Actors - Richard Harris

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	Actors - Richard Harris

Richard St. John Harris (October 1, 1930 – October 25, 2002) was an Irish actor, singer and songwriter. He appeared in Camelot (1967), A Man Called Horse
(1970) and, at the end of his career, the first two Harry Potter movies. He was a notorious playboy and drinker, part of a rowdy generation of talented Irish and British actors that included Albert Finney, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole.

Biography

Harris was born in Limerick, Ireland, one of nine children of farmer Ivan Harris and Mildred Harris (nee Harty). He was schooled by the Jesuits at Crescent School (now Crescent College) and Sacred Heart Jesuit College. A talented rugby player, he was on several Munster Junior and Senior Cup teams for Crescent, and played for the well-respected Garryowen club. He may have gone on to become a provincial or international-standard rugby player, but his athletic career was cut short when he contracted tuberculosis in his teens. He remained an ardent fan of Munster provincial rugby team until his death, attending many matches, and there are numerous stories of japes at rugby matches with fellow actors and rugby fans Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton.

After recovering from the disease he moved to London, wanting to become a director. He could not find any suitable courses and enrolled in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) to learn acting. While still a student, Harris rented the tiny "off-West End" Irving Theatre, and directed his own production of the Clifford Odets play Winter Journey (The Country Girl). The show was a critical success, but a financial failure, and Harris lost all his savings on the venture. As a result, he ended up temporarily homeless, sleeping in a coal cellar for six weeks.

After completing his studies at the Academy, Harris joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. He began getting roles in London stage productions, starting with The Quare Fellow in 1956.

In 1957, he married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, daughter of David Rees-Williams; they were divorced in 1969, and Elizabeth married another actor, Rex Harrison. Their three children are actor Jared Harris, actor Jamie Harris (born Tudor St. John Harris, but known as Jamie since childhood), and director Damian Harris (who has a son named Marlowe, born 2002, with Australian actress Peta Wilson).

Richard Harris married secondly the American actress Ann Turkel, who was 16 years his junior, but that marriage also ended in divorce.

Harris made his film debut in 1958 in the film Alive and Kicking. He had a memorable cameo in The Guns of Navarone
as an Australian air force pilot who reports that blowing up the "bloody guns" of the title is impossible by air. For his role in Mutiny on the Bounty
, despite being virtually unknown, he insisted on third billing, behind Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando. His first star turn was in the 1963 film This Sporting Life
, as a bitter young coal miner who becomes an acclaimed rugby player. He also won acclaim and notice for his leading role (with Charlton Heston) in Sam Peckinpah's famous "lost masterpiece" Major Dundee
(1965), as an Irish immigrant-turned-Confederate cavalryman during the US Civil War.

He appeared as King Arthur in the film adaptation of Camelot (in which he was cast despite his limited singing range, just like Richard Burton), and proceeded to appear on stage in that role for years. He recorded several albums, one of which included the seven-minute hit song "MacArthur Park" (which Harris mispronounced as "MacArthur's Park"); that song reached #2 on the United States Billboard magazine pop chart, while topping several charts in Europe, in the summer of 1968.

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Actors - Richard Harris

Biography

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