Richard Harris was born 84 years ago today. An Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer, Harris had a top ten hit in the UK and the U.S. with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webbs song MacArthur Park.” Harris appeared on stage and in many films, and is perhaps best known for his role as King Arthur in the 1967 film Camelot and the subsequent 1982 Broadway revival of the show. He is also known for playing Albus Dumbledore in the first two films in the Harry Potter series, his final works. He played an aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse (1970), Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000), Saint John in Apocalypse Revelation (2002), gunfighter and Dom Frollo in the 1997 TV movie version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Harris Harris was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease in August 2002, after being hospitalized with pneumonia. He died on Oct. 25, 2002 at age 72. It was two and a half weeks before the American premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. For years, whenever he was in London, Harris resided at the Savoy Hotel. According to the hotel archivist Susan Scott, as Harris was being taken from the hotel on a stretcher, shortly before his death, he warned the diners, It was the food! Here, is a mini-doc on the story behind “MacArthur Park.”
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 04:03:50 +0000