Richard Harris

In 1987, when Richard Harris – the legendary star of This Sporting Life, The Field and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’ s Stone – was interviewed for the first time by Joe Jackson, they almost came to blows. Jackson was determined to unearth deeper truths about the actor than he usually disclosed during interviews. Harris had manipulated the media all his life, largely to keep people from getting to really know him. However, by the time that interview ended, they had become firm friends. It was only then that Jackson told Harris, ‘ I want to show the public that there is far more to you than your superficial image as a boozing, brawling womaniser.’ Harris loved this idea and two years later he asked Jackson to write his biography. Richard Harris: Raising Hell and Reaching for Heaven is that biography. But it is much more besides. Based on a searingly honest series of interviews Jackson recorded with Harris between 1987 and 2001, plus the author’ s journal entries and extensive notes, this book is also a part-memoir that tells a highly personal and moving back story about why it was inevitable that Jackson and Harris would connect at the deepest possible level.

JOE JACKSON is an author, journalist and broadcaster who has worked for all major media outlets in Ireland over his thirty-five-year career. His articles and interviews have been published globally. In 2015 his two-part radio documentary 'Richard Harris Revisited' was submitted by RTÉ for an IMRO award in the ‘ Best Speech’ category. In 2016 he presented, at the Richard Harris International Film Festival in Limerick, a multi-media one-person show of the same name. His interviews with Harris voice the ‘ ghost’ in the 2022 Sky Arts documentary 'The Ghost of Richard Harris'.