Actor Richard Harris dies of cancer

LONDON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Veteran actor Richard Harris, whose on-screen credits ranged from King Arthur in the hit musical "Camelot" to Professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, died of cancer Friday in a London hospital, his family said.

The Irish-born thespian, an off-screen hell-raiser with a legendary capacity for drinking, had been undergoing chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer that affects the lymph glands, after falling ill about two months ago. He was 72.

A statement by his three children said: "With great sadness, Damien, Jared and Jamie Harris announce the death of their beloved father, Richard Harris. He died peacefully at University College Hospital" on Friday evening.

Harris had long been a renowned actor who had already retired once, but he found the chance to play Professor Dumbledore irresistible -- a role which was to win him acclaim from a new generation of fans in the blockbuster movie "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," based on J.K. Rowling's tale of a boy wizard.

He had just finished work on the second in the series, "Chamber of Secrets," and had planned to return for the third, "The Prisoner of Azkaban," when he was stricken with a severe chest infection that led to the diagnosis of cancer.

Harris was not a unanimous choice for Professor Dumbledore, and he himself conceded that his off-screen antics and bouts with the bottle nearly cost him the role of Harry Potter's wise old wizard headmaster.

Nor was he overly happy with having to sign up, as the rest of the cast did, for all the movies of the seven Potter books that J.K. Rowling said she intended to write. He said he found the thought of doing seven films "intimidating."

"I'm rebellious by nature," Harris said at the time, "and I felt it could be rather difficult to handle."

Harris had ended a 10-year voluntary retirement from movies in 1990 to play Bull McCabe in "The Field," a role that brought him a best-actor Oscar nomination. He was determined to portray the aging Gaelic farmer trying to hold onto his cherished plot of land, a role for which he waited 30 years.

Harris collapsed in 1981 during a yearlong American tour of the musical "Camelot," in which he played King Arthur. His once-mighty physique showed the ravages of prolonged alcohol abuse.

"When Brando and Sinatra announced their retirements, the industry shook in disbelief," he said later. "When I retired, there was a sort of invisible collective shrug."

Harris said he had been drinking himself "into oblivion," and had memory lapses of entire days and months.

Behind him at that point in his career were two broken marriages, many good and one or two not so good performances on stage and screen, a venture into recording that produced gold records and the promise of a niche in popular music if he tired of acting.

Ahead of him, he saw a dreary desert of dull days. "I find life as a teetotaler boring," he said.

But with the direst medical warnings, he agreed to change the drinking habits that earned him the reputation of a hell-raiser and a bad drunk. His fondness for alcohol was partly to blame for the well-publicized flare-ups that marked his first marriage to Lady Elizabeth Rees-Williams.

They had three sons. He was also divorced from his second wife, model and actress Ann Turkel.

Born in Limerick, Harris was a notable rugby player at school and had a broken nose to prove it. In late adolescence he was ill with tuberculosis for two and a half years and spent his convalescence reading widely, writing poetry and plays.

His first ambition was to be a director but his physique -- over 6 feet and 200 pounds -- combined with a ruggedly handsome face despite the broken nose made acting an easier option. He entered the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts but, still determined to give directing a try, spent his savings to rent a theater and put on his own production of Clifford Odets' "Winter Journey."

Despite good reviews the show closed and Harris was left destitute. He slept in coal cellars or walked the streets of London all night until the academy discovered his plight and arranged spartan accommodation.

After he left the academy he joined Joan Littlewood's Theater Workshop and made his stage debut in 1956 in her production of Brendan Behan's "The Quare Fellow." Soon thereafter he moved into films and television where he won much critical praise though he himself frankly regarded such ventures as "Mutiny on the Bounty" as a waste of time.

He had his first starring role on the London stage in J.P. Donleavy's "The Ginger Man" where, once again, his performance was judged better than the play. In 1963, he was cast as a professional rugby player in the film "This Sporting Life" and received high praise from critics.

He won the best-actor award at Cannes but turned down the offers it inspired, instead choosing to produce his own adaptation of Gogol's "Diary of a Madman." Despite the admiration of theater critics, it was a financial failure and Harris turned back to films and television in Europe and the United States.

He appeared in "Cromwell," "The Molly Maguires," "A Man Called Horse" and many other films. In the 1970s he recorded the pop hit "MacArthur Park." Meanwhile his 1957 marriage to Lady Elizabeth was under strain and she filed for divorce in 1969, saying she was afraid of her husband and couldn't get him to control his language in front of their children.

When Harris heard that Josh Logan was casting for the film version of "Camelot" in 1966 he hammered on the director's door shouting: "I want to play Arthur." And he bombarded film tycoon Jack Warner with daily telegrams which said, "Harris is Arthur," and "Nobody but Harris for Arthur."

As he aged, Harris described his face as looking "like 5 miles of bad road." But his weathered face and his thinning hair did not reduce the demand for his work.