Richard Harris archive donated to Cork University

Richard Harris blazed through life as an actor, singer, boozer and womaniser but few knew he was also a hoarder.

Poems, photos, letters, script notes, artefacts, documents, rugby plaques, his wedding guest list – he kept it all. After his death in 2002, the trove spanning 50 years of cinema and theatre gathered dust in a lock-up in Oxford, known only to his family.

That changed on Monday when it was announced the collection would be donated to University College Cork, home to one of Ireland’s film schools, and the first public exhibition would be held in Harris’s native Limerick.

It includes his creative writing manuscripts, location photos and other material from a career that rocketed with the 1963 drama This Sporting Life and zig-zagged through theatre and pop music before later roles as Bull McCabe in The Field, Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator and Prof Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films. There is a letter from Ronald Reagan, a card from Daniel Radcliffe and a note from Peter O’Toole.

The collection offered insights into the personality behind the public persona, said Barry Monahan, a lecturer at UCC’s department of film and screen media.

In his writings, Harris pondered identity and how people adopted masks to become characters in their own lives – an apparent reference to the hell-raiser reputation that overshadowed his work.

The greatest role he played may have been that of Richard Harris, his son Jared Harris, also an actor, told a press conference at London’s Savoy hotel.

Harris lived his final years at the Savoy until, terminally ill from Hodgkin’s disease, he was stretchered out, famously telling diners: “It was the food.” He died on 25 October 2002 – the anniversary is on Tuesday – aged 72.

The family was relieved to have found a good home for the collection, said Jared Harris, his son. “Barry is a leading expert on our father’s career and University College Cork is home to a really exciting film school.” Sorting the archive is expected to take a year.

The first exhibition, possibly in 2024, will be held at the Hunt Museum in Limerick, where Harris grew up wanting to play professional rugby. When a bout of tuberculosis ruled that out, he switched to acting and found fame on the London stage and in kitchen sink dramas before landing Hollywood roles.

“I consider a great part of my career a total failure,” he once said. “I went after the wrong things – got caught in the 60s. I picked pictures that were way below my talent. Just to have fun.”