Richard Harrison

Musclebound actor Richard Harrison was one of a slew of handsome young American pectoral hunks of the late 50s whose career in Hollywood amounted to little more than brawny bits until being lured to Italy and churning out the sword-and-sandal pictures that became an early 60s craze. Harrison would end up making over 100 films due to this lucky trek abroad.Born on May 26, 1936 in Salt Lake City, he relocated to sunny Southern California in his late teens where his blond, tanned, chiseled good looks (he was sometimes mistaken for handsome actor Guy Madison) landed him modeling work both on runways and in beefcake magazines. It didn't take long for him to be noticed by Hollywood casting agents. At first cast in small he-man roles, usually as a virile guy in uniform, he can be obscurely seen in Jeanne Eagels (1957), his film debut starring Kim Novak, Kronos (1957) with Jeff Morrow, Too Much, Too Soon (1958) starring Dorothy Malone, South Pacific (1958), in which he can be glimpsed as a co-pilot, and Battle Flame (1959) with Scott Brady and a young Robert Blake. While filming another minor role in Master of the World (1961) he met producer James H. Nicholson's daughter, Loretta, and married her within six months. The couple produced three sons.Frustrated at not being able to secure meatier roles in Hollywood, Richard jumped at the chance when offered the lead role in Il gladiatore invincibile (1961) [The Invincible Gladiator] which was filming in Europe. He wound up settling in Italy for the next two decades. His first role, of course, immediately typed him as another Steve Reeves type and, to avoid being penned in too much as a mythological muscle man, he sought roles in routine spaghetti westerns and spy intrigue. Once Italy closed down film production after the Herculean craze had died down, he, like others, found himself unemployed. He did manage to scrape up work in Hong Kong, but a large portion of them were bottom-of-the-barrel Ninja movies.Remarried in 1978, Harrison had already begun acting less and less while delving into producing and directing. He has retired fully now except perhaps for an occasional script writing assignment. Show less «