The Hindu : Richard Harris is dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 27, 2002

International

International

Richard Harris is dead

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON OCT. 26. Richard Harris, was one of Britain's most popular cinema actors and familiar to children around the world for his role as Professor Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, died here on Friday of Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer. He was 72.

Mr. Harris, whose off-screen actions got him as much attention as his on-screen performances, displayed a penchant for one-liners long before the age of the soundbite arrived, once admitting that he had acted "in some bloody awful films... but who's counting, it was fun.''

He also famously lamented that in his long film and stage career, he was miscast only twice and on both occasions as a husband. In real life, he blamed himself for his two divorces. Mr. Harris was taken ill in August while he was working on the second of the Potter films, "The Chamber of Secrets", which is due for release in Britain next week amid an unprecedented media hype. He not only completed it, but was looking forward to working in the third, "Prisoner of Azkaban". "He threatened to kill me if I recast him — I can't even repeat what he said to me,'' the film's director, Chris Columbus, quipped.

The pre-Potter generation, however, would remember Mr. Harris for his performances in "The Guns of Navarone", "Mutiny on the Bounty", "Camelot", "Gladiator" and "This Sporting Life" which won him four best actor awards for his portrayal of a rugby player.

His rugged face, which he likened to "five miles of bad country road'', made him an ideal choice for physically dominating roles.

He liked action movies, and in his later years complained that the film world was full of "prima donnas'' but there was no action. He started off as a stage actor and was once mentioned in the same breath as Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney. He made his film debut with "Alive and Kicking" in 1958 at the age of 28 and never looked back.

But his heavy drinking and wild life style ("he would go out to buy a packet of cigarettes and not come back for a fortnight,'' one critic remarked) took its toll on his career.

It took him some years to stage a comeback, a revival, which led him to give some outstanding performances including his portrayal of headmaster of "Hogwarts College of Witchcraft" in the Harry Potter series.

In a warm tribute, Clint Eastwood recalled him as "a slightly mad Irishman and a truly gifted performer''.

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