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.