Richard Harris
Irish actor and singer (1930–2002)
- Born October 1, 1930
- 16 movies
Richard Harris (1 October 1930 to 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer from Limerick. After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, he broke through in This Sporting Life (1963), which won him Best Actor at Cannes and the first of two Oscar nominations. He played King Arthur in Camelot, had a hit record with MacArthur Park, and late in life found new audiences in Unforgiven, Gladiator and as Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films.
Richard Harris appears in 16 films in The Rerun, from 1961 to 2002. Most of that work is in drama, action and history. Frequent collaborators in The Rerun: Chris Columbus (2), Rupert Grint (2), John Cleese (2), Daniel Radcliffe (2), Emma Watson (2).
Known for
- This Sporting Life (1963). Earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.
- Camelot (1967), King Arthur. Won him the Golden Globe Award for best actor in a musical or comedy.
- Unforgiven (1992).
- Gladiator (2000).
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), Albus Dumbledore. He played Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films.
Career
Lindsay Anderson cast him as a working-class rugby league player in This Sporting Life, one of the defining films of the British New Wave, and the performance brought the Cannes acting prize plus Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Hollywood followed: he sang his own songs as Arthur in Camelot (1967), opposite Vanessa Redgrave, and his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park” became an unlikely Top 10 hit. A Man Called Horse (1970) gave him another lead.
A second Best Actor nomination came for The Field (1990). Clint Eastwood then cast him as the preening gunman English Bob in Unforgiven (1992), and Ridley Scott made him the ageing emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000). He played Dumbledore in the first two Potter films and died in October 2002, before the third went into production.
Where to start
- Unforgiven (1992): a short, vivid turn that punctures the myth of the gentleman gunfighter.
- Gladiator (2000): brief screen time, but the moral weight of the film rests on him.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001): a gentle, twinkling Dumbledore that shaped how a generation pictured the character.
Also worth finding: This Sporting Life (1963) and The Field (1990), the two Oscar-nominated performances.
Movies
Quick answers
- What movies and TV shows has Richard Harris been in?
- Richard Harris appears in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), Gladiator (2000), Unforgiven (1992), Patriot Games (1992), Robin and Marian (1976), The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Cromwell (1970), Camelot (1967), Hawaii (1966), The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) and The Heroes of Telemark (1965) on The Remote.
- When was Richard Harris born?
- Richard Harris was born on 1 October 1930.
Before you go