Richard Harris loses cancer battle

ACTOR Richard Harris died last night at University College Hospital in London, a spokesman for the family said.

"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," the spokesman said.

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

Mr Harris, who revelled in his reputation as a hellraiser, was one of the most powerful and unpredictable stage and screen actors of the 20th century and beyond.

He starred in some of the classic films of his generation, including A Man Called Horse, The Guns of Navarone and Mutiny on the Bounty, but was prone to fill the columns of tabloid newspapers with his wild ways and hard-drinking exploits.

He was twice bankrupt, divorced, and underwent a reformation in the early 1980s, when told he had only 18 months to live if he did not stop drinking.

He responded by buying the rights to the stage production of Camelot and toured the world with it for five years, becoming a multi-millionaire Years later, in 2002, he fell ill with Hodgkin's disease and received chemotherapy sessions at the age of 72.

At the time he was working on the third Harry Potter film, The Prisoner Of Ozkaban. He had appeared in previous Harry Potter productions.

Mr Harris was born in Limerick on October 1, 1930. He was a noted rugby player in Ireland in his youth. He often played action-man roles and candidly admitted that some of his films, such as Tarzan The Ape Man, with Bo Derek, were among some of the worst films ever made.