Claim: Richard Harris sang professionally.

Richard St John Harris -LRB- 1 October 1930 -- 25 October 2002 -RRB- was an Irish actor and singer . He appeared on stage and in many films , appearing as Frank Machin in This Sporting Life , and King Arthur in the 1967 film Camelot and the subsequent 1981 revival of the show . He played an aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse -LRB- 1970 -RRB- , a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood 's Western film Unforgiven -LRB- 1992 -RRB- , Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator -LRB- 2000 -RRB- , and Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films : the Sorcerer 's Stone -LRB- 2001 -RRB- and the Chamber of Secrets -LRB- 2002 -RRB- . Harris had a top ten hit in the United Kingdom and United States with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb 's song `` MacArthur Park '' .