Friday, 25 October, 2002

It is with the deepest of sorrow that we report the passing of one our dearest muggle friends, Richard Harris. Mr. Harris portrayed one of our most beloved and revered wizards of all time, Albus Dumbledore, with the greatest wisdom, love and respect.

"With great sadness, Damian, Jarid and Jamie Harris announced the death of their beloved father Richard Harris.

"He died peacefully at University College Hospital, London, at 7pm today," a family spokesman said.

The 72-year-old actor had been receiving chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin's Disease at the hospital after falling ill earlier this year.

After a long and celebrated film career, the Irish-born actor had become known to a whole new generation of fans through his role as Professor Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter film, the Philosopher's Stone. He had just completed work on the new film, Chamber of Secrets, before falling ill this summer.

Mr. Harris was nominated twice for best-actor Academy Awards, for his role as violent, inarticulate Yorkshire miner Frank Machin in Lindsay Anderson's 1963 This Sporting Life, and then as the thundering Irish peasant Bull McCabe in director Jim Sheridan's little-seen 1990 film, The Field. Mr. Harris also was nominated for an Emmy for 1971's The Snow Goose.

Within the last decade, Mr. Harris also appeared in two winners of the best-picture Oscar, Unforgiven in 1992 and Gladiator in 2000, in which he played the war-weary Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Mr. Harris is perhaps best known for his roles in the 1970 movie A Man Called Horse, and as King Arthur in Camelot.

As Albus Dumbledore said, "To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

We wish Mr. Harris well on his adventure. He will be sorely missed in both the muggle and wizarding worlds.

Published October 25, 2002