Born in Limerick, Ireland, on October 1, Richard Harris trained at
the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and was a graduate of
Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. He appeared in a number of British
films during the late 1950s, debuting with Shake Hands with the Devil
(1959), and was often associated with Irish related subjects. His performance
as Frank Machin in This
Sporting Life (1963) gave him international recognition, a Best
Actor award from Cannes and an Oscar nomination. A landmark performance
in the British New Wave, his representation of masculinity owes more
to the individualism of the American Method school than to the social
naturalism of Albert Finney. It was a level
of performance he did not repeat, though it revealed a current of masochism
in Harris' career (and his life) which he drew on more graphically in
A Man Called Horse (1970).
He sang semi-tunefully as King Arthur opposite Vanessa Redgrave in
Joshua Logan's Camelot (1970), but Harris's career in the 1970s and
1980s became more marked for its boozy scandals than for his acting.
Due to the lack of appealing film offers and a series of flops Harris
decided to quit films entirely during the early 1980s. Since his recent
return to Ireland, however, he has won an Oscar nomination for his part
in Jim Sheridan's The Field (1990), was memorably masochistic in Clint
Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992), and played the war-weary Emperor Marcus
Aurelius in Gladiator (2000). Latterly, Harris found a new generation
of fans thanks to his screen portrayal of Harry Potter's wise old mentor
and professor Dumbledore in Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).
