Richard Harris was a film actor.
Richard St John Harris ( 1 October 1930 -- 25 October 2002 ) was an Irish actor and singer . He played an aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse ( 1970 ) , a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood 's Western film Unforgiven ( 1992 ) , Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator ( 2000 ) , and Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films : the Sorcerer 's Stone ( 2001 ) and the Chamber of Secrets ( 2002 ) .