Richard Harris

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Richard Harris
Richard Harris in the early 1960s
Born	Richard St. John Harris 1 October 1930(1930-10-01) Limerick City, County Limerick, Ireland
Died	25 October 2002 (aged 72) London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor, singer, producer, director, writer
Years active	1958–2002
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Rees-Williams (1957–1969) Ann Turkel (1974–1982)

Richard St. John Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer. He appeared on stage and in many films, and is perhaps best known for his roles as King Arthur in Camelot (1967), as Oliver Cromwell in Cromwell (1970) and for his portrayal of Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), his last film. He also played a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse (1970), a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992), and the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000). As a singer, Harris is probably best remembered for his recording of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park", which reached the top ten in sales on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in 1968.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Career 3 Later career 4 Personal life and death 5 Affiliations 6 Memorials 7 Academy Award Nominations 8 Golden Glode Award Nominations 9 Grammy nominations and wins 9.1 Nominations 9.2 Wins 10 Filmography 11 Discography 11.1 Albums 11.2 Singles 11.3 Compact disc releases & compilations 12 See also 13 References 14 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Harris, the fifth of eight children, was born in Limerick City, Ireland, the son of Ivan John Harris (b. 1896, son of Richard Harris, b. 1854, son of James Harris, St. Michael's, Limerick) and Mildred Josephine Harty Harris (b. 1898, daughter of James Harty, St. John's, Limerick who owned a flour mill.)^[1][2] 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 Garryowen.^[3] Harris might have become a provincial or international-standard rugby player, but his athletic career was cut short when he caught tuberculosis in his teens. He remained an ardent fan of the Munster Rugby then until his death, and attending many of its matches, and there are numerous stories of japes at rugby matches with the actors and fellow rugby fans Peter O'Toole and Sir Richard Burton.

After recovering from tuberculosis, Harris moved to England, wanting to become a director. He could not find any suitable training courses, and he 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 there directed his own production of Clifford Odets's play Winter Journey (The Country Girl). This show was a critical success, but it was a financial failure, and Harris lost all his savings in this venture.

As a result, Harris ended up temporarily homeless, sleeping in a coal cellar for six weeks. Though accounts from contemporaries from his hometown of Limerick claim that these stories had been somewhat garnished, and that he actually stayed with a few aunts, sleeping on their living room sofas. 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.

[edit] Career

Harris made his movie debut in 1958 in the film Alive and Kicking. He had a memorable bit part in the movie The Guns of Navarone as a Royal Australian Air Force pilot who reports that blowing up the "bloody guns" of the island of Navaronne is impossible by an air raid.

For Harris's role in the filn Mutiny on the Bounty, despite being virtually unknown, Harris reportedly insisted on third billing, behind Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando.

Harris first starring role was in the movie This Sporting Life in 1963, as the bitter young coal miner, Frank Machin, who becomes an acclaimed rugby league football player. For his role, Harris won the award for best actor in 1963 at the Cannes Film Festival. Harris followed this with a leading role in the Italian film, Antonioni's Il deserto rosso (1964), and he also won notice for his role (acting with Charlton Heston) in Sam Peckinpah's "lost masterpiece" Major Dundee (1965), as an Irish immigrant who became a Confederate cavalryman during the War Between the States.

Harris next performed the role of King Arthur in the film adaptation of the musical play Camelot (in which he was cast despite his limited singing range, just as Richard Burton did), and Harris continued appear on stage in this role for years. In 1966, Harris starred as Adam's son "Cain" in John Huston's film The Bible: In the Beginning.

Harris recorded several albums of music, one of which, (A Tramp Shining), included the seven-minute hit song "MacArthur Park" (in which Harris mispronounced the name as "MacArthur's Park"). This song had been written by Jimmy Webb, and it reached #2 on the American Billboard magazine Hot 100 pop song chart. It also topping several music sales charts in Europe during the summer of 1968. A second album, with music mostly composed by Webb, "The Yard Went on Forever", was published in 1969. Harris also wrote one of the songs, There are Too Many Saviours on My Cross, considered widely to be a criticism of the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

Some memorable movie performances followed this, among them a role as a reluctant police informant in the coal-mining tale The Molly Maguires (1970), starring with Sean Connery. Harris starred in the Man in the Wilderness in 1971, the Juggernaut in 1974 (a British suspense movie about the hijacking of an ocean liner), in 1976 in the Cassandra Crossing, along with the actrsses Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner, and in a B-movie, Orca, in 1977. Harris achieved a form of cult status for his role as the mercenary tactician Rafer Janders in the movie The Wild Geese (1978).

In 1973, Harris published a widely-acclaimed book of poetry, I, In The Membership Of My Days, which was later re-published as an audio recording of his reading his own poems.

By the end of the 1980s, Harris had gone for an extended time without a significant movie 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 (Bull McCabe). When McAnally died suddenly during initial preparations, Harris began a concerted campaign to be cast as McCabe. This campaign did succeed, and the movie version of The Field (which also starred Tom Berenger) was published in 1990. Harris earned an American Academy Award nomination for his acting in this one. In 1992, Harris had a supporting but memorable role in the film Patriot Games, as an Irish-American radical.

[edit] Later career

Harris appeared in two Oscar-winning films, first as gunman "English Bob" in the 1992 Western movie, Unforgiven, her and portrayed Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000). Harris also played a lead role alongside James Earl Jones in the movie Cry, the Beloved Country in 1995. During the same time period, Harris played the supporting role of Albus Dumbledore in the first two of the Harry Potter movies.

Harris has stated that he did not intend to take this role, at first, since he knew that his own health was in decline, but he relented and accepted it because his 10-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he did not take it.^[4] In an interview with the Toronto Star in 2001, Harris expressed his concern that his association with the Harry Potter movies would outshine the rest of his career. He stated, "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."^[5]

In the re-make of The Count of Monte Cristo in 2002, Harris performed as the book's fictionalised character of Abbé Faria, the jailed priest and a former Napoleonic soldier who instructs Dantès in language, science, and combat, and gives him a treasure map. In 2003, Harris's voice could be heard as the character Opaz in the animated movie Kaena: The Prophecy. The movie was dedicated to him, posthumously.

[edit] Personal life and death

In 1957, he married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, the daughter of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore. Their three children are the actor Jared Harris, the actor Jamie Harris, and the director Damian Harris. Harris and Rees-Willams divorced each other in 1969, and then Elizabeth married another well-known actor, Sir Rex Harrison.

Harris' second marriage was to the American actress Ann Turkel, who was years years younger than him, and this marriage also ended in a divorce.

Despite his divorces, Harris was a member of the Roman Catholic Knights of Malta, and was also dubbed a knight by the Queen of Denmark in 1985. Harris was reported to be good friends with the actor Peter O'Toole.^[6] His family reportedly hoped that O'Toole would replace Harris as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.^[6]

Harris often told stories about his haunted English Mansion, The Tower House, which was sold later to the musician Jimmy Page of "Led Zeppelin". 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.^[7]

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

Harris was a longtime alcoholic beverage drinker, but then he became a teetotaler. A memorable incident concerning his massive alcohol consumption 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!"

Harris is also attributed with an anecdote in which he was found lying drunk in a street in London. A passing policeman asked him what he was doing, and he replied that the world was spinning. The policeman inquired as to how lying in the street was going to help, and he said "I'm waiting for my house to go by."

For years, whenever he was in London, Harris resided at the Savoy Hotel. According to the hotel archivist Susan Scott, as Harris was being taken from the hotel on a stretcher, shortly before his death, he warned the diners, "It was the food!"^[8]

Harris's remains were cremated, and his ashes were scattered in The Bahamas Islands, where he had owned a home.

[edit] Affiliations

Richard Harris was a Knight of Malta and a member of the nobility of the country of Denmark. He was also a member of the Screen Actors Guild in the United States of America.

[edit] Memorials

On 30 September 2006, Manuel Di Lucia, of Kilkee, County Clare, a long-time friend, organized a bronze life-size statue of Richard Harris at the age of eighteen playing rackets. The sculptor sculptor was Seamus Connolly and the sculpture stands in Kilkee.^[9]

Another life-size statue of Richard Harris, as King Arthur from his film, Camelot, has been erected in Bedford Row, in the center of his home town of Limerick. Unfortunately, this statue has been vandalized numerous times by the hoodlums of the Limerick areas, and its sword has been damaged.^[10] The sculptor of this statue was the noted Irish sculptor, Jim Connolly, a graduate of the Limerick School of Art and Design.

At the 2009 BAFTAs, Mickey Rourke dedicated his Best Actor award to Sir Richard, calling him a "good friend, and great actor."

[edit] Academy Award Nominations

• 1964 - Best Actor in a Leading Role - This Sporting Life
• 1991 - Best Actor in a Leading Role - The Field

[edit] Golden Glode Award Nominations

[edit] Grammy nominations and wins

[edit] Nominations

• Album of the Year for A Tramp Shining - 1968
• Contemporary Pop Male Vocalist for MacArthur Park- 1968
• Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording for The Prophet - 1975

[edit] Wins

• Best Spoken Word Recording for Jonathan Livingston Seagull - 1973

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• Camelot (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1967)
• A Tramp Shining (Spring 1968)
• The Yard Went on Forever (Fall 1968)
• My Boy (1971)
• The Richard Harris Love Album (1972)
• Slides (1972)
• His Greatest Performances (1973)
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973)
• The Prophet (1974)
• I, in the Membership of My Days (1974)
• Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast Soundtrack) (1982)

[edit] Singles

• "Here in My Heart (Theme from This Sporting Life)" (1963)
• "MacArthur Park" (1968)
• "One of the Nicer Things" (1969)
• "What a Lot of Flowers" (1969)
• "Fill the World With Love" (1969)
• "Ballad of A Man Called Horse" (1970)
• "Morning of the Mourning for Another Kennedy" (1970)
• "Go to the Mirror" (1971)
• "My Boy" (1971)
• "Turning Back the Pages" (1972)
• "Half of Every Dream" (1972)
• "Trilogy (Love, Marriage, Children)" (1974)
• "The Last Castle (Theme from Echoes of a Summer)" (1976)
• "Lilliput (Theme from Gulliver's Travels)" (1977)

[edit] Compact disc releases & compilations

• Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast Soundtrack) (1988)
• Mack the Knife (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1989)
• Camelot (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1993)
• A Tramp Shining (1993)
• The Prophet (1995)
• The Webb Sessions 1968-1969 (1996)
• MacArthur Park (1997)
• Slides/My Boy (2 CD Set) (2005)
• My Boy (2006)

[edit] See also

• List of people on stamps of Ireland

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Richard Harris at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Harris at the Internet Broadway Database
• Richard Harris discography at MusicBrainz
• Harris' Bar Limerick: A Bar in Limerick City Dedicated to Richard
• The Round Table, The Richard Harris Fansite
• Richard Harris at Find a Grave

v • d • e Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Glenn Ford (1961) · Marcello Mastroianni (1962) · Alberto Sordi (1963) · Rex Harrison (1964) · Lee Marvin (1965) · Alan Arkin (1966) · Richard Harris (1967) · Ron Moody (1968) · Peter O'Toole (1969) · Albert Finney (1970) · Topol (1971) · Jack Lemmon (1972) · George Segal (1973) · Art Carney (1974) · Walter Matthau (1975) · Kris Kristofferson (1976) · Richard Dreyfuss (1977) · Warren Beatty (1978) · Peter Sellers (1979) · Ray Sharkey (1980) Complete List · (1950–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)

Persondata
NAME	Harris, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Harris, Richard St John
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Irish actor, singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	1 October 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH	Limerick, Ireland
DATE OF DEATH	25 October 2002
PLACE OF DEATH	London, England, UK