How getting struck down with tuberculosis as a boy set Richard Harris on way to become Ireland’s first global superstar
RICHARD Harris was the star of over 70 movies including blockbusters Camelot, Julius Caesar, Gladiator, The Field, and Harry Potter.
The Limerick-born actor was Ireland’s first global superstar, a dashing drunk and notorious hell-raiser. He won a Golden Globe and was nominated for two Oscars.
The larger-than-life actor is the subject of a new documentary airing on TG4 on New Year’s Day.
Born in 1930 Richard was one of eight children. The son of a mill owner expected to take over the family business and a keen rugby player, the trajectory of his life was changed when he was struck down with tuberculosis at 15.
He recalled: “I was three years confined to bed, and then I began to study and read.
“I read an awful lot. I devoured books. I studied acting and Stanislavski and that. And I invented hundreds of people coming in and talking, and I was King of England or the Pope, or whatever.”
LONDON BOUND
By 24 ‘Dickie’ had traveled to London to enter drama school and blagged his first acclaimed role on the stage as Mixer in Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fella.
In 1959 he landed his first role in a feature film, a role that brought him back to Ireland for the film Alive and Kicking. Richard’s breakthrough performance was in rugby drama This Sporting Life in 1963.
Clint Eastwood recalled: “I first saw him in This Sporting Life, years ago, a small little film but he shined in it.
“It was a good film, and that got him going again and that got him into loads of stuff.”
Richard won the best actor at Cannes for his role, and his performance earned him an Oscar nod.
Clint remembered how Richard thought he was pulling his leg when he called to offer him a part.
He said: “I had this part in Unforgiven and I thought I would like to see if he would do it.
“He was living down in the Bahamas or somewhere and I called his house and he comes on the line, and he says: ‘Who is this?’
“I said: ‘This is Clint Eastwood, Richard, I would love to have you in this picture I am doing.’
“He said: ‘Who is this really? Is this Joe, or is this Mike?’
“He thought it was someone playing a gag on him. I said: ‘I’ll send you a script’, he said: ‘I don’t need a script – count me in.’
BECOMING A HELLRAISER
Over the coming years, he appeared in many films, including the WWII commando tale The Heroes of Telemark and in the western Major Dundee.
He played King Arthur in Camelot and shone as a reluctant police informer in The Molly Maguires alongside Sean Connery.
As the 70s went on, however, the quality of his films varied and his star was on the wane.
He was drinking to excess and had a rep for being mouthy.
Robert Duvall said: “He said to me he stopped having fun when he stopped drinking, and he had more fun when he was drinking. But he had to stop for his health and everything. He was a wild boozer.”
However, Richard got a third act comeback in the latter half of his life and with it came his second Oscar nod for The Field.
But, he wasn’t the first choice to play ‘Bull’. He was sent the script to play a priest but said: “So I read it, I said: ‘Look, if you’re going to make a movie of Macbeth, you’d don’t ask me to play Banquo.
“If you make Lear, you don’t ask me to play Gloucester. I play Lear. I play Macbeth. I knew from the beginning I was going to play it, I started growing the beard straightaway.”
Jim Sheridan remembers working with the whirlwind actor describing him as “wild.”
He said: “He was eccentric in many ways, hard if you are directing. He was just f**king wild and he’d do wild things.”
But added: “He is monumental in the movie when I think about it now. It doesn’t feel like a part that is structured.
"Like somebody has worked out how they are going to play it. It’s just this f**king lunatic turns up and he is as mad as the character.”
GRAVELY ILL
Richard got an Oscar nod for the film and was suddenly back in demand.
He went on to star in Unforgiven, as well as The Patriot Games and Gladiator.
However, in 2002 shortly after filming his role as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harris became seriously ill.
He died of Hodgkin’s disease in October 2002, aged 72.
Dearg Film’s Brian Reddin said he made the documentary because he wanted to make sure people remembered the behemoth actor.
He said: “I am a huge fan of Richard Harris. I grew up watching his movies and loved films like A Man Called Horse and The Wild Geese.
"It was only later that I discovered his earlier work and when I saw his raw performance in This Sporting Life, I was blown away.
"I wanted to make sure people remembered what a fine actor he was and what an amazing character he was. It would be a shame if people only remembered him as Dumbledore. There was so much more to his career.”
And he said we will never see the likes of Richard again, not least because of his bad behaviour.
He said: “Hollywood has become too sanitised.
“Harris spoke his mind and never cared what anyone thought. He fought with his co-stars and then slagged them off.
Most read in showbiz
“He was a brilliant chat show guest because he had such brilliant stories and he didn’t care who he spoke about.
“Nowadays he would be followed by a publicist and an agent who would gag him every time he opened his mouth.
“The public is less forgiving of bad behaviour so the likes of Harris could not exist in today’s Hollywood. Nobody would tolerate it. He was a one-off.”
