Richard Harris
Encyclopedia
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 as Albus Dumbledore
in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(2001) (Released in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(2002), his final film. He also played a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse
(1970), Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator
(2000), St. John The Apostle in Apocalypse Revelation
(2002), and the gunfighter English Bob in Clint Eastwood
's Western film Unforgiven
(1992).
Harris had a top ten hit in Britain and the US with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb
's song "MacArthur Park
".
Harris' siblings include Patrick Ivan (born 1929), Noel William Michael (born 1932), Diarmid (Dermot, born 1939), and William George Harris (born 1942). 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
. 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
and Young Munster
teams 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 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. He had failed an audition at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA), and had been rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama
because they felt he was too old at 24. 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. Accounts of Harris' contemporaries from his hometown of Limerick, however, indicate that Harris may have exaggerated these stories somewhat 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. Harris spent nearly a decade in obscurity, learning his profession on stages throughout the UK.
, and played the lead role in The Ginger Man in the West End in 1959. He hated filming The Wreck of the Mary Deare
so much that he refused to return to Hollywood for several years, turning down the role of Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire. 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 Navarone is impossible by an air raid
.
For his role in the film Mutiny on the Bounty
, despite being virtually unknown to film audiences, Harris reportedly insisted on third billing, behind Trevor Howard
and Marlon Brando
. He did not get along with Brando at all during filming.
Harris's 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 in Sam Peckinpah
's "lost masterpiece" Major Dundee
(1965), as an Irish immigrant who became a Confederate cavalry
man during the Civil War
; again, he did not get along with co-star Charlton Heston
at all.
Harris next performed the role of King Arthur
in the film adaptation of the musical play Camelot
. Harris continued to appear on stage in this role for years, including a successful Broadway run in 1981–82. 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
" (Harris insisted on singing the lyric as "MacArthur's Park"). This song had been written by Jimmy Webb
, and it reached #2 on the American Billboard
Hot 100
chart
. It also topped several music sales charts in Europe during the summer of 1968. "MacArthur Park" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
. A second album, with music mostly composed by Webb, The Yard Went on Forever, was published in 1969. Harris also wrote and arranged the orchestral accompaniment for one of the tracks, a scathing commentary on the sectarian violence
in Northern Ireland delivered as a spoken-word poem written by Dr T James and entitled "There are Too Many Saviours on My Cross".
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 actresses 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.
In 1989, Harris played the beggar King J.J. Peachum in Mack the Knife
, the third screen adaptation of The Threepenny Opera
.
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 of Bull McCabe. When McAnally died suddenly during initial preparations, Harris began a concerted campaign to be cast as McCabe. The campaign succeeded, and the movie version of The Field
was released in 1990. Harris earned an American Academy Award
nomination for his performance, but lost to Jeremy Irons
for Reversal of Fortune
. In 1992, Harris had a supporting but memorable role in the film Patriot Games
, as an Irish-American radical.
Harris appeared in two films which won the Oscar for Best Picture. First, as the gunfighter "English Bob" in the 1992 Western
, Unforgiven
; second, as the Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius in Ridley Scott's
Gladiator (2000). He also played a lead role alongside James Earl Jones
in the 1995 Darrell Roodt
film adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country
. In 1999, Harris starred in the film To Walk With Lions
. After Gladiator, Harris gained further fame playing the supporting role of Albus Dumbledore
in the first two of the Harry Potter
films, and as Abbé Faria
in Kevin Reynolds' 2002 film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo
. The film Kaena: The Prophecy
(released in 2003) was dedicated to him posthumously as he had voiced the character Opaz before his death.
Concerning his role as Dumbledore, Harris had stated that he did not intend to take the part, 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. 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 explained by saying: "Because, you see, I don't just want to be remembered for being in those bloody films, and I'm afraid that's what's going to happen to me."
, the daughter of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore
. Their three children are the actors Jared Harris
, once married to Emilia Fox
, the actor Jamie Harris
, and the director Damian Harris
, once married to Annabel Brooks
and partner of Peta Wilson
. Harris and Rees-Williams divorced in 1969, after which Elizabeth married Sir Rex Harrison
. His maternal niece is actress Annabelle Wallis.
Harris's second marriage was to the American actress Ann Turkel
, who was 16 years younger than he. 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 often told stories about his haunted London home, 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.
Harris was a vocal supporter of the IRA
from the early 1970s until the bombing of Harrod's in 1983, after which he disavowed them.
Harris was a longtime alcoholic until he became a teetotaler
in 1981, although he did resume drinking Guinness a decade later. He gave up drugs after almost dying from a cocaine overdose in 1978. 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."
In a 1994 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Harris said he had his driver's licence permanently suspended for knocking over a double-decker bus in Dublin, Ireland.
Harris died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma
on 25 October 2002, aged 72, two and a half weeks before the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
. Harris was a lifelong friend of actor Peter O'Toole
, and his family reportedly hoped that O'Toole would replace Harris as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
. There were, however, worries of insuring O'Toole for the 5 remaining films, and he was ultimately replaced as Dumbledore by the Irish-born actor Sir Michael Gambon
.
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!"
Harris's remains were cremated
, and his ashes were scattered in The Bahamas
, where he had owned a home.
, County Clare
, a long-time friend, organized a bronze life-size statue of Richard Harris, at the age of eighteen, playing rackets
. The sculptor was Seamus Connolly and the sculpture (unveiled by Russell Crowe
) stands in Kilkee, Ireland.
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. The sculptor of this statue was the 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 Harris, calling him a "good friend, and great actor."
He appeared on stage and in many films, and is perhaps best known for his roles as King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
in Camelot
Camelot (film)
Camelot is a 1967 film adaptation of the musical of the same name. Richard Harris stars as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan.-Plot:...
(1967), as Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in Cromwell
Cromwell (film)
Cromwell is a 1970 film, based on the life of Oliver Cromwell who led the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War and, as Lord Protector, ruled Great Britain and Ireland in the 1650s. It features an all-star cast led by Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I...
(1970) and as Albus Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore
Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a major character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts...
in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, released in the United States and India as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. The film is the first instalment in the Harry Potter film series,...
(2001) (Released in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a 2002 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the second instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman...
(2002), his final film. He also played a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse
A Man Called Horse (1970 film)
A Man Called Horse is a 1970 American Western film starring Richard Harris and directed by Elliot Silverstein.-Plot:The film is based on a short story, "A Man Called Horse", published in 1968 in the book Indian Country by Dorothy M. Johnson...
(1970), Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator
Gladiator (2000 film)
Gladiator is a 2000 historical epic film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays the loyal Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is betrayed...
(2000), St. John The Apostle in Apocalypse Revelation
Apocalypse Revelation
Apocalypse Revelation is a 2002 telefilm starring Richard Harris and Bruce Payne.-Plot:The film is set in 90 AD and concerns Jesus Christ's last surviving disciple, John of Patmos, and his writings and visions of the Apocalypse. Emperor Domitian has declared himself to be God and ruler over heaven...
(2002), and the gunfighter English Bob in Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
's Western film Unforgiven
Unforgiven
Unforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming...
(1992).
Harris had a top ten hit in Britain and the US with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He wrote numerous platinum selling classics, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "The Worst That Could Happen", "All I Know", and "MacArthur Park"...
's song "MacArthur Park
MacArthur Park (song)
"MacArthur Park" is a song by Jimmy Webb, originally composed as part of an intended cantata. The song was initially rejected by The Association. Richard Harris was the first to record it, in 1968; the song was subsequently covered by numerous artists. Among the best-known covers are Donna Summer's...
".
Early life and career
Harris, the fifth of nine children, was born in Limerick City, County Limerick, Munster, Irish Free State into a middle-class, staunchly Roman Catholic family. His parents were Ivan John Harris (b. 1896, son of Richard Harris, b. 1854, son of James Harris of St. Michael's, Limerick) and Mildred Josephine Harty Harris (b. 1898, daughter of James Harty, St. John's, Limerick, who owned a flour mill.)Harris' siblings include Patrick Ivan (born 1929), Noel William Michael (born 1932), Diarmid (Dermot, born 1939), and William George Harris (born 1942). He was schooled by the Jesuits at Crescent College
Crescent College
Crescent College Comprehensive SJ is a secondary school located on a section of 40 acres of parkland at Dooradoyle, Limerick, Ireland. The college is one of a number of Jesuit schools in Ireland.- History :...
. A talented rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
player, he was on several Munster Junior
Munster Schools Junior Cup
The Munster Schools Junior Cup or Munster Junior Cup is the under-age rugby union competition for schools affiliated to the Munster Branch of the IRFU with team members under 15 years of age....
and Senior Cup teams for Crescent, and played for Garryowen
Garryowen Football Club
Garryowen Football Club , usually referred to as Garryowen, is a rugby union club from Limerick, Ireland. Historically it has been one of the most successful clubs in Irish rugby union leagues.-Name:...
. Harris might have become a provincial or international-standard rugby player, but his athletic career was cut short when he caught tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in his teens. He remained an ardent fan of the Munster Rugby
Munster Rugby
Munster Rugby is an Irish professional rugby union team based in Munster, that competes in the RaboDirect Pro12 and Heineken Cup.The team represents the Irish Rugby Football Union Munster Branch which is one of four primary branches of the IRFU, and is responsible for rugby union in the Irish...
and Young Munster
Young Munster
Young Munster is a Rugby union club based in Limerick, Ireland. It was founded in 1895 and plays its games at Tom Clifford Park in Rosbrien, Limerick....
teams 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
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
and Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
.
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
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...
(LAMDA) to learn acting. He had failed an audition at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
(RADA), and had been rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...
because they felt he was too old at 24. While still a student, Harris rented the tiny "off-West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
" Irving Theatre, and there directed his own production of Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
'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. Accounts of Harris' contemporaries from his hometown of Limerick, however, indicate that Harris may have exaggerated these stories somewhat 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
Joan Littlewood
Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop...
's Theatre Workshop
Theatre Workshop
Theatre Workshop is a theatre group noted for their director, Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company...
. He began getting roles in West End theatre productions, starting with The Quare Fellow
The Quare Fellow
The Quare Fellow is Brendan Behan's first play, first produced in 1954.The title is taken from a Hiberno-English pronunciation of queer, meaning 'strange' or 'unusual'. In context, the word lacks the denotation of homosexuality which it holds today...
in 1956, a transfer from the Theatre Workshop. Harris spent nearly a decade in obscurity, learning his profession on stages throughout the UK.
Career
Harris made his movie debut in 1958 in the film Alive and KickingAlive and Kicking (film)
Alive and Kicking is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Sybil Thorndike, Kathleen Harrison, Estelle Winwood and Stanley Holloway. Three woman grow dissatisfied with their lives in a retirement home and decide to search for fresh enjoyment and adventure...
, and played the lead role in The Ginger Man in the West End in 1959. He hated filming The Wreck of the Mary Deare
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (film)
The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a 1959 Metrocolor British-American thriller film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Michael Redgrave, Cecil Parker, Richard Harris and John Le Mesurier, based upon the novel by Hammond Innes.-Synopsis:A merchant marine captain,...
so much that he refused to return to Hollywood for several years, turning down the role of Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire. He had a memorable bit part
Bit part
A bit part is a supporting acting role with at least one line of dialogue . In British television, bit parts are referred to as under sixes...
in the movie The Guns of Navarone
The Guns of Navarone (film)
The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 British-American Action/Adventure war film based on the 1957 novel of the same name about the Dodecanese Campaign of World War II by Scottish thriller writer Alistair MacLean. It stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, along with Anthony Quayle and Stanley...
as a Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
pilot who reports that blowing up the "bloody guns" of the island of Navarone is impossible by an air raid
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...
.
For his role in the film Mutiny on the Bounty
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1962 film starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard based on the novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The film retells the 1789 real-life mutiny aboard HMAV Bounty led by Fletcher Christian against the ship's captain, William Bligh...
, despite being virtually unknown to film audiences, Harris reportedly insisted on third billing, behind Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard
Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
and Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
. He did not get along with Brando at all during filming.
Harris's first starring role was in the movie This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting...
in 1963, as the bitter young coal miner, Frank Machin, who becomes an acclaimed rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
football player. For his role, Harris won the award for best actor
Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival)
The Best Actor Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946.- Award Winners :-External links:* * ....
in 1963 at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Harris followed this with a leading role in the Italian film, Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
's Il deserto rosso (1964), and he also won notice for his role in Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah
David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...
's "lost masterpiece" Major Dundee
Major Dundee
Major Dundee is a 1965 Western film written by Harry Julian Fink and directed by Sam Peckinpah. It starred Charlton Heston and Richard Harris as officers from opposing sides in the American Civil War who band together to hunt down a band of Apaches....
(1965), as an Irish immigrant who became a Confederate cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
man during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
; again, he did not get along with co-star Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
at all.
Harris next performed the role of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
in the film adaptation of the musical play Camelot
Camelot (film)
Camelot is a 1967 film adaptation of the musical of the same name. Richard Harris stars as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan.-Plot:...
. Harris continued to appear on stage in this role for years, including a successful Broadway run in 1981–82. In 1966, Harris starred as Adam's son Cain in John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
's film The Bible: In the Beginning
The Bible: In The Beginning
The Bible: In the Beginning is a 1966 Biblical epic film recounting the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis. It was a joint American/Italian production conceived by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Huston. The music score is by Toshirô Mayuzumi. The production was photographed by...
.
Harris recorded several albums of music, one of which (A Tramp Shining) included the seven-minute hit song "MacArthur Park
MacArthur Park (song)
"MacArthur Park" is a song by Jimmy Webb, originally composed as part of an intended cantata. The song was initially rejected by The Association. Richard Harris was the first to record it, in 1968; the song was subsequently covered by numerous artists. Among the best-known covers are Donna Summer's...
" (Harris insisted on singing the lyric as "MacArthur's Park"). This song had been written by Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Webb is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He wrote numerous platinum selling classics, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "The Worst That Could Happen", "All I Know", and "MacArthur Park"...
, and it reached #2 on the American Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. It also topped several music sales charts in Europe during the summer of 1968. "MacArthur Park" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. A second album, with music mostly composed by Webb, The Yard Went on Forever, was published in 1969. Harris also wrote and arranged the orchestral accompaniment for one of the tracks, a scathing commentary on the sectarian violence
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
in Northern Ireland delivered as a spoken-word poem written by Dr T James and entitled "There are Too Many Saviours on My Cross".
Some memorable movie performances followed this, among them a role as a reluctant police informant in the coal-mining tale The Molly Maguires
The Molly Maguires (film)
The Molly Maguires is a 1970 American film based on a novel by Arthur H. Lewis that was directed by Martin Ritt. It stars Richard Harris and Sean Connery....
(1970), starring with Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
. Harris starred in the Man in the Wilderness
Man in the Wilderness
Man in the Wilderness is a 1971 American action film about a scout for a group of mountain men who are traversing the Northwestern United States during the 1820s. The scout is mauled by a bear and left to die by his companions. He survives and recuperates sufficiently to track his former...
in 1971, the Juggernaut
Juggernaut (film)
Juggernaut is a 1974 British thriller film. It was produced by David V. Picker Productions and released in 1974 by United Artists. The film was directed by Richard Lester, who took over after directors Bryan Forbes and Don Medford each left the project in pre-production.On taking over the film,...
in 1974 (a British suspense movie about the hijacking of an ocean liner), in 1976 in The Cassandra Crossing
The Cassandra Crossing
The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 British disaster film directed by George Pan Cosmatos and starring Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and O. J. Simpson.-Plot:...
, along with the actresses Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
and Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
, and in a B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
, Orca
Orca (film)
Orca is a 1977 horror film directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Dino De Laurentiis, starring Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, and Will Sampson. The film was poorly received by critics and audiences alike due in part to its similarities to the film Jaws released two years prior...
, in 1977. Harris achieved a form of cult status
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
for his role as the mercenary tactician Rafer Janders in the movie The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese is a British 1978 film about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger...
(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.
In 1989, Harris played the beggar King J.J. Peachum in Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
, the third screen adaptation of The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
.
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
John B. Keane
John Brendan Keane was an Irish playwright, novelist and essayist from Listowel, County Kerry.-Life and career:...
, and had heard that one of them, The Field
The Field
The Field is a play written by John B. Keane, first performed in 1965. It tells the story of the hardened farmer "Bull" McCabe and his love for the land he rents. The play debuted at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 1965, with Ray McAnally as "The Bull" and Eamon Keane as "The Bird" O'Donnell. The play...
, was being adapted for film by director Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan is an Irish film director. A six-time Academy Award nominee, Sheridan is perhaps best known for his films My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Get Rich or Die Tryin and In America.-Life and career:...
. Sheridan was working with actor Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally was an Irish actor famous for his performances in films such as The Mission, My Left Foot, and A Very British Coup.-Background:...
on the adaptation, intending to feature McAnally in the lead role of Bull McCabe. When McAnally died suddenly during initial preparations, Harris began a concerted campaign to be cast as McCabe. The campaign succeeded, and the movie version of The Field
The Field (film)
The Field is Jim Sheridan's 1990 film adaptation of John B. Keane's 1965 play of the same title.-Production:The Field starred Richard Harris as Bull McCabe, Sean Bean as Bull's son Tadhg, Brenda Fricker as Bull's wife Maggie, and John Hurt as Bird O'Donnell...
was released in 1990. Harris earned an American Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nomination for his performance, but lost to Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
for Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune is a 1990 film adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case, written by law professor Alan Dershowitz...
. In 1992, Harris had a supporting but memorable role in the film Patriot Games
Patriot Games (film)
Patriot Games is a 1992 film directed by Phillip Noyce and based on Tom Clancy's the novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October. In the movie, Jack Ryan is played by Harrison Ford, Jack's surgeon-wife, Dr...
, as an Irish-American radical.
Later career
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
, Unforgiven
Unforgiven
Unforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming...
; second, as the Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Marcus Aurelius in Ridley Scott's
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
Gladiator (2000). He also played a lead role alongside James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
in the 1995 Darrell Roodt
Darrell Roodt
Darrell Roodt is a South African film director, screenwriter and producer.His film Sarafina was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.-Awards:...
film adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995 film)
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1995 film directed by Darrell Roodt. Based on the novel Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton it stars James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. It features the song Exile by Enya. The score was composed by John Barry....
. In 1999, Harris starred in the film To Walk With Lions
To Walk With Lions
To Walk with Lions is a 1999 film starring Richard Harris as George Adamson and John Michie as Tony Fitzjohn.Adamson spends the latter part of his life protecting the lions and other wildlife in the Kora National Reserve, Kenya...
. After Gladiator, Harris gained further fame playing the supporting role of Albus Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore
Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a major character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts...
in the first two of the Harry Potter
Harry Potter (film series)
The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling...
films, and as Abbé Faria
Abbé Faria
Abbé Faria , or Abbé José Custódio de Faria, , was a colourful Goan Catholic monk who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Anton Mesmer...
in Kevin Reynolds' 2002 film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 film)
The Count of Monte Cristo is a 2002 adventure film directed by Kevin Reynolds. The film is the tenth adaptation of the book of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, père and stars Richard Harris, James Caviezel, Dagmara Dominczyk, Guy Pearce, and Luis Guzman...
. The film Kaena: The Prophecy
Kaena: The Prophecy
Kaena: The Prophecy is a 2003 French-Canadian computer-generated fantasy movie. The United States release of the film is distributed by Sony Pictures and features the voices of Kirsten Dunst, Richard Harris, Anjelica Huston, Keith David and Ciara Janson.The idea originally started out as a...
(released in 2003) was dedicated to him posthumously as he had voiced the character Opaz before his death.
Concerning his role as Dumbledore, Harris had stated that he did not intend to take the part, 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. In an interview with the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
in 2001, Harris expressed his concern that his association with the Harry Potter movies would outshine the rest of his career. He explained by saying: "Because, you see, I don't just want to be remembered for being in those bloody films, and I'm afraid that's what's going to happen to me."
Personal life and death
In 1957, he married Elizabeth Rees-WilliamsElizabeth Rees-Williams
Joan Elizabeth Rees-Williams, The Hon. Mrs. Aitken , is a Welsh socialite. She had two film roles around her early 40s.She was born in Cardiff, daughter of the politician David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore....
, the daughter of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore
David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore
David Rees Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore, PC, TD was a Welsh politician.Rees-Williams was born in Bridgend, Wales. He qualified as a solicitor in 1929 and married and had three children...
. Their three children are the actors Jared Harris
Jared Harris
Jared Francis Harris is a British character actor, well known for playing the obnoxious Mac McGrath in the Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds, and for his portrayal of Lane Pryce on the AMC series Mad Men.- Personal life :...
, once married to Emilia Fox
Emilia Fox
Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox is an award-winning English actress, known for her role as Dr. Nikki Alexander on BBC crime drama Silent Witness, having joined the cast in 2004 following the departure of Amanda Burton. She also appears as Morgause in the BBC's Merlin beginning in the programme's second...
, the actor Jamie Harris
Jamie Harris (actor)
Jamie Harris is an English actor. He is the son of actor Richard Harris and socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His two brothers are actor Jared Harris and director Damian Harris.-Life and career:...
, and the director Damian Harris
Damian Harris
Damian David Harris is an English film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Harris was born in London, one of three sons of the late Irish actor Richard Harris and his first wife, Welsh actress Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His brothers are English actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris.-Career:In 1968...
, once married to Annabel Brooks
Annabel Brooks
Annabel Brooks is a British actress who has appeared on television and in films since the 1980s.-Biography:Her first on-screen role came in 1987 when she appeared as Eliza in Nightflyers. She has since appeared in productions including A Handful of Dust, The Witches and Last Run.In 1981 Brooks...
and partner of Peta Wilson
Peta Wilson
Peta Gia Wilson is an Australian actress and model. She is best known as Nikita in the television series La Femme Nikita.-Early life:...
. Harris and Rees-Williams divorced in 1969, after which Elizabeth married Sir Rex Harrison
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
. His maternal niece is actress Annabelle Wallis.
Harris's second marriage was to the American actress Ann Turkel
Ann Turkel
Ann Kathryn Turkel is an American actress and model.Turkel studied at the Musical Theatre Academy.She was photographed for American Vogue...
, who was 16 years younger than he. 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
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
in 1985.
Harris often told stories about his haunted London home, The Tower House
The Tower House
The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself...
, which was sold later to the musician Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
. 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 was a vocal supporter of the IRA
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
from the early 1970s until the bombing of Harrod's in 1983, after which he disavowed them.
Harris was a longtime alcoholic until he became a teetotaler
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...
in 1981, although he did resume drinking Guinness a decade later. He gave up drugs after almost dying from a cocaine overdose in 1978. A memorable incident concerning his massive alcohol consumption was an appearance on The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...
where he recounted to host Gay Byrne
Gay Byrne
Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne is a veteran Irish presenter of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of The Late Late Show over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999...
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."
In a 1994 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, Harris said he had his driver's licence permanently suspended for knocking over a double-decker bus in Dublin, Ireland.
Harris died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Hodgkin's lymphoma
Hodgkin's lymphoma, previously known as Hodgkin's disease, is a type of lymphoma, which is a cancer originating from white blood cells called lymphocytes...
on 25 October 2002, aged 72, two and a half weeks before the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a 2002 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the second instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman...
. Harris was a lifelong friend of actor Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, and his family reportedly hoped that O'Toole would replace Harris as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a 2004 fantasy film directed by Alfonso Cuarón and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. It is the third instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by Chris Columbus, David Heyman and Mark Radcliffe...
. There were, however, worries of insuring O'Toole for the 5 remaining films, and he was ultimately replaced as Dumbledore by the Irish-born actor Sir Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
.
For years, whenever he was in London, Harris resided at the Savoy Hotel
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...
. 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!"
Harris's remains were cremated
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
, and his ashes were scattered in The Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
, where he had owned a home.
Memorials
On 30 September 2006, Manuel Di Lucia, of KilkeeKilkee
Kilkee is a small coastal town in County Clare, Ireland. It is located midway between Kilrush and Doonbeg on the N67 road. The town, one of the most famous resorts in Ireland, is particularly popular as a seaside resort with people from Limerick City...
, County Clare
County Clare
-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...
, a long-time friend, organized a bronze life-size statue of Richard Harris, at the age of eighteen, playing rackets
Racquets (sport)
Rackets or Racquets is an indoor racket sport played in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada...
. The sculptor was Seamus Connolly and the sculpture (unveiled by Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe
Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
) stands in Kilkee, Ireland.
Another life-size statue of Richard Harris, as King Arthur from his film, Camelot
Camelot (film)
Camelot is a 1967 film adaptation of the musical of the same name. Richard Harris stars as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan.-Plot:...
, has been erected in Bedford Row, in the center of his home town of Limerick. The sculptor of this statue was the Irish sculptor Jim Connolly, a graduate of the Limerick School of Art and Design
Limerick School of Art and Design
Limerick School of Art and Design or LSAD is an art college in Limerick City in Ireland. The school is one of the five constituent schools of Limerick Institute of Technology and operates on two of LIT's campuses in Limerick City, located on Clare Street and George's Quay; both are about 2KM from...
.
At the 2009 BAFTAs, Mickey Rourke
Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....
dedicated his Best Actor award to Harris, calling him a "good friend, and great actor."
Academy Awards
- 1963 – Nominated – Best Actor in a Leading RoleAcademy Award for Best ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
– This Sporting LifeThis Sporting LifeThis Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting... - 1990 – Nominated – Best Actor in a Leading RoleAcademy Award for Best ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
– The FieldThe FieldThe Field is a play written by John B. Keane, first performed in 1965. It tells the story of the hardened farmer "Bull" McCabe and his love for the land he rents. The play debuted at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 1965, with Ray McAnally as "The Bull" and Eamon Keane as "The Bird" O'Donnell. The play...
Golden Globes
- 1968 – Won – Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy – CamelotCamelot (film)Camelot is a 1967 film adaptation of the musical of the same name. Richard Harris stars as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan.-Plot:...
- 1991 – Nominated – Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama – The Field
Grammy Awards
- – Won – Best Spoken Word Recording for Jonathan Livingston SeagullJonathan Livingston SeagullJonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach, is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection...
– 1973 - – Nominated – Album of the Year for A Tramp Shining – 1968
- – Nominated – Contemporary Pop Male Vocalist for MacArthur Park- 1968
- – Nominated – Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording for The Prophet – 1975
Albums
- Camelot (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1967)
- A Tramp ShiningA Tramp ShiningA Tramp Shining is an album by Richard Harris, released in 1968. Harris teamed with singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb for this album. Although Harris sang many numbers on the soundtrack album to the film musical Camelot in the previous year, A Tramp Shining became his first solo album. Jimmy Webb wrote...
(1968) - The Yard Went On ForeverThe Yard Went On ForeverThe Yard Went On Forever is an album by Richard Harris released in 1968. The songs were written, arranged, and produced by Jimmy Webb. The album was released by Dunhill Records .-Critical reception:...
(1968) - My Boy (1971)
- The Richard Harris Love Album (1972)
- Slides (1972)
- His Greatest Performances (1973)
- Jonathan Livingston SeagullJonathan Livingston SeagullJonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach, is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection...
(1973) - The Prophet (1974)
- I, in the Membership of My Days (1974)
- Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast recording) (1982)
Singles
- "Here in My Heart (Theme from This Sporting LifeThis Sporting LifeThis Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting...
)" (1963) - "MacArthur ParkMacArthur Park (song)"MacArthur Park" is a song by Jimmy Webb, originally composed as part of an intended cantata. The song was initially rejected by The Association. Richard Harris was the first to record it, in 1968; the song was subsequently covered by numerous artists. Among the best-known covers are Donna Summer's...
" (1968) - "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 BoyMy Boy"My Boy" is the title of a popular song from the early 1970s. The music was composed by Jean Bourtayre and Claude Francois , and the lyrics were translated from the original version "Parce que je t'aime, mon enfant" into English by Phil Coulter and Bill Martin.-Richard Harris version:Actor Richard...
" (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 TravelsGulliver's TravelsTravels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
)" (1977)
CD releases and compilations
- Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast Recording) (1988)
- Mack the Knife (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1989)
- TommyTommyTommy is a given name that is usually the English diminutive of Thomas. The name also could refer to:- People with the given name Tommy :* Tommy Alcedo , Venezuelan road cyclist* Tommy G...
(studio recording) (1990) - 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)