Richard Harris

Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish performer known for both acting and singing. After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he became a key figure in the British New Wave. His career earned him a Cannes Best Actor prize, a Grammy, and a Golden Globe, and in 2020, *The Irish Times* ranked him third on its list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Harris earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor: first for *This Sporting Life* (1963) and later for *The Field* (1990). His other notable films include *The Guns of Navarone* (1961), *Red Desert* (1964), *A Man Called Horse* (1970), *Cromwell* (1970), *Unforgiven* (1992), *Gladiator* (2000), and *The Count of Monte Cristo* (2002). He found a new, broad audience as Albus Dumbledore in the first two *Harry Potter* films—*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone* (2001) and *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (2002)—with the latter being his final film role.

He played King Arthur in the 1967 film *Camelot*, based on the Lerner and Loewe musical, winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. He later reprised that role in the 1981 Broadway revival. He also received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for his performance in Pirandello's *Henry IV* (1991). For the television film *The Snow Goose* (1971), he earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

Harris also had a successful music career. His 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park" reached number one in Australia, Jamaica, and Canada, and became a top-ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States. That song earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Born on 1 October 1930 at Overdale, a large redbrick house on Ennis Road in Limerick, Harris was the fifth of eight children. His father, Ivan, was a flour merchant, and his mother was Mildred (née Harty). The family home had nine bedrooms and was situated in a wealthy area built for Limerick’s rising middle class. Educated by Jesuits at Crescent College, he was a talented rugby player, representing Crescent in Munster Junior and Senior Cup teams and playing for Garryowen. His athletic career ended when he contracted tuberculosis as a teenager. He remained a devoted fan of Munster Rugby and Young Munster for life, often attending matches and sharing pranks with fellow actors and rugby enthusiasts Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton.

After recovering from tuberculosis, Harris moved to England hoping to become a director. Unable to find suitable training, he instead studied acting at LAMDA, having failed auditions at RADA and been rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama for being too old at 24. While still a student, he rented the small Irving Theatre and directed his own production of Clifford Odets's *Winter Journey* (also known as *The Country Girl*). After graduating, he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop and began appearing in West End productions, starting with *The Quare Fellow* in 1956. He spent nearly a decade learning his craft on UK stages.

His film debut came in 1959 with *Alive and Kicking*, and that same year he played the lead in the West End production of *The Ginger Man*. In his second film, *Shake Hands with the Devil* (1959), he had a small role as an IRA Volunteer opposite James Cagney. The film’s director, Michael Anderson, then cast him in *The Wreck of the Mary Deare* (1959), shot in Hollywood. He played another IRA Volunteer in *A Terrible Beauty* (1960) with Robert Mitchum, and had a memorable bit part in *The Guns of Navarone* (1961) as an RAAF pilot. He appeared in *The Long and the Short and the Tall* (1961) as a British soldier, clashing with co-stars Laurence Harvey and Richard Todd. For *Mutiny on the Bounty* (1962), despite being little-known, he insisted on third billing behind Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando, though he later fell out with Brando over his behavior on set.

Harris’s first starring role was in *This Sporting Life* (1963), playing a bitter coal miner turned rugby league star. The performance won him the Cannes Best Actor award and an Oscar nomination. He then starred in Michelangelo Antonioni’s *Red Desert* (1964), which won the Golden Lion at Venice. He supported Kirk Douglas in *The Heroes of Telemark* (1965) as a Norwegian resistance leader, and Charlton Heston in Sam Peckinpah’s *Major Dundee* (1965) as an Irish Confederate cavalryman. He also played Cain in John Huston’s film *The Bible: In the Beginning* (1966).