Richard Harris

Richard St. John Harris (October 1, 1930 - October 25, 2002) was a two-time Academy Award-nominated and Grammy Award-winning Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer.

Harris, the fifth of eight children, was born in Limerick City, Ireland, the son of Ivan John and Mildred Josephine Harris, who owned a flour mill. He was schooled by the Jesuits at Crescent College. A talented rugby player, he was on several Munster Junior and Senior Cup teams for Crescent, and played for the well-respected Garryowen Football Club. He might have become a provincial or international-standard rugby player, but his athletic career was cut short when he contracted tuberculosis in his teens. He remained an ardent fan of Munster provincial rugby team until his death, attending many matches, and there are numerous stories of japes at rugby matches with fellow actors and rugby fans Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton.

After recovering from the disease he moved to England, wanting to become a director. He could not find any suitable courses and enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art to learn acting. While still a student, Harris rented the tiny "off-West End" Irving Theatre, and directed his own production of the Clifford Odets play Winter Journey. The show was a critical success, but a financial failure, and Harris lost all his savings on the venture.

As a result, he ended up temporarily homeless, sleeping in a coal cellar for six weeks. After completing his studies at the Academy, Harris joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. He began getting roles in West End theatre productions, starting with The Quare Fellow in 1956, a transfer from the Theatre Workshop.

Harris made his film debut in 1958 in the film Alive and Kicking. He had a memorable bit part in The Guns of Navarone as an Australian air force pilot who reports that blowing up the "bloody guns" of the title is impossible by air. For his role in Mutiny on the Bounty, despite being virtually unknown, he insisted on third billing, behind Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando. His first star turn was in the 1963 film This Sporting Life, as a bitter young coal miner, Frank Machin, who becomes an acclaimed rugby league footballer. For his role as Frank Machin, Harris won the 1963 award for best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Later in his career, Harris appeared in two Oscar-winning films, first as gunman "English Bob" in the 1992 western, Unforgiven, as well as portraying Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. In a 2001 interview with the Toronto Star, Harris expressed his fear that his association with the Harry Potter films would outshine the rest of his career, stating: "Because, you see, I don't just want to be remembered for being in those bloody films, and I'm afraid that's what going to happen to me."

In 1957, he married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, daughter of David Rees-Williams. Their three children are actor Jared Harris, actor Jamie Harris (born as Tudor St. John Harris, but known as Jamie since childhood), and director Damian Harris (who has a son named Marlowe, born 2002, with Australian actress Peta Wilson). Harris and Rees-Willams were divorced in 1969, and Elizabeth married another actor, Sir Rex Harrison.

Harris' second marriage was to American actress Ann Turkel, who was 16 years his junior; that marriage also ended in divorce. He was a member of the Knights of Malta, despite his divorces, and was also knighted by Denmark in 1985. He was reportedly good friends with Peter O'Toole. His family reportedly hoped O'Toole would replace Harris as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Harris often told stories about his haunted English Mansion, The Tower House, which was sold later to Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame. According to Harris, the tower was haunted by an eight-year-old boy who had been buried in the tower. The boy often kept Harris awake at night until he one day built a nursery for the boy to play in, which calmed the disturbances to some extent.

Harris died of Hodgkin's disease on October 25, 2002, aged 72, two and a half weeks before the U.S. premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He was replaced as Dumbledore by fellow Irish-born actor Michael Gambon.

He was a lifelong drinker, but then went teetotal. A memorable incident was an appearance on The Late Late Show where he recounted to host Gay Byrne how he had just polished off two bottles of fine wine in a restaurant and decided that he would then be going on the wagon: "And I looked at my watch and it was... Well isn´t that spooky! It was the same time it is now: 11:20!" After several years without alcohol, Harris started drinking again before the end of his life.

Whenever he was in London, Harris lived at the Savoy Hotel. According to hotel archivist Susan Scott, when he was being taken from the hotel on a stretcher, shortly before his death, he warned diners, 'It was the food!'

Richard was cremated and his ashes were scattered in The Bahamas. The late Cassandra Harris was his sister-in-law; her two children with Dermot Harris were later adopted by 007 actor Pierce Brosnan.

Richard Harris was a Knight of Malta and could be styled as Sir Richard Harris. He expressed support for the Provisional Irish Republican Army from 1975 to 1983.