Richard Harris Biography
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Richard St. John Harris (October 1, 1930 –
October 25, 2002) was an Irish actor, singer and songwriter. He appeared
in Camelot (1967), A Man Called Horse (1970) and, at the end of his
career, the first two Harry Potter movies. He was a notorious playboy
and drinker, part of a rowdy generation of talented Irish and British
actors that included Albert Finney, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole.
****
Biography
Harris was born in Limerick, Ireland, one
of nine children of farmer Ivan Harris and Mildred Harris (nee Harty).
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 club. He may have
gone on to 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 London, wanting to become a director. He could not find any suitable
courses and enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA)
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 Country Girl). 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 London stage productions, starting with The Quare
Fellow in 1956.
In 1957, he married Elizabeth
Rees-Williams, daughter of David Rees-Williams; they were divorced in
1969, and Elizabeth married another actor, Rex Harrison. Their three
children are actor Jared Harris, actor Jamie Harris (born 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).
Richard Harris married secondly the
American actress Ann Turkel, who was 16 years his junior, but that
marriage also ended in divorce.
Harris made his film debut in 1958 in the
film Alive and Kicking. He had a memorable cameo 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 who becomes
an acclaimed rugby player. He also won acclaim and notice for his
leading role (with Charlton Heston) in Sam Peckinpah's famous "lost
masterpiece" Major Dundee (1965), as an Irish
immigrant-turned-Confederate cavalryman during the US Civil War.
He appeared as King Arthur in the film
adaptation of Camelot (in which he was cast despite his limited singing
range, just like Richard Burton), and proceeded to appear on stage in
that role for years. He recorded several albums, one ("A Tramp Shining")
included the seven-minute hit song written by Jimmy Webb, "MacArthur
Park" (which Harris mispronounced as "MacArthur's Park"); that song
reached #2 on the United States Billboard magazine pop chart, while
topping several charts in Europe, in the summer of 1968. A second
all-Webb composed album, "The Yard Went on Forever," was released in
1969.
He also wrote one of the songs, There are
Too Many Saviours on My Cross, considered to be a criticism of the
sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. In 1971, he starred in the film,
Man in the Wilderness, and in the low-budget Orca in 1977.
Harris achieved a form of cult status for
his role as mercenary tactician Rafer Janders in the 1978 film The Wild
Geese.
By the end of the 1980s, Harris had gone a
long time without a significant film role. He was familiar with the
stage plays of fellow Irishman John B. Keane, and had heard that one of
them, The Field, was being adapted for film by director Jim Sheridan.
Sheridan was working with actor Ray McAnally on the adaptation,
intending to feature McAnally in the lead role of Bull McCabe. When
McAnally died suddenly during initial preparations for the film, Harris
began a concerted campaign to be cast as McCabe. This campaign
eventually succeeded, and the film version of The Field (which also
starred Tom Berenger) was released in 1990. Harris earned an Academy
Award nomination for his portrayal.
Late in his career, he acted in the
Oscar-winning films Unforgiven and Gladiator (in the latter as Marcus
Aurelius). He gained a new generation of fans as Albus Dumbledore in the
first two Harry Potter films. He has come to be identified with this
role by the new generation, much as Alec Guinness was for playing
Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars films in the '70s (though like Guinness
he professed strong dislike for the role). In 2003, his voice could be
heard as the character Opaz in the animated film, Kaena: The Prophecy.
The movie was also dedicated to him as he had died the previous year.
He was a member of the Knights of Malta,
and was also unexpectedly knighted by the predominantly Lutheran country
of Denmark.
Harris died of Hodgkin's disease in 2002 at
the age of 72, shortly before the U.S. premiere of Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets. He would be replaced as Dumbledore by fellow
Irish-born actor, Sir Michael Gambon.
In December 2005, Harris's bar opened in
the new landmark riverpoint building in Limerick. It was named in honour
of the Limerick legend. A statue of Richard Harris is also said to be
unveiled in Bedford Row in Limerick when the street that is currently
being refurbished is completed in late 2006. Also the Jesuit Church in
the Crescent in Limerick which is slated to be closed in 2006 is
rumoured to be transformed into a Richard Harris museum.
Academy Award Nominations
1964 - Best Actor in a Leading Role - This
Sporting Life
1991 - Best Actor in a Leading Role - The
Field
Filmography
The Iron Harp (1959) (for TV)
Alive and Kicking (1959)
Shake Hands with the Devil (1959)
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959)
The Long and the Short and the Tall (1960)
titled Jungle Fighters (in USA)
A Terrible Beauty (1960) titled The Night
Fighters (in USA)
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
This Sporting Life (1963)
Il Deserto Rosso (1964) titled The Red
Desert (in UK) & Le Désert Rouge (in France)
The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
Major Dundee (1965)
The Bible (1966) titled The Bible... In the
Beginning (in USA) & La Bibbia (in Italy)
Hawaii (1966)
Caprice (1967)
Camelot (1967)
The Molly Maguires (1970)
A Man Called Horse (1970)
Cromwell (1970)
Bloomfield (1971) titled The Hero (in USA)
The Snow Goose (1971) (TV)
Man in the Wilderness (1971)
The Deadly Trackers (1973)
99 and 44/100% Dead (1974) titled Call
Harry Crown (in UK)
Juggernaut (1974) titled Terror On the
Britannic (in USA)
Echoes of a Summer (1976) titled The Last
Castle (in USA)
Robin and Marian (1976)
The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976)
The Cassandra Crossing (1976) titled
Treffpunkt Todesbrücke (in West Germany)
Gulliver's Travels (1977)
Orca (1977) also titled Orca: Killer Whale
Golden Rendezvous (1977) titled Nuclear
Terror (in USA on TV)
The Wild Geese (1978)
Ravagers (1979)
A Game for Vultures (1979)
The Last Word (1980) titled The Number (in
UK)
Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981)
Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid (1981)
titled L' Ultime passion (in Canada: French title)
Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1982)
titled El Triunfo de un hombre llamado Caballo (in Spain)
Camelot (1982) (TV)
Martin's Day (1984)
Highpoint (1984)
Maigret (1988) (TV)
Trappola diabolica (1988) titled Strike
Commando 2 (when International: English title)
King of the Wind (1989)
Mack the Knife (1990) also titled The
Threepenny Opera
The Field (1990)
Patriot Games (1992)
Unforgiven (1992)
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)
Silent Tongue (1994) titled Le Gardien des
esprits (in France)
Abraham (1994) (TV) titled Die Bibel -
Abraham (in Germany) & La Bible: Abraham (in France)
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)
The Great Kandinsky (1995) (TV)
Trojan Eddie (1996)
Savage Hearts (1997)
Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997) titled
Fräulein Smillas Gespür für Schnee (in Germany) & Fröken Smillas känsla
för snö (in Sweden) & Frřken Smillas fornemmelse for sne (in Denmark)
The Hunchback (1997) (TV) titled The
Hunchback of Notre Dame (in Europe: English title)
This Is the Sea (1997)
Upright Affair (1998)
Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (1998) titled
Сибирский цирюльник (literally Siberian Barber) (in Russia) & Le Barbier
de Sibérie (in France) & Il Barbiere di Siberia (in Italy) & The Barber
of Siberia (International: English title)
To Walk with Lions (1999) titled Un homme
parmi les lions (in Canada: French title)
Grizzly Falls (1999)
Gladiator (2000)
The Pearl (2001)
My Kingdom (2001)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(2001) titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (International:
English title)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) titled
Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo (in USA: complete title)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(2002)
San Giovanni - L'apocalisse (2002) (TV)
titled Die Bibel: Apokalypse (in Germany) & The Apocalypse (in USA)
"Julius Caesar" (2002) (TV mini series)
titled Caesar (in USA) & Giulio Cesare (in Italy)
Kaena: La prophétie (2003) (voice: English
version) titled Kaena: The Prophecy (in USA)
****
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
May 15, 2006
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