A genuine star of cinema on screen, and a fiery hell raiser off screen, Richard St John Harris was born on October 1, 1930, in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family. He was an excellent rugby player and had a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout of tuberculosis as a teenager ended his aspirations to a rugby career, but he became fascinated with the theater and skipped a local dance one night to attend a performance of "Henry IV". He was hooked, and went on to learn his craft at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, then spent several years in stage productions. He debuted on screen in Alive and Kicking and quickly scored regular work in films, including The Wreck of the Mary Deare, The Night Fighters and a good role as a frustrated Australian bomber pilot in The Guns of Navarone.

However, his breakthrough performance was as the quintessential "angry young man" in the sensational drama This Sporting Life, which scored him an Oscar nomination. He then appeared in the WW II commando tale The Heroes of Telemark and in the Sam Peckinpah-directed western Major Dundee. He next showed up in Hawaii and played King Arthur in Camelot, a lackluster adaptation of the famous Broadway play. Better performances followed, among them a role as a reluctant police informer in The Molly Maguires alongside Sean Connery. Harris took the lead role in the violent western A Man Called Horse, which became something of a cult film and spawned two sequels.

As the 1970s progressed, Harris continued to appear regularly on screen; however, the quality of the scripts varied from above average to woeful. His credits during this period included directing himself as an aging soccer player in the delightful The Hero, the western The Deadly Trackers, the big-budget "disaster" film Terror on the Britannic, the strangely titled crime film 99 and 44/100% Dead, with Connery again in Robin and Marian, Gulliver's Travels, a part in the Jaws ripoff Orca, and a nice turn as an ill-fated mercenary with Richard Burton and Roger Moore in the popular action film The Wild Geese.

The 1980s kicked off with Harris appearing in the silly Bo Derek vanity production Tarzan, the Ape Man, and the remainder of the decade had him appearing in some very forgettable productions.

However, the luck of the Irish was once again to shine on Harris' career, and he scored rave reviews (and another Oscar nomination) for The Field. He then locked horns with Harrison Ford as an IRA sympathizer in Patriot Games, and got one of his best roles as gunfighter English Bob in the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven. Harris was firmly back in vogue, and rewarded his fans with more wonderful performances in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, Cry, the Beloved Country, The Great Kandinsky and This Is the Sea. Further fortune came his way with a strong performance in the blockbuster Gladiator, and he became known to an entirely new generation of film fans as Albus Dumbledore in the mega-successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. His final screen role was as "Lucius Sulla" in Caesar.

A diverse, vigorous and captivating actor, Richard Harris passed away from Hodgkin's Disease on October 25, 2002.


Was a pretty good rugby player in his day, still remembered in Limerick City for his tackling ability. He was a guest professor at the University of Scranton in the mid-1980s, teaching Theatre Arts courses. Joined the Knights of Malta (SMOM), despite his two divorces. Was knighted by Denmark in 1985. A bout with tuberculosis ended his ambition of becoming a professional rugby player. While still a student, he rented the tiny "off-West End" Irving Theatre in London and directed his own production of Clifford Odets' "Winter Journey (The Country Girl)". The critics approved, but the production used up all his savings and he was forced to sleep in a coal cellar for six weeks. Died shortly before the U.S. premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). Following his death, many of his family members wanted friend Peter O'Toole to take the role of Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Both he and his fellow Irish actor (and close friend) Peter O'Toole appeared in versions of "Gulliver's Travels": Harris played the title character in the 1977 film version Gulliver's Travels (1977) and O'Toole played the Emperor of Lilliput in the 1996 TV-film version Gulliver's Travels (1996) (TV), where Ted Danson played Gulliver. Graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He was rejected by the Royal Adademy of Dramatic Art. Received the Laurence Olivier Award for his acclaimed performances at the Royal National Theatre, London, England. An alcoholic, he gave up drinking completely in 1981 and returned to drinking Guinness a decade later. He and Patrick Bergin were two of the only Irish actors to play Irishmen in Patriot Games (1992). Is one of only two actors to appear in two Best Picture winners from the 1990s. He appeared in 1992's Best Picture, Unforgiven (1992), and 2000's Best Picture, Gladiator (2000). The only other actor to do this was Ralph Fiennes, who appeared in Schindler's List (1993) and The English Patient (1996). Fiennes later followed Harris into the Harry Potter films. Well known for being a "method actor", Harris was once told that he would play the role of a filthy character, and so he went for a long time without bathing to fit in to the character better, much to the chagrin of his co-stars, who claimed that they could smell him coming a long way away. Harris did not enjoy his first time in Hollywood making The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Production had to be halted several times due to the frequent illnesses of its star, Gary Cooper. He turned down the role of Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) and was thirty-four when he starred in his first Hollywood movie, Major Dundee (1965). After giving up drinking alcohol for a time in the 1970s, Harris put a bottle of vodka in every room in his house in London. The temptation was huge but he didn't touch a drop. He enjoyed a friendly rivalry with English actor Oliver Reed during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Reed would often refer to himself as "Mr. England." When Harris would hear him saying that, he would then refer to himself as "Mr. Ireland.". In 1979 he was diagnosed with hyperglycemia, a condition in which an excessive amount of glucose circulates in the blood plasma. Befriended Russell Crowe while filming Gladiator (2000). While living in England, Harris popped out for milk and when seeing the paper he noticed that Young Munster were playing in Thomond Park, Co. Limerick, Harris got the next available flight to Ireland. He spent the following 3 weeks on a drinking binge. All was unknown at the time to his wife, who had no idea where he was. When he finally returned to England, he rang the doorbell of his house. His wife answered the door and before she had a chance to say anything, he said, "Well, why didn't you pay the ransom?". Turned down the role of Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), then went on to play Commodus' father Marcus Aurelius (who dies at his son's hands) in Gladiator (2000). He hated making Caprice (1967) with Doris Day so much that he never watched the film. By the time he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in August 2002 it was so advanced that there was no hope of recovery. Mickey Rourke dedicated his 2009 BAFTA award for Best Actor to Harris calling him "a good friend, and great actor.".