Richard Harris

About Richard Harris

Richard Harris was a celebrated Irish actor whose formidable screen presence earned him recognition across film, theatre, and radio. His career spanned decades, highlighted by powerful dramatic roles in films such as This Sporting Life, which earned him an Oscar nomination, and later, iconic fantasy turns as Albus Dumbledore in the early Harry Potter films. MIT's Pantheon project ranks him as the 779th most historically important figure globally, reflecting a significant and lasting cultural footprint across multiple fields and generations.

The modern internet, however, suggests a partial fading of this historical weight. In 2025, Harris garnered 1.8 million annualized Wikipedia views. While substantial, this figure represents an +6x overattention relative to his HPI rank, indicating that his current online popularity significantly outpaces his historical importance ranking. For context, fellow actor Jackie Chan, ranked slightly lower at #926, still drew 3.8 million views in the same period. Conversely, figures of demonstrably greater historical weight, such as Paul Gauguin (#408), registered less than one-third of Harris's attention at just 548K views.

This attention is also showing a downward trend; his 2025 pageviews declined by 15.2% year-over-year, and his momentum from Q1 to Q3 fell by 7%, suggesting a continued, though perhaps modest, erosion of his online relevance.