Richard Harris^†

Tuberculosis at 17 killed his rugby dreams. He'd been playing for Garryowen and Munster, and rugby was the thing he actually wanted. Acting came second. But when This Sporting Life (1963) cast him as a brutal rugby league player, it closed a loop. He won Best Actor at Cannes, earned an Oscar nomination, and became one of the faces of British New Wave cinema. Then Camelot (1967) made him a Golden Globe-winning musical star who also had a pop hit. "MacArthur Park" reached #2 on the US charts and went gold.

The career nearly fell apart in the 1970s. Drink and drugs took over. In 1978 he reportedly nearly died from a cocaine overdose and gave up drugs after. The comeback was slow: The Field (1990) earned him a second Oscar nomination. Gladiator (2000) brought him back to global audiences as Marcus Aurelius. Then he turned down Dumbledore three times before his 11-year-old granddaughter threatened to never speak to him again. He accepted, told an interviewer he didn't just want to be remembered for 'those bloody films,' and died two weeks before the US release of Chamber of Secrets.

Part of the Burton-O'Toole-Oliver Reed drinking circuit, which tends to be how he gets remembered. But the real obsession was rugby. His Hollywood contracts reportedly included get-out clauses to attend Ireland matches, and he has said he would have traded his career for one Ireland cap. At the 2000 Heineken Cup final at Twickenham, he stripped off his jacket to reveal a Munster jersey underneath.

Chamber of Secrets was still two weeks from its US premiere when he died at University College Hospital in London on October 25, 2002. Warner Bros. spent four months searching for a replacement Dumbledore. Christopher Lee, Sean Connery, Ian McKellen, and Peter O'Toole all turned the role down. Michael Gambon was announced in early 2003 and played the role through Deathly Hallows Part 2.