Richard Harrison

Richard Harrison was born on May 26, 1935 in USA. Richard Harrison's big-screen debut came with Jeanne Eagels directed by George Sidney in 1957, strarring Cpl. Hodgson in 'Rain' (uncredited). Richard Harrison is known for Hajji Washington directed by Ali Hatami, Ezzatolah Entezami stars as Hajji Hossein-Gholi Noori and Richard Harrison as President Grover Cleveland. The upcoming new movie Richard Harrison plays is Angel Eyes which will be released on Mar 17, 1993.

The mighty, musclebound actor Richard Harrison was one of a slew of handsome American pectoral hunks whose 1950's career in Hollywood amounted to little more than brawny bits but, after, being lured to Italy, became a popular sword-and-sandal star of the early 1960's. Unlike many others, Harrison managed to sustain his action star status, making over 100 European/Asian films due thanks to his impulsive trek abroad.Born on May 26, 1936 in Salt Lake City, Richard relocated to sunny Southern California in his late teens where his blond, tanned, chiseled good looks (he was sometimes mistaken for handsome actor Guy Madison) landed him modeling work both on runways and in beefcake magazines such as "Body Beautiful," "Adonis" and "Physique Pictorial."It didn't take long for Richard to be noticed by Hollywood casting agents. At first cast in he-man bit roles wearing a uniform (or less), he can be obscurely seen in Un seul amour (1957), his film debut starring Kim Novak, Kronos (1957) with Jeff Morrow, Une femme marquée (1958) starring Dorothy Malone, Pacifique Sud (1958), in which he can be glimpsed as a co-pilot, and Les feux de la bataille (1959) with Scott Brady and a young Robert Blake. While filming another minor role in Le Maître du monde (1961), he met producer James H. Nicholson's daughter, Loretta (actress Loretta Nicholson) and married her within six months. The couple produced three children.Frustrated at not being able to secure meatier roles in Hollywood, Richard jumped at the chance when offered the lead role in the peplum spectacle Le gladiateur invincible (1961) which filmed in Europe. He wound up settling in Italy for the next two decades. His first role, of course, immediately typed him as another Steve Reeves mythological hero type and it was followed by other warriors such as Darius in Les 7 Gladiateurs (1962), Perseus in Persée l'invincible (1963), Glaucus in Hercule contre les mercenaires (1964), Crassus in La fureur des gladiateurs (1964), Rufo in La révolte des prétoriens (1964) and Claudius in Fort Alésia (1964).Once the Herculean craze waned in the mid 1960s, Richard sought other starring parts in both Italian "spaghetti" westerns (100,000 dollars pour Ringo (1965), Un casse pour des clous (1967), Avec Django, la mort est là (1968), Un colt et le diable (1968), Adios Caballero (1968)) and crime/spy intrigue (Les espions meurent à Beyrouth (1965), A 077 défie les tueurs (1966), Coup de maître (1967), Fantabulous (1968)). He then maintained a sturdy steadiness into the 1970's with title roles in Le shérif de Rockspring (1971), 2 frères appelés Trinita (1972) and L'ami du parrain (1972).As work thinned out, Richard managed to dig up work outside Italy -- with low-budget features in Hong Kong (Le guerrier du Kublai Khan (1975), La révolte des boxers (1976)), Turkey (Anasinin Gozu (1974), Yankesici (1975), Sahit (1978)), Germany (Natascha - Todesgrüße aus Moskau (1977) (Natascha: The Deadly Drop)), and Yugoslavia (Alpha Beta (1974)). In the 1980's, Richard found a profitable market in Hong Kong with his series of "Ninja Master" films (as Ninja Master Gordon) in such representative actioneers as Ninja Terminator (1986), Ninja Dragon (1986), Ninja Operation: Licensed to Terminate (1987), Black Ninja (1987), The Ninja Showdown (1988), Ninja Powerforce (1988).Occasionally delving into writing, producing and directing as he did with Chasse à l'homme (1986), Richard's status as a European action star continued with lead roles as renegade cops in both Terminal Force (1989) and Highway to Hell (1990). As he aged, he then began turning more and more to featured parts for other stars such as Dan Haggerty in The Channeler (1991) and Erik Estrada in Angel Eyes (1993). He retired by the millennium.After his divorce from Loretta, Richard married actress Maria Francesca in 1978. They had one more child. Two of Richard's sons went into film acting -- Robert Harrison and Sebastian Harrison.