RIP Richard Harrison

 

American actor, director, assistant director, writer Richard Harrison died in Los Angeles on September 18^th he was 91. Richard Franklin Harrison Jr. in Salt Lake City on May 26, 1936, Harrison came to Hollywood at age 17, worked at gyms owned by bodybuilders Vic Tanny and Bert Goodrich and modeled for beefcake magazines before taking acting lessons at Fox under Sandy Meisner. He landed bit parts in films including “Kronos” (1957); “Jeanne Eagels” (1957), starring Kim Novak; “Too Much, Too Soon”, starring Dorothy Malone; “South Pacific”, starring Mitzi Gaynor; and “Tall Story” (1960), starring Anthony Perkins. On “Master of the World” (1961), starring Vincent Price, he met castmate Loretta Nicholson, the daughter of James H. Nicholson, a producer on the American International Pictures release, and they married in 1961. Harrison headed to Italy and became an instant leading man in the mold of muscleman Steve Reeves with “The Invincible Gladiator” (1962). The next year, he starred in “Avenger of the Seven Seas” and “Gladiator 7”, then followed in 1963 with “Gunfight in the Red Sands” (Duello Nel Texas), an Italian-Spanish spaghetti Western that featured a score by Ennio Morricone. He turned down Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964) but said he recommended Clint Eastwood for the part of the unnamed stranger that jump-started his fellow expat’s career. Returning to Los Angeles in 1986, Harrison and his second wife, actress Daria Norman (Maria Francesca Pomentale), bought a run-down property in Malibu with an infinity view of the Pacific and built a home that they would call “Villa Francesca.” That home, however, was lost in the Palisades Fire last year. In addition to his wife survivors include three of his four children including actor Sebastian Harrison. Richard appeared or worked on sixteen Spaghetti westerns: “Gunfight at High Noon” as Jeff Walker and “Gunfight at Red Sands as Ricardo ‘Gringo’ Martinez both in 1963, “$100,000 for Ringo” as Ward Cluster/Lee Barton/ Burton/ Ringo in 1965, “El Rojo” as Donald ‘El Rojo’ Sorenson/Saroyan in 1966, “Vengeance” as Joko/Rocco Barrett/Django 1n 1967, “Between God, the Devil and a Winchester” as Father Pat Jordan and “One After the Other” as Stan Ross in 1968, “The Long Ride of Revenge” as James Luke/Jeff Carter/Django, “Reverend Colt” as Sheriff Donovan and “Stagecoach of the Condemned” as Robert Walton/Wayne Sonnier all in 1970, “Dig Your Grave Friend… Sabata’s Coming” as Steve McGowan, and His Name was King” John ‘King’ Marley, “Holy Water Joe” as Charlie Bennett and as assistant director, “Joe Dakota” as Joe Dakota, “The Sheriff of Rock Springs” as Sheriff Hunter and “They Call Me Hallelujah” as a monk all in 1971, “Jesse and Lester, Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity” as Jesse Smith and as director and writer and “The Fabulous Trinity” as Scott both in 1972. In 1987 he wrote the script for “Scalps”.