Richard Harris

Harris was born on 1 October 1930, at Overdale, 8 Landsdown Villas, Ennis Road, Limerick,{{cite web|title=Overdale, 8 Landsdown Villas, Ennis Road, LIMERICK MUNICIPAL BOROUGH, Limerick, LIMERICK|url=https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21512030/overdale-8-landsdown-villas-ennis-road-limerick-limerick-city|website=Buildings of Ireland}}{{Cite news |date=27 October 2002 |title=He was one of the most outstanding film stars of his time |url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/harris-was-one-of-the-most--outstanding-film-stars-of-his-time-504644.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414205509/http://www.independent.ie/national-news/harris-was-one-of-the-most--outstanding-film-stars-of-his-time-504644.html |archive-date=April 14, 2008 |access-date=10 December 2007 |work=Irish Independent}}{{cite news |last=Severo |first=Richard |title=Richard Harris, Versatile And Volatile Star, 72, Dies |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E2D91E3CF935A15753C1A9649C8B63 |work=The New York Times |date=26 October 2002 |access-date=10 December 2007}} and was the fifth in a family of eight children, (six boys and two girls), to flour merchant Ivan Harris and Mildred (née Harty). Overdale was "a tall, elegant, early 19th-century redbrick" house with nine bedrooms, in a wealthy part of Limerick, the houses "built at the turn of the 20th century for Limerick's burgeoning middle class... people who could afford properly grand drawing rooms, a bedroom each for the children and one for the pot, plus space for a few servants".{{cite news |title=Richard Harris's Limerick childhood home for €785k |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/new-to-market/richard-harris-s-limerick-childhood-home-for-785k-1.3686875 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=8 November 2018 |access-date=2 November 2022}}{{cite web |title=Living on a grand scale just a short hop from Limerick city |url=https://www.independent.ie/life/home-garden/homes/living-on-a-grand-scale-just-a-short-hop-from-limerick-city-41112948.html |website=Irish Independent |date=3 December 2021 |access-date=2 November 2022}} He was educated by the Jesuits at Crescent College. A talented rugby union player, he appeared on several Munster Junior and Senior Cup teams for Crescent, and played for Garryowen.{{cite web |title=Limerick rugby full of heroes |url=http://wesclark.com/rrr/harris_rugby_article.html |website=Wesclark.com |date=24 May 2002 |access-date=8 November 2011}} Harris's 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 until his death, attending many of their matches, and there are numerous stories of japes at rugby matches with 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 enrolled to learn acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.{{cite web|url= https://www.lamda.ac.uk/students-alumni/acting-alumni |title= Meet our LAMDA Acting Alumni |website= lamda.ac.uk |access-date= June 13, 2025}} He had failed an audition at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and had been rejected by the Central School of Speech and Drama, because they felt he was too old at 24.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/richard-harris-615104.html]{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} While still a student, he rented the tiny "off-West End" Irving Theatre, and there directed his production of Clifford Odets's play Winter Journey (The Country Girl).

After completing his studies at the academy, he 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. He spent nearly a decade in obscurity, learning his profession on stages throughout the UK.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2361801.stm |title=Entertainment | Obituary: Richard Harris |work=BBC News |date=25 October 2002 |access-date=10 November 2012}}

Harris made his film debut in 1959 in the film Alive and Kicking, and played the lead role in The Ginger Man in the West End in 1959. In his second film, he had a small role as an IRA Volunteer in Shake Hands with the Devil (1959), supporting James Cagney. The film was shot in Ireland and directed by Michael Anderson who offered Harris a role in his next movie, The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959), shot in Hollywood.

Harris played another IRA Volunteer in A Terrible Beauty (1960), alongside Robert Mitchum. He had a memorable bit part in the film The Guns of Navarone (1961) 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. He had a larger part in The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961), playing a British soldier; Harris clashed with Laurence Harvey and Richard Todd during filming. For his role in the film Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), despite being virtually unknown to film audiences, Harris reportedly insisted on third billing, behind Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando, an actor he greatly admired. However, Harris fell out with Brando over the latter's behaviour during the film's production.

Harris's first starring role was in the film This Sporting Life (1963), as a bitter young coal miner, Frank Machin, who becomes an acclaimed rugby league football player. It was based on the novel by David Storey and directed by Lindsay Anderson. For his role, Harris won Best Actor in 1963 at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination. Harris followed this with a leading role in the Italian film, Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Deserto Rosso (Red Desert, 1964). This won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Harris received an offer to support Kirk Douglas in a British war film, The Heroes of Telemark (1965), directed by Anthony Mann, playing a Norwegian resistance leader. He then went to Hollywood to support Charlton Heston in Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965), as an Irish immigrant who became a Confederate cavalryman during the American Civil War. He played Cain in John Huston's film The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966). More successful at the box office was Hawaii (1966), in which Harris starred alongside Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow.

As a change of pace, he was the romantic lead in a Doris Day spy spoof comedy, Caprice (1967), directed by Frank Tashlin. Harris next performed the role of King Arthur in the film adaptation of the musical play Camelot (1967). Critic Roger Ebert described the casting of Harris and Vanessa Redgrave as "about the best King Arthur and Queen Guenevere I can imagine".{{cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/camelot-1967|title= Camelot movie review|website= rogerebert.com|access-date= 25 May 2020}} Harris revived the role on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre from 15 November 1981 to 2 January 1982, and broadcast on HBO a year later. Starring Meg Bussert as Guenevere, Richard Muenz as Lancelot and Thor Fields as Tom of Warwick. Harris, who had starred in the film, and Muenz also took the show on tour nationwide.{{cite web|url=https://www.playbill.com/article/richard-harris-king-arthur-of-camelot-on-stage-and-screen-dead-at-72-com-109167|title= Richard Harris, King Arthur of Camelot on Stage and Screen, Dead at 72|website= Playbill.com|date= 25 October 2002|access-date= 25 May 2020}}

In The Molly Maguires (1970), he played James McParland, the detective who infiltrates the title organisation, headed by Sean Connery. It was a box office flop. However A Man Called Horse (1970), with Harris in the title role, an 1825 English aristocrat who is captured by Native Americans, was a major success. He played the title role in the film Cromwell in 1970 opposite Alec Guinness as King Charles I of England. That year British exhibitors voted him the 9th-most popular star at the UK box office.{{cite news|title=Paul Newman Britain's favourite star|work=The Times|location=London, England|date=31 December 1970|page=9|via=The Times Digital Archive}}

In 1971 Harris starred in a BBC TV film adaptation The Snow Goose, from a screenplay by Paul Gallico. It won a Golden Globe for Best Movie made for TV and was nominated for both a BAFTA and an Emmy.{{cite book|title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present|year=2003|publisher=Ballantine Books|isbn=0-345-45542-8|page=1422}} and was shown in the U.S. as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. He made his directorial debut with Bloomfield (1971) and starred in Man in the Wilderness (1971), a revisionist Western based on the Hugh Glass story.

File:Orca (1977) trailer - Richard Harris 3.png]]

Harris starred in a Western for Samuel Fuller, Riata, which stopped production several weeks into filming. The project was re-assembled with a new director and cast, except for Harris, who returned: The Deadly Trackers (1973). In 1973, Harris published a book of poetry, I, In the Membership of My Days, which was later reissued in part in an audio LP format, augmented by self-penned songs such as "I Don't Know".

Harris starred in two thrillers: 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974), for John Frankenheimer, and Juggernaut (1974), for Richard Lester. In Echoes of a Summer (1976) he played the father of a young girl with a terminal illness. He had a cameo as Richard the Lionheart in Robin and Marian (1976), for Lester, then was in The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976). Harris led the all-star cast in the train disaster film The Cassandra Crossing (1976). He played Gulliver in the part-animated Gulliver's Travels (1977) and was reunited with Michael Anderson in Orca (1977), battling a killer whale.

File:Richard Harris and Jenny Agutter (1971).jpg in The Snow Goose (1971)]]

He appeared in another action film, Golden Rendezvous (1977), based on a novel by Alistair Maclean, shot in South Africa. Harris was sued by the film's producer for his drinking; Harris counter-sued for defamation and the matter was settled out of court.{{cite news|title=Actor Harris linked to scandal in South Africa|work=Chicago Tribune|date=22 November 1978|page=a6}} Golden Rendezvous was a flop but The Wild Geese (1978), where Harris played one of several mercenaries, was a big success outside America.{{cite news|title=Richard Harris: Ain't Misbehavin'|author=Mann, Roderick|work=Los Angeles Times|date=14 March 1978|page=e8}} Ravagers (1979) was more action, set in a post-apocalyptic world. Game for Vultures (1979) was set in Rhodesia and shot in South Africa.

In Hollywood he appeared in The Last Word (1979), then supported Bo Derek in Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981). He made a film in Canada, Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid (1981), a drama about impotence. He followed it with another Canadian film, Highpoint, a movie so bad it was not released for several years.

For a while in the 1980s, Harris went into semi-retirement on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas, where he kicked his drinking habit and embraced a healthier lifestyle. It had a beneficial effect. Harris's career was revived by his success on stage in Camelot, and powerful performance in the West End run of Pirandello's Henry IV.{{cite news|title=Richard Harris obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/oct/28/guardianobituaries.arts|agency=Associated Press |work=The Guardian|date=28 October 2002 |access-date=3 October 2020}}

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1990, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel during the curtain call of the Pirandello's play Henry IV at the Wyndham's Theatre in London.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} Over several years in the late 1980s, Harris worked with Irish author Michael Feeney Callan on his biography, which was published by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1990. His film work during this period included: Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1983), Martin's Day (1985), Strike Commando 2 (1988), King of the Wind (1990) and Mack the Knife (1990) (a film version of The Threepenny Opera in which he played J.J. Peachum ) plus the TV film version of Maigret, opposite Barbara Shelley. This indicated declining popularity which Harris told his biographer, Michael Feeney Callan, he was "utterly reconciled to".

In June 1989, director Jim Sheridan cast Harris in the lead role in The Field, written by the esteemed Irish playwright John B. Keane. The lead role of "Bull" McCabe was to be played by former Abbey Theatre actor Ray McAnally. When McAnally died suddenly on 15 June 1989, Harris was offered the McCabe role. The Field was released in 1990 and earned Harris his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He lost to Jeremy Irons for Reversal of Fortune. In 1992, Harris had a supporting role in the film Patriot Games. He had good roles in Unforgiven (1992), Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993) and Silent Tongue (1994). He played the title role in Abraham (1994) and had the lead in Cry, the Beloved Country (1995).

A lifelong supporter of Jesuit education principles,{{cite book| last = Callan| first = Michael Feeney| title = Richard Harris: Sex, Death and the Movies| year = 2004| publisher = Robson Books| location = London| isbn = 978-1-86105-766-2| page = 212}} Harris established a friendship with University of Scranton President Rev. J. A. Panuska{{cite news|title=Harris Welcomed at U.S. University |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DBMgAAAAIBAJ&pg=3997,2116635&dq=richard+harris+university+of+scranton&hl=en |agency=Associated Press |publisher=Lewistown Journal |date=18 November 1987 |access-date=3 December 2011}} and raised funds for a scholarship for Irish students established in honour of his brother and manager, Dermot, who had died the previous year of a heart attack.{{cite news|title=Richard Harris Establishes Scholarship Fund in Scranton |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r65PAAAAIBAJ&pg=4159,4546554&dq=richard+harris+university+of+scranton&hl=en |work=Ocala Star-Banner |date=9 May 1987 |access-date=3 December 2011}} He chaired acting workshops and cast the university's production of Julius Caesar in November 1987.

Harris appeared in two films which won the Academy Award for Best Picture: firstly as the gunfighter "English Bob" in the revisionist Western Unforgiven (1992); secondly as the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000). He also played a lead role alongside James Earl Jones in the Darrell Roodt film adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). In 1999, Harris starred in the film To Walk with Lions. After Gladiator, Harris played the supporting role of Albus Dumbledore in the first two of the Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002),{{cite web|url=https://www.insider.com/photos-harry-potter-movie-cast-then-and-now|title=THEN AND NOW: The cast of the 'Harry Potter' films 20 years later|first=Andrew|last=LaSane|website=Insider}} the latter of which was his final film role.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-eNIY9DSaAC&dq=%22richard+harris%22+chamber+secrets+final&pg=PT486|title=ReelViews: The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video|first=James|last=Berardinelli|date=1 February 2003|publisher=Justin, Charles & Co.|isbn=978-1-932112-06-1|via=Google Books}} Harris portrayed Abbé Faria in Kevin Reynolds' film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). The film Kaena: The Prophecy (2003) was dedicated to him posthumously as he had voiced the character Opaz before his death.

Harris hesitated to take the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) owing to the multi-film commitment and his declining health, but he ultimately accepted because, according to his account of the story, his 11-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he did not take it.The Late Show With David Letterman interview, 2001 In an interview with the Toronto Star in 2001, Harris expressed his concern that his association with the Harry Potter films would outshine the rest of his career. He explained, "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."{{cite web|author=Kristin |url=http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2003/7/9/on-richard-harris |title=On Richard Harris The Leaky Cauldron |date=9 July 2003 |publisher=The-leaky-cauldron.org |access-date=8 November 2011}}

Harris also made part of the Bible TV movie project filmed as a cinema production for the TV, a project produced by Lux Vide Italy with the collaboration of RAI and Channel 5 of France,{{cite web|url=http://www.luxvide.it/en/productions.php?categoria2=4|title=Bible Project for TV|access-date=7 April 2016|archive-date=17 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317033417/http://luxvide.it/en/productions.php?categoria2=4|url-status=dead}} and premiered in the United States in the channel TNT in the 1990s. He portrayed the main and title character in the production Abraham (1993) as well as Saint John of Patmos in the 2000 TV film production Apocalypse.

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").Fresh Air interview with Jimmy Webb by Terry Gross on NPR, 2004 This song was written by Jimmy Webb, and it reached number 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.{{cite book| last = Murrells| first = Joseph| title = The Book of Golden Discs| url = https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr| url-access = registration| edition = 2nd| year = 1978| publisher = Barrie and Jenkins Ltd| location = London| isbn = 978-0-214-20512-5| page = 241| access-date = 8 November 2011 }} In 2024, "MacArthur Park" was featured in the wedding sequence of the Tim Burton film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.{{Cite web |date=2024-09-07 |title=What Is The Wedding Song In ’Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’? |url=https://uproxx.com/indie/what-is-the-wedding-song-in-beetlejuice-beetlejuice/ |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=UPROXX |language=en-US}} A second album, also consisting entirely of music composed by Webb, The Yard Went on Forever, was released in 1969.Album liner notes for "Richard Harris – the Webb Sessions 1968–1969" In the 1973 TV special "Burt Bacharach in Shangri-La", after singing Webb's "Didn't We", Harris tells Bacharach that since he was not a trained singer he approached songs as an actor concerned with words and emotions, acting the song with the sort of honesty the song is trying to convey. Then he proceeds to sing "If I Could Go Back", from the Lost Horizon soundtrack.

File:Richard Harris, actor, and wife Ann Turkel.jpg in 1977]]

In 1957, Harris married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, daughter of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore. They had three children: director Damian Harris, and actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris. Harris and Rees-Williams divorced in 1969, after which Elizabeth married Rex Harrison. Harris's second marriage was to the American actress Ann Turkel in 1974. They divorced in 1982.{{cite web |title=Ann Turkel. Hello! magazine article |url=http://www.annturkel.com/hello-magazine/ |website=annturkel.com |access-date=8 December 2021}}

Harris was a member of the Knights of Malta.{{cite news |last1=Hanauer |first1=Joan |title=Harris Knighted - UPI Archives |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/06/10/HARRIS-KNIGHTED/2317360993600/ |access-date=5 October 2023 |work=UPI |agency=United Press International |date=10 June 1981 |language=en}}

Harris paid £75,000 for William Burges' Tower House in Holland Park in 1968, after discovering that the American entertainer Liberace had arranged to buy the house but had not yet put down a deposit.{{cite book|author=Cliff Goodwin|title=Behaving Badly: Richard Harris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RI-FAj0F7EYC&pg=PT175|access-date=21 June 2012|date=31 May 2011|publisher=Ebury Publishing|isbn=978-0-7535-4651-2|pages=175–}}{{cite book|author=Caroline Dakers|title=The Holland Park Circle: Artists and Victorian Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCg7HL0z9PwC&pg=PA276|access-date=28 June 2012|date=11 December 1999|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-08164-0|pages=276–}} Harris employed the original decorators, Campbell Smith & Company Ltd., to carry out extensive restoration work on the interior.

Harris was a vocal supporter of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) from 1973 until 1984.{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-wxCwq4u4EC&pg=PA267|title=Richard Harris: Sex, Death and the Movies|year=2004|author=Michael Feeney Callan|page=267|publisher=Pavilion Books |isbn=978-1-86105-766-2}} In January 1984, remarks he made on the previous month's Harrods bombing caused great controversy, after which he discontinued his support for the PIRA.{{cite news|title=Richard Harris Says IRA Has A Just Cause|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4apPAAAAIBAJ&pg=5329%2C4273635|access-date=17 September 2013|newspaper=Star-Banner|date=24 January 1984}}{{cite news|title=Richard Harris ducking IRA "bombs"|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GNYlAAAAIBAJ&pg=6372%2C5324388|access-date=17 September 2013|newspaper=The Gettysburg Times|date=25 November 1988}}

At the height of his stardom in the 1960s and early 1970s, Harris was almost as well known for his hellraiser lifestyle and heavy drinking as he was for his acting career. He was a longtime alcoholic until he became a teetotaller in 1981. Nevertheless, he did resume drinking Guinness a decade later.{{cite web |last=Cripps |first=Ed |title=The Glory Days of the Hellraiser |url=https://therake.com/stories/icons/glory-days-hellraiser-richard-harris/ |website=The Rake |date=1 September 2016 |access-date=8 December 2021}} He gave up drugs after almost dying from a cocaine overdose in 1978.

Harris was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in August 2002, reportedly after being hospitalised with pneumonia.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2225585.stm |title=Entertainment | Harris's Potter role unaffected by illness |publisher=BBC News |date=30 August 2002 |access-date=10 November 2012}} He died at University College Hospital in Bloomsbury, London, on 25 October 2002, aged 72.{{cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/richard-harris-dies-20021026-gdfrhy.html |title=Richard Harris dies |date=26 October 2002 |access-date=4 August 2018 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald}} Harris quipped "It was the food!" as he was wheeled out of the Savoy Hotel for the last time.{{cite web |last=deBurca Butler |first=Jonathan |title=Remembering Richard Harris – Bull, bard and boozing silverscreen superstar |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/remembering-richard-harris-bull-bard-and-boozing-silverscreen-superstar-36247119.html |website=Irish Independent |date=23 October 2017 |access-date=2 November 2022}} Harris spent his final three days in a coma.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20138440,00.html |title=Lionhearted – Death, Richard Harris |magazine=People |date=26 May 2014 |access-date=19 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204043234/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20138440,00.html |archive-date=4 February 2015 }} Harris's body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in The Bahamas, where he owned a home.

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 (2004). There were, however, concerns about insuring O'Toole for the six remaining films in the series.{{cite news |title=12 Actors Who Almost Starred In The Harry Potter Series |url=http://www.fame10.com/entertainment/12-actors-who-were-almost-cast-in-the-harry-potter-series/?streamview=all |work=Fame 10 |access-date=11 December 2016}} Harris was ultimately succeeded as Dumbledore by Michael Gambon.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9733802/Michael-Gambon-receives-Richard-Harris-Award-and-admits-...-all-I-did-was-copy-him-as-Dumbledore.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9733802/Michael-Gambon-receives-Richard-Harris-Award-and-admits-...-all-I-did-was-copy-him-as-Dumbledore.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Michael Gambon receives Richard Harris Award and admits ... all I did was copy him as Dumbledore |date=9 December 2012 |access-date=9 September 2018 |newspaper=Telegraph}}{{cbignore}} Chris Columbus, director of the first two Harry Potter films, had visited Harris during his last days and had promised not to recast Dumbledore, confident of his eventual recovery. In a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Columbus revealed that Harris was writing an autobiography during his stay at the hospital, but it has not been published since.{{Cite web |last=Perez |first=Lexy |date=11 November 2021 |title='Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' Turns 20: Director Chris Columbus Reflects on Pressures to Adapt Book and Hopes to Direct 'Cursed Child' |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/chris-columbus-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-20th-anniversary-1235034578/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111181757/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/chris-columbus-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-20th-anniversary-1235034578/ |archive-date=11 November 2021 |access-date=15 November 2021 |website=The Hollywood Reporter}}

File:Richard Harris Statue Kilkee 2007.jpg, Ireland, of the young Harris playing racquetball]]

On 30 September 2006, Manuel Di Lucia, of Kilkee, County Clare, a longtime friend, organised the placement in Kilkee of a bronze life-size statue of Richard Harris. It shows Harris at the age of eighteen playing the sport of Racquetball. (He had won the local competition three or four consecutive times during the late 1940s.) The sculptor was Seamus Connolly and the work was unveiled by Russell Crowe.{{cite web |url=http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/?c=ENTERTAINMENT&jp=cwqlsnkfidau&d=2 |work=BreakingNews.ie |date=2 October 2006 |title=Crowe pays tribute to Harris at Irish ceremony}} Harris was an accomplished squash racquets player, winning the Tivoli Cup in Kilkee four consecutive years (1948 to 1951), a record unsurpassed to this day.{{cite web|url=http://www.kilkee.ie/about_history_tivolicup.html |title=Tivoli Cup in Kilkee |publisher=kilkee.ie |access-date=21 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810075626/http://www.kilkee.ie/about_history_tivolicup.html |archive-date=10 August 2011 }}

Another life-size statue of Richard Harris, as King Arthur from his film Camelot, has been erected in Bedford Row, in the centre 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".

In 2013, Rob Gill and Zeb Moore founded the annual Richard Harris International Film Festival.{{Cite web|url=https://www.richardharrisfilmfestival.com/|title=Richard Harris International Film Festival|date=19 May 2022}}

The Richard Harris Film Festival is one of Ireland's fastest-growing film festivals, growing from just ten films in 2013 to over 115 films in 2017. Each year, one of Harris's sons attends the festival in Limerick.

In 2015, the Limerick Writers' Centre unveiled a commemorative plaque outside Charlie St George's pub on Parnell Street. The pub was a favourite drinking place of Harris on his visits to Limerick. The plaque, celebrating Harris's literary output as part of a Literary Walking Tour of Limerick, was unveiled by his son Jared Harris.{{Cite web|url=https://limerickwriterscentre.com/|title=Limerickwriters|website=Limerickwriters}}

In 1996, Harris was honoured with a commemorative Irish postage stamp for the "Centenary of Irish Cinema", a four-stamp set featuring twelve Irish actors in four Irish films.{{Cite web |title=Stamp Irish Cinema - The Field, Ireland 1996 |url=https://stampes.net/product/198055 |access-date=27 February 2023 |website=stampes.net |archive-date=27 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227141121/https://stampes.net/product/198055 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |title=The Field |url=https://connemara.irish/news/media/the-field |access-date=27 February 2023 |website=Connemara Irish |language=en}} He was again honoured in ‘Irish Abroad’ stamps in 2020.{{Cite web |author=Staff Reporter |date=27 February 2020 |title=An Post release St. Patrick's Day stamp of Richard Harris |url=https://www.limerickpost.ie/2020/02/27/an-post-release-st-patricks-day-stamp-of-richard-harris/ |access-date=27 February 2023 |website=Limerick Post Newspaper |language=en-GB}}

Ridley Scott, who directed Harris in Gladiator, would later cast Paul Mescal as Lucius Verus in Gladiator II in part because Mescal clocked a resemblance with Harris, who portrayed his character's grandfather in the original film.{{cite web |url=https://www.gq.com/story/paul-mescal-enters-the-arena-in-gladiator-ii |title=Paul Mescal Enters the Arena in Gladiator II |date=October 15, 2024 |accessdate=November 5, 2024}}

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• Camelot (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1967)
• A Tramp Shining (1968)
• The Yard Went On Forever (1968)
• The Richard Harris Love Album (1970)
• My Boy (1971)
• Slides (1972)
• Tommy (1972)
• His Greatest Performances (1973)
• The Prophet (1974) (music by Arif Mardin, based on The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran)
• I, in the Membership of My Days (1974)
• Gulliver Travels (1977)
• Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast recording) (1982)
• Mack The Knife (Original Soundtrack) (1989)
• Little Tramp (Musical) (1992)
• The Apocalypse (The Story of John the Apostle on an Island named Patmos) (2004)

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• "Here in My Heart" (Theme from This Sporting Life)" (1963)
• "How to Handle a Woman (from Camelot)" (1968)
• "MacArthur Park" (1968)
• "Didn't We?" (1968)
• "The Yard Went On Forever" (1968)
• "The Hive" (1969)
• "One of the Nicer Things" (1969)
• "Fill the World With Love" (1969)
• "Ballad of A Man Called Horse" (1970)
• "Morning of the Mourning for Another Kennedy" (1970)
• "My Boy" (1971)
• "Turning Back the Pages" (1972)
• "Half of Every Dream" (1972)
• "Go to the Mirror" (1973)
• "Trilogy (Love, Marriage, Children)" (1974)
• "The Last Castle (Theme from Echoes of a Summer)" (1976)
• "Lilliput (Theme from Gulliver's Travels)" (1977)

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• Camelot (Original 1982 London Cast Recording) (1988)
• Mack the Knife (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1989)
• Tommy (studio recording) (1990)
• Camelot (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1993)
• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2024)

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• 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)
• Man of Words Man of Music The Anthology 1968–1974 (2008)

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{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book| author = Michael Feeney Callan| author-link = Michael Feeney Callan| title = Richard Harris: Sex, Death & the Movies| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=A-wxCwq4u4EC| date = 1 December 2004| publisher = Robson Books| isbn = 978-1-86105-766-2 }}

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• {{IMDb name|1321}}
• {{tcmdb name}}
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• {{Screenonline name|466945}}
• [http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/LocalStudiesFiles/H/HarrisRichard/ Richard Harris file at Limerick City Library, Ireland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218003118/http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/LocalStudiesFiles/H/HarrisRichard/ |date=18 February 2020 }}
• [http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/10/harr-o30.html Obituary by Paul Bond] at the World Socialist Web Site

• {{cite news |title=Obituary: Richard Harris |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2361801.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=25 October 2002 |access-date=13 December 2024}}

{{Richard Harris}}

{{Navboxes

|title = Awards for Richard Harris

|list =

{{Prix d'interprétation masculine 1960–1979}}

{{European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award}}

{{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor}}

{{GoldenGlobeBestActorMotionPictureMusicalComedy 1961–1980}}

{{Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album 1970s}}

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