The (Adorable) Threat That Finally Pushed Harry Potter’s Richard Harris To Play Dumbledore

Even prior to the making of the ultra-successful Harry Potter movies, the Harry Potter novels, written by an author, were already a massive phenomenon. Kids the world over became obsessed with the adventures of the titular boy wizard and the kooky school he attended. By 2000, when casting was likely happening for the “Sorcerer’s Stone” movie, the fourth book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” was hitting shelves. It was a massive deal. 

Richard Harris knew when he received a call from his agent about playing Professor Dumbledore that he would be on the hook for all the sequels as well. He was in his 70s and had lived a long and textured life (listen to any one of his anecdotes about his life on stage — not to mention his constant drinking with Peter O’Toole — and you’ll get a taste of how epically Rabelaisian his life was). He wasn’t interested in starting a franchise at that point in his career. He said: 

“All I knew is that they kept offering me the part and raising the salary every time they called. I kept turning it down. […] Anyone involved has to agree to be in the sequels, all of them, and that’s not how I wanted to spend the last years of my life, so I said no over and over again.”

But Harris’ granddaughter, Ella — maybe 10 at the time — had other ideas. Clearly a Harry Potter fan, Ella posed an ultimatum: 

“She said, ‘Papa, I hear you’re not going to be in the Harry Potter movie,’ and she said, ‘If you don’t play Dumbledore then I will never speak to you again,'” 

Well, that decided it. He immediately agreed to play Dumbledore forthwith.