Richard Harris had a face that looked as if it had been hewn from granite but a voice that even at its loudest sounded like a kind of breathless whisper. It was a combination that saw him take on roles as diverse as legendary hero King Arthur in Camelot and working-class yob Frank Machin in This Sporting Life. As well as being an actor, he was also a singer: one of his songs, "MacArthur Park," even hit the second spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
Towards the end of his career, he was mainly cast in supporting roles, but in a strange way, this showed his true worth as an actor: he always shined brightly, and shined on those who worked with him. What follows are Richard Harris's 10 top films according to IMDb.
10 'Cromwell' (1970)
IMDb Score: 6.9/10
The 1960s saw a romp of big-scale historical dramas based on British royalty (Becket and The Lion in Winter, for example). 1970's Cromwell marks the end of the run, and as far as spectacle went it was probably the best: the English Civil War was replete with enough battles to fill any cinema screen.
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If real history was less about the personal antagonism between Charles I (Alec Guinness) and Oliver Cromwell (Harris) than it was about the long-standing conflict between the crown and parliament for control of England, the spin does illustrate how the Parliamentarians, for all their self-righteous fundamentalism, stood for greater freedom. Guinness and Harris excel in their respective roles.
9 'Mutiny on the Bounty' (1962)
IMDb Score: 7.2/10
This mutiny, possibly the most famous in history, has been filmed five times. The fourth version was released in 1962 and true to cinematic form represents the mutiny as a rebellion against tyranny - and real history be damned. It performed well at the box office, but not well enough to recoup its costs (which included the construction of a working replica of HMS Bounty).
Part of the budget overrun can be put down to the onset antics of main star Marlon Brando (playing Fletcher Christian), but at the time Mutiny on the Bounty was released the sterling work of Trevor Howard as Captain Bligh and Richard Harris as Seaman John Mills was recognized.
8 'The Field' (1990)
IMDb Score: 7.3/10
This 1990 film, based on the play of the same name, is about obsession and madness. The field in question has been transformed by a single family over generations from barren ground into a fertile patch of soil, is rented and preparing to be sold off by the widow that owns it.
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If The Field's translation from stage to screen was not considered entirely successful by critics, this intensely tragic story had standout performances from Harris as the old farmer who's tended the field for decades, Sean Bean as his son, and Frances Tomelty as the widow.
7 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' (2002)
IMDb Score: 7.4/10
Generally considered by most reviewers - and the audience - as an improvement over the first film in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets continues the story of the boy wizard but with a darker and more involving narrative.
Harris's Professor Albus Dumbledore performs his duty as a supporting actor (together with Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and Robbie Coltrane) by giving the film the strong spine from which the story hangs. It was Harris's last live-action film before his death in 2002 - a fitting sendoff for the veteran actor.
6 'This Sporting Life' (1963)
IMDb Score: 7.5/10
One of the best "kitchen sink" dramas from the late 1950s and early 1960s, This Sporting Life is less about the sport of rugby league and more about the emotionally impoverished lives of the working class in a West Yorkshire mining town. There are small victories for its characters, narrow slits of light in their lives, but for the most part, the future is as grim as the present.
Released in 1963, it starred Rachel Roberts as widower Margaret Hammond and Harris - in his breakout role - as her lover, miner, and rugby league player Frank Machin. Both Roberts and Harris were nominated for Best Actor Oscars, and Harris went on to with the award for Best Actor at that year's Cannes Film Festival.
5 'Red Desert' (1964)
IMDb Score: 7.5/10
This 1964 film by Michelangelo Antonio focuses on the mental decline of Giuliana (Monica Vitti) following a motor accident. Her slow separation from reality, however, is echoed in the separation of all the characters from the environment they live in. Antonio said he wanted to show that the world, even its industrial face - alluded to by the title, Red Desert - could be beautiful and that we have to adjust to it.
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Harris plays an interloper, Corrado, who seduces - and in a way is seduced by - Giuliana. With empathy and genuine curiosity, he convinces the audience that he is genuinely attempting to understand Giuliana's turmoil, and in so doing the audience sees that they must do the same.
4 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' (2001)
IMDb Score: 7.6/10
Harry Potter's first cinematic outing was considered by some critics to be too faithful to the original novel. Subsequent films made allowances for the different mediums in the storytelling. Nonetheless, this 2001 film remains not just a faithful but, commercially speaking, an eminently successful translation.
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Much of that success lay in the casting of actors of the caliber of Harris in the most important supporting roles. As Albus Dumbledore, Harris brings not only authority and wisdom to the part but gentleness as well, moved by an undercurrent of sorrow and sadness.
3 'The Count of Monte Cristo' (2002)
IMDb Score: 7.7/10
The last of his films to be released in Harris's own lifetime, The Count of Monte Cristo is the umpteenth adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel first published in 1844 (at least fourteen movies so far, and counting). A swashbuckling revenge story that's proved popular with audiences for nearly two centuries, this 2002 film is counted as one of the best versions.
Harris's role as Abbé Faria is essential to the whole plot giving Edmond Dantès, afflicted with backstabbing friends, the means for escaping the prison into which he's been entombed as well as the means to gain a fortune that will fund his comeback and ultimate revenge. Harris shows Faria to be resilient, honorable, and generous; hard to pull off when you're dressed in rags and confined to a dungeon.
2 'Unforgiven' (1992)
IMDb Score: 8.2/10
It's difficult to believe that 1992's Unforgiven is over 30 years old. If the critics were a little too effusive about the film breaking the old Hollywood tropes of the Old West (let's not forget The Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - both made in 1969), they were spot on in highlighting how the films show the extraordinary impact of violence on ordinary people.
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While Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman rightly garnered the greatest attention for their roles as William Munny and Sheriff Daggett, Harris's star turn as the murderous and boastful gunfighter English Bob was masterful. English Bob's confrontation with Daggett and subsequent downfall and disgrace not only helps set up the sheriff as the story's true villain but also rips away the romantic myth of the role played by the gunfighter in the Old West.
1 'Gladiator' (2000)
IMDb Score: 8.5/10
This 2000 film directed by Ridley Scott helped set off a run of historical dramas in the decade that followed, from Troy to 300. What most of its descendants did not have, however, was this film's heart: the story of a grieving husband and father given the chance to avenge their deaths and set things right.
Gladiator's linchpin is the role played by Harris as Marcus Aurelius. By placing the Roman Empire into the hands of Russell Crowe's Maximus instead of that of his own son, the creepy Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), he unintentionally sets off betrayal, murder, and a threat to the stability of the empire itself. Harris plays the emperor as an intelligent and dedicated ruler (not far from the truth), who believes he knows what's best for his empire and his family.
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