Birthday: Oct 1, 1930

Birthplace: Limerick, Ireland

Biography: Richard St. John Harris was an Irish actor, singer and songwriter.He was featured on stage and in many films, and was perhaps best known for the film role of King Arthur in Camelot (1967). He played a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse (1970).He became known to new legions of movie-goers in the first two Harry Potter movies as Professor Albus Dumbledore.He was a notorious playboy and drinker, part of a rowdy generation of Irish and British actors that included Albe... ... (read more...) rt Finney, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole.Harris died of Hodgkin's disease in 2002 at the age of 72, shortly before the U.S. premiere of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He was in a restaurant at the time and as he was carried out on a stretcher, informed the people queueing to go into the restaurant that it was the food that had killed him, retaining his sense of humour till the end. He would be replaced as Dumbledore by fellow Irish-born actor, Sir Michael Gambon.