A sporting life, 1930-2002
Richard Harris, who died on Friday, was born in Limerick City, one of the few places in Ireland where the game of rugby, normally associated with the country's elite schools, transcends class barriers. He was a noted second-row forward for Garryowen, and was tipped to line out for Ireland, before tuberculosis landed him in bed for two years, and put an end to his playing career. Rugby accounted for some of Harris's nine broken noses, but it also helped him hit the big time in 1963 when he starred as Frank Machin in This Sporting Life.
Archer Winsten, writing in The New York Post, called it "a great, indelibly memorable performance". In the film, Harris is an athletic coal miner determined to play professional rugby. He establishes himself as one of the most brutal players in the business and quickly amasses a fortune. But at what price? Director Lindsay Anderson's thesis is that an individual must look within himself in order to change his lot in life; by the end of the film, Frank looks within himself at long last.
Nominated for an Oscar, Harris rapidly became a major Hollywood name, playing opposite the likes of Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston and Julie Andrews. Box office hits such as Hawaii, Camelot, A Man Called Horse, and The Molly Maguires followed, but the actor who loved the stage remained cynical about the big screen: "I hate movies," he once said. "They're a waste of time. I could be in a pub having more fun talking to idiots rather than sitting down and watching idiots perform." Always astringent about his fellow actors, he once said of Michael Caine, "He makes films you wouldn't rent on video."
Off screen, Harris was famous for his drinking, fighting, womanising and drug taking. Along with fellow debauchers Richard Burton, Oliver Reed and Peter O'Toole, he made scandalous headlines in the '60s and '70s while doing enormous damage to his health. Remarkably, he still managed to make commercially successful films, invest astutely in property and record a million-selling song, MacArthur Park.
In 1991, Harris got his second Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in The Field, an adaptation of John B. Keane's landmark play about the endless Irish hunger for land. For many years Bull McCabe (Harris) has cultivated a small patch of rented ground, turning barren rock into a fertile field. Now, however, the widow who owns the land plans to sell it. The tyrannical Bull shows up at the auction, certain in his belief that no one will dare bid against him. But he has not reckoned with a wealthy Irish-American (Tom Berenger), who intends to build on the land and bring new industry to the area. The Bull sends his son (Sean Bean) to "persuade" the American to withdraw his bid but things go horribly wrong. The obsession with land begets tragedy and madness.
Two years ago, Harris played Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator. Some critics thought he might earn yet another Academy Award nomination, but he did not. Most recently, he starred in the Harry Potter films as Professor Albus Dumbledore.
Richard Harris, 1930-2002, player, actor and character: "I swim in a pool of my own neurosis," he told a Hollywood reporter. "I carry love, grief, wrath deeply, like an Irishman."
