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Actor Richard Harris has died at the age of 72.

He died at University College Hospital in London, a spokesman for the family says.

He had been receiving treatment for Hodgkin's Disease at the hospital after falling ill earlier this year.

The spokesman 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 Irish-born actor starred in Gladiator, Unforgiven, and This Sporting Life, but he'd become known to a new generation of film fans through his role as Professor Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

He had just completed work on the new film, Chamber of Secrets, before falling ill this summer.

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 bankrupted, divorced, and underwent a reformation and acting resurrection 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 in the process.

Story filed: 22:13 Friday 25th October 2002

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