Richard Harris: Age, Wife, Children, Net Worth & Movies

Few actors have lived as large, on screen and off it, as Richard Harris. To one generation he was the brooding hero of the British New Wave. To another he was King Arthur, singing his way through Camelot. And to the youngest audience of all, he was Albus Dumbledore, the twinkling headmaster of Hogwarts, in the first two Harry Potter films.

Harris packed all of that into a single career, and he did it with a voice, a temper and a presence that nobody could mistake for anyone else. He was an Oscar-nominated actor, a chart-topping singer, a stage star, a writer and a legendary hellraiser, all in one lifetime. This is the full story of his age, his wives, his children, his money and his movies.

Quick Facts About Richard Harris

How Did Richard Harris Grow Up in Ireland?

Richard Harris was born on 1 October 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, into a middle-class Catholic family. His father, Ivan Harris, was a flour merchant, and young Richard grew up in a comfortable home with his brothers. As a schoolboy he was a talented rugby player, and for a while sport looked like it might be his future.

That future changed when tuberculosis struck him in his teens. The illness kept him bedridden for long stretches and ended any serious hope of a rugby career. Lying in bed, he began reading plays and poetry, and something shifted. By the time he recovered, he had found the thing that would shape the rest of his life: acting.

Harris studied at Crescent College in Limerick before moving to London to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, known as LAMDA. He threw himself into stage work, taking small parts wherever he could get them and learning his craft the hard way. London in the 1950s was full of hungry young actors, and Harris stood out quickly for his size, his voice and his refusal to blend in.

How Did Richard Harris Become Famous?

Harris broke into films in the late 1950s, and his breakthrough came with The Guns of Navarone in 1961, a huge Second World War adventure in which he held his own alongside Gregory Peck and David Niven. But it was his next major role that made critics sit up. In This Sporting Life (1963), he played Frank Machin, a rugby league player whose brutal rise and emotional collapse gave the film its beating heart.

The performance earned Harris his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It also made him one of the faces of the British New Wave, a movement of gritty, working-class dramas that swept away the polite cinema of the previous decade. Harris was raw, physical and unpredictable on screen, and audiences had never quite seen anything like him.

From there the roles kept coming. He appeared in the mutiny epic Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Antonioni’s Red Desert (1964) and the western Major Dundee (1965). By the mid-1960s, Richard Harris was an international star, and his name on a poster meant something. He had gone from a sickbed in Limerick to the top of the film world in less than a decade.

What Movies Made Richard Harris a Star?

If one role defined Harris in the 1960s, it was King Arthur in Camelot (1967). The film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical cast him opposite Vanessa Redgrave as Guenevere, and his performance won him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. He sang the part himself, and the role stayed with him for the rest of his life.

Harris loved Camelot so much that he bought the stage rights and toured the show for years, including a Broadway revival in the early 1980s. The gamble paid off handsomely and became one of the smartest business moves of his career. Audiences still wanted to see his Arthur decades after the film, and he gave them exactly that.

The 1970s brought a different kind of role. In A Man Called Horse (1970), Harris played an English aristocrat captured by Native Americans, a part that demanded real physical commitment and became one of his signature films. He followed it with Cromwell (1970), in which he played Oliver Cromwell, and the adventure film The Wild Geese (1978). Not every film was a hit, but Harris was never boring, and directors kept coming back to him.

Was Richard Harris Really a Pop Singer?

Yes, and a remarkably successful one. In 1968, Harris recorded “MacArthur Park,” a seven-minute song written by Jimmy Webb that most singers would have run from. Harris sang it straight, with full drama, and the record became a sensation. It reached number one in Australia and Canada and the top ten in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States.

The song earned Harris a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and its parent album, A Tramp Shining, sold strongly. He went on to record several more albums, including The Yard Went On Forever and My Boy, and he later won a Grammy for his spoken-word recording of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. For a man who had trained as a classical stage actor, it was an unlikely second career, and he enjoyed every minute of it.

Music also gave Harris a different kind of fame. People who had never seen his films knew his voice from the radio, and “MacArthur Park” has never really gone away. It remains one of the strangest and most beloved hit singles of the 1960s, and it is still the first thing many people think of when they hear his name.

Who Was Richard Harris Married To?

Richard Harris married twice, and both marriages ended in divorce. His first wife was Elizabeth Rees-Williams, the daughter of David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore. They married in 1957 and divorced in 1969. Elizabeth later married the actor Rex Harrison, which made the Harris family tree one of the more tangled in show business.

His second wife was the American actress Ann Turkel, whom he married in 1974. Turkel was sixteen years younger than Harris, and the marriage lasted until their divorce in 1982. Neither marriage survived the pressures of his career and his famously wild lifestyle, but Harris remained close to his family throughout his life, and his sons became the most important part of his later years.

Harris was famously part of the “hellraiser” generation of British and Irish actors, alongside Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton and Oliver Reed. The stories of their drinking and escapades are legendary, and Harris never pretended otherwise. But friends also remembered his loyalty, his humour and his generosity, and his sons have always spoken of him with real affection.

How Many Children Did Richard Harris Have?

Richard Harris had three sons, all with his first wife, Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His eldest, Damian Harris, born in 1958, became a film director. His middle son, Jared Harris, born in 1961, became one of the most respected character actors of his generation, with acclaimed roles in Mad Men, Chernobyl and The Crown. His youngest, Jamie Harris, born in 1963, also became an actor.

All three sons followed their father into the film world in one way or another, and Jared in particular has carried the family name to a new generation of viewers. Harris was a proud father, and the fact that his children built serious careers of their own, rather than trading on his name, says a lot about the household he came from.

The family story has one famous footnote. When Harris was offered the role of Dumbledore, he hesitated because of the multi-film commitment and his failing health. According to his own account, his young granddaughter told him she would never speak to him again if he turned it down. He took the part, and a whole new generation of children grew up knowing his face.

How Did Richard Harris Make His Comeback?

By the late 1980s, Harris’s film career had slowed, and some people assumed his best years were behind him. The 1990s proved them wrong. His performance as Bull McCabe in The Field (1990), an Irish drama about a farmer fighting to keep his land, earned him his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, nearly thirty years after his first.

The comeback kept rolling. He played the villainous Paddy O’Neil in Patriot Games (1992), and then the gunfighter English Bob in Clint Eastwood’s western Unforgiven (1992), a film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Sharing scenes with Eastwood and Gene Hackman, Harris reminded everyone how dangerous and charismatic he could be with just a few minutes of screen time.

Then came Gladiator (2000), in which he played the dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius opposite Russell Crowe. His quiet, weary scenes at the start of the film set the whole story in motion, and the film went on to win Best Picture. Within two years, Harris had gone from a fading star to a fixture of the biggest films in the world again.

How Did Richard Harris Become Dumbledore?

In 2001, Richard Harris took on the role that would introduce him to millions of children: Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. His Dumbledore was gentle, twinkling and warm, with a hint of steel underneath, and it matched the way readers had pictured the character.

He returned for the sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), which became his final film role. Harris was already seriously ill during filming, but he completed his scenes, and the film was released just weeks after his death. The role was then taken over by Michael Gambon, but for many fans, Harris remains the definitive Dumbledore, the one who set the standard.

It was a fitting final act. Harris had spent forty years playing kings, rebels, gunfighters and rogues. He ended his career as the kindest and wisest man in the most popular film series in the world, and he did it at an age when most actors have long retired.

What Was Richard Harris’s Net Worth?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Richard Harris had a net worth of $20 million at the time of his death in 2002. The same source notes that this would be worth roughly $40 million in today’s dollars after adjusting for inflation. No official estate or probate figure has been widely published, so the $20 million estimate should be read as an industry estimate, not a confirmed accounting of his estate.

How did he build that fortune? Acting was the foundation, across more than seventy film and television credits, but two decisions mattered most. The first was Camelot. By acquiring the stage rights and touring the production for years, Harris turned a single role into a long-running business.

The second was property. He invested in real estate over the years, including a home in the Bahamas, and those investments helped rebuild his wealth after two bankruptcies earlier in his life.

His lifestyle was famously expensive. For the last twelve years of his life, Harris lived in a suite at London’s Savoy Hotel, and he was known for enjoying the good life to the full. Yet he died a multimillionaire, which is a remarkable achievement for a man who had twice gone bankrupt and who never chased the biggest paydays in Hollywood.

When and How Did Richard Harris Die?

Richard Harris died on 25 October 2002 at University College Hospital in London, at the age of 72. The cause of death was Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system with which he had been diagnosed earlier that year. He had continued working through his illness, finishing his scenes for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before his health failed.

He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Bahamas, where he had long kept a home. Tributes poured in from across the film world, and the British Independent Film Awards named their outstanding contribution award the Richard Harris Award in his honour. In 2020, The Irish Times ranked him third on its list of Ireland’s greatest film actors, a verdict that would surely have pleased the Limerick boy who once dreamed of playing rugby.

Harris had lived long enough to see himself become a legend twice over: once as the firebrand of the 1960s, and again as Dumbledore. Few actors get one such reinvention. He managed two, and he did it without ever losing the voice, the wit or the mischief that made him Richard Harris.

Lesser-Known Facts About Richard Harris

• A bout of tuberculosis as a teenager ended Richard Harris’s hopes of a rugby career and pushed him toward reading plays, which led him to acting.
• He spent the last twelve years of his life living in a suite at London’s Savoy Hotel rather than in a conventional house.
• Harris bought the stage rights to Camelot and toured the show himself for years, turning one role into a highly profitable business.
• He was knighted by Denmark in 1985 and was also a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
• His granddaughter famously threatened never to speak to him again if he refused the role of Dumbledore, which persuaded him to accept it.
• Harris went bankrupt twice in his life but rebuilt his fortune through Camelot tours, film work and property investments.
• He was a published poet and writer as well as an actor, and he directed the 1970 film Bloomfield, also known as The Hero.
• His younger brother Dermot worked as his manager for a time, keeping the business side of the Harris career in the family.
• A statue of Harris as King Arthur stands in Bedford Row in his home city of Limerick, honouring the city’s most famous actor.
• His son Jared Harris has said that his father never gave him acting advice, preferring to let him find his own way in the profession.

Frequently Asked Questions About Richard Harris

How old was Richard Harris when he died?

Richard Harris was 72 years old when he died on 25 October 2002. He was born on 1 October 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, so he had just celebrated his 72nd birthday a few weeks before his death.

Who was Richard Harris’s wife?

Richard Harris was married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth Rees-Williams, whom he married in 1957 and divorced in 1969. His second wife was the American actress Ann Turkel, whom he married in 1974 and divorced in 1982.

Did Richard Harris have children?

Yes. Richard Harris had three sons with his first wife, Elizabeth Rees-Williams: Damian Harris, a film director, Jared Harris, an actor known for Mad Men and Chernobyl, and Jamie Harris, also an actor.

What was Richard Harris’s net worth?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Richard Harris had an estimated net worth of $20 million at the time of his death in 2002. The figure is an estimate, not an officially published estate valuation, and it reflects his film, stage, music and property earnings.

What is Richard Harris best known for?

Richard Harris is best known for This Sporting Life, Camelot, his hit song “MacArthur Park,” Gladiator and his role as Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films. Younger audiences know him mainly as Dumbledore, while older audiences remember him as King Arthur and the star of the British New Wave.

Why did Richard Harris stop playing Dumbledore?

Richard Harris did not choose to leave the role. He died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma on 25 October 2002, shortly before the release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Michael Gambon took over the role of Dumbledore from the third film onward.

Final Thoughts on Richard Harris

Richard Harris lived the kind of life that biographers dream about. He rose from a sickbed in Limerick to the top of world cinema, became a pop star almost by accident, went broke and got rich again, and finished his career as the most beloved headmaster in fiction. He did it all in his own way, on his own terms, and with a voice nobody could imitate.

His films are still watched, his song is still played, and his Dumbledore still sets the standard for everyone who has followed. For an actor who once worried that illness had stolen his future, that is a remarkable legacy. If you have never seen This Sporting Life or Camelot, start there. You will understand, within minutes, why Richard Harris mattered so much, and why he still does.

Like other great actors of his generation, including Michael Caine and Albert Finney, Harris proved that a long career built on craft and courage outlasts any single hit. His story is a reminder that the best actors are not just famous. They are unforgettable.

Sources

• Richard Harris on Wikipedia