Richard Harris

Biography

Richard St John Francis Harris (October 1, 1930 – October 25, 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert, Frank Machin in This Sporting Life, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and as King Arthur in the 1967 film Camelot, as well as the 1981 revival of the stage musical. He played an English aristocrat captured by the Sioux in A Man Called Horse (1970), Oliver Cromwell in Cromwell (1970), an embattled Irish farmer in Jim Sheridan's The Field (which earned him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor), English Bob in Clint Eastwood's revisionist Western Unforgiven (1992), Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) as Abbé Faria, and 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), the latter of which was his final film role. Harris had a number-one singing hit in Australia, Jamaica and Canada, and a top-ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park". In 2020, he was listed at number 3 on The Irish Times's list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Known For

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

as Albus Dumbledore

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

as Albus Dumbledore

Gladiator

as Marcus Aurelius

Unforgiven

as English Bob

The Count of Monte Cristo

as Abbé Faria

Patriot Games

as Paddy O'Neil

The Guns of Navarone

as Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby RAAF

Red Desert

as Corrado Zeller

Orca

as Captain Nolan

Mutiny on the Bounty

as Seaman John Mills