However, the casting process didn’t always go smoothly. Viggo Mortensen came in to play Aragorn after the shooting had already begun. The female roles were each offered to a variety of performers before they landed in the hands of those who ultimately brought them to life. And one beloved Harry Potter star loathed that he lost out on the role of Dumbledore for years.
Who Is Richard Harris?
Richard Harris’s Role
Release Year
This Sporting Life
Frank Machin
1963
The Field
Bull McCabe
1990
Gladiator
Marcus Aurelius
2000
Unforgiven
English Bob
1992
A Man Called Horse
John Morgan
1970
Camelot
King Arthur
1967
Richard Harris is one of the most recognizable actors to ever live. He’s best known for playing the role of Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films and felt as though he stepped right out of the pages of the novels. Interestingly, he rarely took the role. The part of Dumbledore came to Harris as the end of his life drew near. He worried about his ability to commit to how many films there were, as he recognized that this would be a huge decision that would define his final years. However, he felt immense pressure from his loved ones to accept the part. His granddaughter threatened to never speak to him again if he didn’t agree to be part of the Harry Potter universe. Thus, he stepped into the role of Dumbledore and was the perfect incarnation of him. He captured the combination of sternness and kindness that made Dumbledore such a beloved character, and it’s a great tragedy that audiences never get to see him bring the old wizard’s fascinating character arc to a conclusion. He surely would have been astounding in more emotional moments like the conclusion of The Half-Blood Prince – though Michael Gambon more than filled the massive shoes Harris left for him.
Outside of Harry Potter, Harris had a prolific career. Throughout his life, he received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor – one for a film called The Sporting Life and another for the movie The Goose. He went on to win the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his performance as King Arthur in Camelot, and he went on to reprise his role in the stage musical as well. He then went on to earn a nomination for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his role as lighthouse keeper Philip Rhayader in The Snow Goose, a romantic historical drama. He’s one of the most celebrated actors of the modern era, and his career transcends the franchise he became affiliated with later in life.
Why Did He Lose Out on the Role of Gandalf?
There’s one major role that Richard Harris wished he had gotten, however, and the loss bothered him for the rest of his life. Harris desperately wanted to play Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Many fans believed he would be a fantastic choice. Like many of his would-be co-stars, he had a background in Shakespeare, which would give him the gravitas necessary to play a character such as Gandalf. Additionally, as seen by his casting as Dumbledore, he conveys the general persona of a wise old mentor with magical powers. He would have been able to capture the necessary mysticism to play Gandalf and likely would have been fantastic at making the transition from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White after his fall fighting the Balrog. However, it wasn’t meant to be. Richard Harris ultimately wasn’t selected to step into the world of Middle-earth. This bothered him for the rest of his life.
Interestingly, Ian McKellen almost ended up playing Dumbledore as well as Gandalf. After Harris’s death, the producers of Harry Potter asked him if he would consider taking on the role. However, Ian McKellen eventually declined. Richard Harris had, at one point earlier in his career, made some unkind comments about McKellen and two of his closest companions, Kenneth Branagh and Derek Jacobi. He referred to the three men as passionless despite their general talent. McKellen ultimately didn’t feel right about taking over such a beloved and career-defining part from someone who didn’t respect him as a colleague or as an actor. It wouldn’t be what Harris wanted, and it would have undermined McKellen’s confidence in his ability as well.
Many other actors tried to claim the role of Gandalf as well. Sean Connery was Peter Jackson’s first choice for the part, but he turned down the role after saying he didn’t understand the script. Anthony Hopkins, who was already a household name after his chilling performance in The Silence of the Lambs, was also a frontrunner for the role. It’s still not clear what exactly led him to say no to the part, but regardless, he ended up choosing to go in other directions with his career. Patrick Stewart, who played opposite Sir Ian McKellen in the X-Men films as Charles Xavier to McKellen’s Erik Lehnsherr, was one of the first actors to be offered the part. However, he disliked the script and the direction that Gandalf’s character was taken in it and therefore turned down the part. The casting team also considered Christopher Plummer and Sam Neill but ultimately took a different direction.
Ian McKellen Was the Perfect Gandalf
However, now that he’s the face we associate with the role, it’s impossible to imagine anyone other than the incredible Sir Ian McKellan taking on the role of Gandalf. He feels as though he stepped right out of the pages of Tolkien’s original novel. He’s a fantastic mentor for all those around him, and he truly feels like someone both the characters and audiences alike could turn to for wisdom. As Gandalf the Grey, he makes sure that the character never loses a sense of mischief. Though Gandalf is, at his core, a wise old sage, he still has a fantastic sense of humor. It’s why he’s able to get along so well with the Hobbits, and how he managed to stay true to the mission of the Istari even when the rest of his companions lost sight of what they were supposed to be doing. However, he also makes sure that Gandalf remains an indomitable force when he must step into battle. His confrontation with the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring is one of the most powerful moments in the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a whole.
His prowess only becomes more evident when he adopts the persona of Gandalf the White in The Two Towers. There’s a certain confidence in his every action once he moves into this elevated form. Gandalf the White is less familiar with who he is it could be argued he’s less in touch with his humanity now that he’s gained more power. He must figure out how to settle back into himself. Once he does that, he becomes even more of a leader than he already was. He’s ascended to the status that was previously only afforded to Saruman, who Gandalf himself deferred to when the time was right, and now that he has that, he must be a good leader not only to the Fellowship but to all of Middle-earth. His wisdom has multiplied, as seen when he counsels Pippin about what waits for him after death. None of this would have packed the same punch without Ian McKellen’s tireless work to ensure that he did justice to Tolkien’s beloved character, and it proves time and time again that he was the right choice for the part.
