 Jan Harlan was born in Karlsruhe in 1937, the son of two opera singers, Fritz Moritz Harlan (1901–1970) and his wife Ingeborg ("née" de Freitas).Harlan started out working for Kubrick as a researcher, most prominently on "Napoleon", Kubrick's never-filmed epic about the French military leader, in 1968, when Kubrick asked him, as a German speaker to accompany him to Romania to organise the army scenes for the film.Harlan acted as Kubrick's executive producer for "Barry Lyndon" (1975), "The Shining" (1980), "Full Metal Jacket" (1987), "Eyes Wide Shut" (1999), and was an assistant to the producer for "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).