vision, an imagined encounter between the two men, eventually led to his creation of “Adieu, Jacques. . . !” (at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood), a one-man tribute to the life, music and influence of the late Belgian singer and songwriter.

It’s not the first time the actor, 55, has called on a creative alliance with Brel. Arriving in the United States in 1965, Harrison (who sang the Oscar-winning “Windmills of Your Mind” for the film “The Thomas Crown Affair”) followed up his Top-40 recording of “A Young Girl” with a translation of Brel’s “Marieke”--one of the 17 songs in this show. “It didn’t do anything,” he noted dryly. “So I sort of left the whole singing side of my life and did ‘The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.’ ”

The 1966 spy series with Stefanie Powers marked what he refers to as “my days as a starlet, a TV celebrity--and all that entails.” It also coincided with the end of his first marriage and the start of a 19-year union with his second wife, Margaret. “We were both running away from L.A.,” he said of their subsequent exodus. “Partly, it was a lack of privacy. Also, I didn’t like being a celebrity, didn’t feel like I’d done anything to deserve the recognition I was getting.”

Wanting to live in the country, the couple sampled Spain and Maine before settling for 10 years in Nova Scotia, where Harrison built a home, worked in the woods, learned beekeeping and occasionally ventured into the arts world to host a Canadian TV series on songwriters or “tour in some play.” The

actor is candid: “I did it for the money then. I do what I do now because I love it. Of course, some of the acting I did before, I loved, too. ‘Poor Richard’ by Jean Kerr. And ‘Camelot.’ Ah. But that’s out of my life now--doing musical comedy.”

Harrison, born in London and raised in England, France and Switzerland, does not shy away from the subject of his famous father, Rex Harrison. Actually, it’s hard to avoid. Fifteen years ago, Harrison accepted an offer to play Henry Higgins in a Boston staging of “My Fair Lady” and has done “probably 15 productions” since, three in the past year. If the earlier part of his life--as an international club singer and English ski champion--staved off comparisons to his father (that is, “not having to be whom I refer to as ‘Wreck Junior’ ”), stepping into the famous role made them inevitable.

So why do it?

“At the time, I had no work; I’d just had these new kids--twins-- and they offered me a lot of money to do it,” the father of five said with a shrug. “I thought, ‘How can I turn it down?’ I called Wreck Senior and told him they’d offered me this job. He said, ‘Why not? Everyone else is doing it.’ ”

The younger Harrison hastens to add that it’s not as uncomplicated as it sounds: “He does have a proprietary sense about the part, and even a proprietary sense about being an actor. He never wanted me to be an actor. And when I started, I didn’t, either.”

Still, doesn’t it feel like the “My Fair Lady” offers come for the wrong reasons?

“Of course,” he said lightly. “They’re asking me because it’s good publicity, name value, curiosity bringing people in. It’s my father’s part; that’s why I hope never to do it again. I see Frank Sinatra Jr. doing his dad’s songs and think, ‘Poor guy.’ And then I come on stage as Henry Higgins and hear people saying, ‘Oh, he looks like his father.’ They’re not paying attention to the play, only to the family resemblance. . . . So I do the best job I can, try to make it my own.” He laughed ruefully. “But you can’t .”

Harrison’s new-found professional transition--marked by his move to Los Angeles six months ago--coincides with a personal transition: the end of his second marriage. “We just started to go in different directions about the way we wanted to live our lives,” he said. “When we actually broke up, I was in Montreal doing ‘Jacques.’ It’s been nice doing the play, because everything I feel can go into it, find a place to hide. So the show is part of wanting to rebuild my career, make a living, send my kids to college--all those normal things.”

So far, so good. “It’s an absolutely ecstatic time,” he said, citing the positive reviews that have rolled in--not one mentioning his father. “The wonderful thing about the last two weeks is that people have been coming out of the woodwork that I haven’t seen in 25 years. I always wanted to be an artist, but my art was in my singing. I always wanted to be a writer, and now I’m writing a play.”

Autobiographical? “Of course,” he said with a grin. “It’s about a man coming to terms with his masculinity. One side of him is the raconteur; the other is a shy, nervous man not quite sure about his relationships with all the women in his life--from his mother on down. You know, when I do ‘Jacques,’ it’s always cathartic for me. I cannot go by the line, ‘When you’re clever and slick, it’s a mortal sin’ without thinking, ‘Am I being slick?’ There are lines I deliberately wrote into this play so that I’d have to confront my own risk and passion.”

He downplays any such nobility in his earlier days. “It’s like when I used to ski, and people would say, ‘How do you do that?’ Well, if I were really being brave, I’d be winning. I was just doing enough to have fun and get away with it. That’s the way I saw myself then.” For “Jacques,” though, risk has been an energizing factor--as was the prospect of putting himself on the line in this high-profile town. “Bad reviews wouldn’t have stopped me,” Harrison said firmly. “Maybe they’d put me in the toilet. So what? I’d just do something else.”

“Adieu, Jacques...!” plays Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m. at Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, through Dec. 22. Tickets are $13. For information call (213) 871-0210.