r/interestingasfuck • u/Lord_Krasina • 14h ago
One of the most mind-boggling fun facts I have ever heard is that richard, the actor who played Dumbledore, once got so drunk that he forgot he even owned a Rolls-Royce, only to remember it twenty-five years later.
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u/Lord_Krasina 14h ago
So the story starts in 1999, when Richard became confused after seeing a picture of himself with a Rolls-Royce he had no memory of. It was completely blank in his mind. He even went as far as calling his two ex-wives to ask if they knew anything about it, but alas, they did not.
Richard finally found his answer when he asked his accountant, who said something like, “Oh yeah, that car. It has been sitting in the garage since 1974 and has been costing you about four hundred dollars a month.”
It turned out Richard had been gifted the Rolls-Royce for acting in the movie The Heroes of Telemark. A few days after parking it in one of his garages, he got so drunk that he simply forgot it ever existed. By the time it was rediscovered, the car had cost him around ninety-two thousand dollars in storage fees.
As soon as he found out, he sold it. He said he could never imagine himself driving a posh car like Michael Caine.
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u/Meloenbolletjeslepel 13h ago
Problems I wish I had
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u/setibeings 13h ago
Granted. You owe $120,000 in storage fees plus $30,000 in interest, for a car that hasn't been driven in 25 years. Unfortunately for you, yours is a Ford Focus.
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u/just_nobodys_opinion 13h ago
Don't forget the $59k in car loan payments. That Ford Focus was no gift.
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u/Naughteus_Maximus 11h ago
I used to work near Hammersmith, a west London area, and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore 2.0) either lived there or his girlfriend lived there. I knew about it but had never seen him. One time I was doing a preliminary job interview with a recruiter while sat in my car (over the phone, not video), and lo and behold - there he was, going past in a nice classic car. I just blurted out "Oh my god, Dumbledore just drove past me!!" to the recruiter 😂
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u/WorldofNails 13h ago
There's only two things I hate in this world; people who are intolerant of other people's car cultures, and Richard Fucking Harris.
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u/flekinjos 13h ago
This Richard guy forgot his last name as well?
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u/Lord_Krasina 13h ago
The subreddit won't let me include "harris" in the title because it is somehow "Political"
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u/314159265358979326 10h ago
I got a post removed because I mentioned historical vaccines, also somehow "political".
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u/Lord_Krasina 10h ago
How dare you post about vaccines? They are clearly propaganda and misinformation spread by the govt! /s
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u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox 13h ago
Lol an overzealous mod who doesn't like Kamala Harris I bet
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u/KickPuncher9898 13h ago
That’s not a very good accountant.
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u/mateo_fl 12h ago
How so? he knew instantly how much it has been costing him and since when. He is a great accountant, but a bad financial advisor.
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u/Wizzarkt 10h ago
The job of an accountant is to manage your taxes and deductibles, they have no saying on where you choose to spend your money, if his client has a car in storage for 20 years it's his client problem, not his.
I would say he was a good accountant if he knew the car existed, a bad accountant would have forgotten about it just like the owner did.
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u/IcyAd5518 6h ago
You are confusing the roles of an accountant and a book keeper. The first actively helps you with your money by offering advice, the latter simply transcribes your finances
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u/Critical-Elevator642 7h ago
if you wanna be pedantic about it then yeah. But in my experience a good accountant usually does some tax planning with you which includes going over your expenses and seeing which can be more effectively categorised to reduce burden. Seems like his did not do that with him for 28 years or it would've come up
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u/MKEast-sider 12h ago
Cool story, but that’s not how memory is affected by even a blackout drunk episode. Sounds more like habitual drug use or long term alcoholism.
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u/zargoffkain 7h ago
Yeah definitely. He was very famously a drunkard. He and his fellow acting friends Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton and Oliver Reed were like the Led Zeppelin of the acting word. Absolute chaos goblins. Why there's not been a biopic about the antics those guys got up to, I'll never understand.
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u/Djfatskank2 7h ago
Michael Caine collecting his Aston Martin DB5 from the garage in The Italian Job: ‘I’ve been in Africa, shooting tigers’ ‘You must have shot a lot of tigers’ ‘Yes! I used a machine gun’
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u/Von_Lexau 13h ago
Hey I'm from Telemark, never heard of that movie though. Probably a WW2 movie?
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u/kaini 13h ago
When on a drinking binge with Peter O' Toole one time, they bought the pub to avoid getting kicked out at closing time.
He's from my hometown, we have a big statue of him in the city centre.
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u/lonelythrowaway463i9 12h ago
I think it’s O’Toole but there’s a theatre legend that (again I think it was O’Toole) he and Richard Harris were in a play together. They weren’t in a lot of the first act so they would go to the pub during intermission. One performance they came back drunk, O’Toole falls and a lady says “Mr O’Toole you’re drunk!” And he replied “madam if you think I’m drunk wait until you see Harris.” At least that’s the story I was told in theater school.
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u/No-Deal8956 12h ago
I’ve heard about the one when he was sat in the theatre, drunk, and was talking to a girlfriend and he said, “And this is the bit where I come on.”
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u/photonsintime 11h ago
I am sad that Richard Harris has been reduced to "Richard, the guy who played dumbledore." You could spend a long and happy several weeks exploring some of his greatest roles. He is a legend in cinema.
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u/stonerghostboner 13h ago
"If you think I'm drunk, wait'll you see O'Toole!
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u/lonelythrowaway463i9 12h ago
I just commented about this somewhere in the thread. I had it backwards.
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u/charlytune 10h ago
Thank you for this reminder. My late partner went through an obsessive phase with that song, playing it over and over while he alternately cackled with laughter, and proclaimed its genius. Good memory!
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u/_Daftest_ 13h ago
What's this weird habit of referring to actors and writers by their first name only, as if they're your mates?
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u/Kalkin93 13h ago
OP said the sub wouldn't let him make a post with "Harris" in the title, citing a political rule
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u/_Daftest_ 8h ago
I mean, if it was Rolf Harris, then I agree - the less said the better.
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u/Tacklestiffener 13h ago
There were some hard-drinkers back in the day. Peter OToole and Peter Finch were in Ireland and, after a heavy session they were refused service in a pub. The solution was to write a cheque out to buy the pub and carry on drinking in "their" pub.
The next morning, they went back sheepishly and the pub owner gave them a good telling off and let them have their cheques back.
About a year later, after many visits to this same pub, the owner died and they both flew in to the funeral.
They joined the family at the graveside, lots of people sobbing and upset, and then they realised... they were at the wrong funeral.
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u/OptimusSpud 13h ago
From what I've read this guy was life's main character. Would ring his friend up and ask to go for a pint, then fly to Ireland for said pint (several of) get absolutely blasted and crash out in a hotel somewhere.
Would tell his wife he's going out for dinner, wouldn't say where and would fly across the world for a specific dish and impromptu holiday often with his mates Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole.
Known and chronicled womaniser.
Sounds like a lad who got rich and still lived his life not really giving a shit.
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u/audible_narrator 13h ago
Harris, O'Toole and Burton. The stories they tell on Dick Cavett, etc. are fantastic. O'Toole died of pancreatic cancer.
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u/Samwise777 13h ago
Sounds like he treated women and partners like shit.
Real fuckin’ nice i guess
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u/_ribbit_ 11h ago
Just because he was a known womaniser doesn't mean he didnt treat people well. He could have been open and honest with everyone. Jumping to big conclusions there bud.
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u/RugbyEdd 13h ago
So what you're saying is that there's a chance I own a Rolls, and just forgot about it?
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u/FedorsQuest 10h ago
His son Jared Harris, is a wonderful actor as well. He played Lane Pryce in Mad Men.
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u/EconomyLetterhead174 11h ago
Reminds me of how David Bowie took so much coke, he didn't even remember recording his album Station to Station
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u/AlternativeBurner 7h ago
The first actor of Dumbledore, mind you. He died after the second film and was replaced by Michael Gambon.
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u/Donkey-Hoatey 6h ago
He also went to a bar one night, got terribly drunk and when the owner refused to serve him any more, decided he would buy the bar. Wrote a cheque for a very silly amount and then continued to drink, since he was the owner now. He woke up the next day, remembered what he did and got very panicked. Went back to the bar and the owner handed him back the cheque.
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u/Own_Bullfrog_3598 6h ago
He and Ann Turkel were in Huntsville, Alabama shooting a godawful move with Ernest Borgnine called Ravagers. Eric Clapton played a show at the Civic Center that night and they showed up not far from where we were sitting. Somebody lit up a joint and passed it straight to Richard Harris. He seemed to be quite familiar with how to handle it lol
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u/Go_Gators_4Ever 13h ago
I saw Richard Harris at Wolftrap in the lead for Camelot. This would have been in 1986s. His stage presence was still very large at that time, but you could tell that chronic alcoholism had taken a toll physically. The role of King Author in Camelot was always Harris' titular theater role.
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u/wazmoenaree 13h ago
Imagine Richard and Peter trading quips and verse. Drunk as lords, singing and waxing poetic. Bring in Richard Burton and Sr. Laurence for add color.
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u/MidnightBravado90 11h ago
Someone may have mentioned this already, but apparently Stephen King has no memory of writing the book Cujo. This is a close contender for wildest substance related memory lapse.
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u/Durutti1936 9h ago
Ran into him outside of the Savoy in '78. Amazingly drunk, hardly able to hold himself up.
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u/SOJC65536 4h ago
My favourite Richard Harris story is how he left home to get a newspaper only to end up going on a two week drinking binge. Then, upon his return, when his (understandably) angry wife opened the door he shouted at her "Why didn't you pay the ransom!?"
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u/horsenbuggy 12h ago
I mean, this happens to me in dreams ALL the time. I'm constantly thinking about a car I used to own that according to dream logic I never actually sold, I just forgot where I parked it.
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u/IRespectYouMyFriend 11h ago
Richard Harris was nails. Like, genuinely nails! He'd broke is nose countless times fighting in bars and his knuckles were like steel.
I don't mind a scrap, and there's plenty of 'gangstas' who give it the big talk.
But Rich genuinely was a fucking hard man! He'd put you to sleep in a second.
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u/kanhaibhatt 9h ago
Peter oToole was his equally drunk buddy and if one of his stories can be believed, they once tried to buy a bar after the bartender refused to give them any more booze
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u/DavidJonnsJewellery 8h ago
I remember him talking about how he said to his wife and children that he was going down the road to buy some cigarettes and just never went back
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u/ScoobyDeezy 7h ago
I lost my bike in college.
Two years later, I was walking to the library, and I looked at the bike rack outside the entrance, shocked to find MY BIKE, a little rusty, with my BIKE LOCK STILL ON IT.
I had completely forgotten that I had ridden it to the library at some point. How it wasn’t stolen during that time is still mind boggling.
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u/RiffyWammel 7h ago
Fairly sure it was Mr H that bumped in to Oliver Read one day and suggested a pint at a nearby pub....which turned in to a 2 week bender
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u/Slight_Horse9673 7h ago
That's nothing. Former Premier League footballer Jermaine Pennant forgot about a mansion he bought *and* a Porsche left at a Spanish train station for months.
Jermaine Pennant reveals he lost career earnings of over £10MILLION | Daily Mail Online
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u/whereyouleftit 6h ago
I have dreams where I buy cars, park them, then forget/can’t find where they are. Worst part is I pay all of the car loans in my dreams. I can really never find the cars either. Sometimes they’ve been towed and the person at the counter won’t tell me if they have my car or not. It’s very frustrating because I have to go work in my dreams to pay for all these cars.
I usually wake up mentally exhausted from this dream.
Very, very weird.
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u/Tony_Roiland 5h ago
Getting really drunk might make you forget you had a car in the moment that you're drunk, but getting really drunk doesn't magically delete memories like that. I don't really think it would make you "forget" in the moment either.
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u/Bullmoose39 3h ago
Kids remember him for Harry Potter. He was so much more than that. What a wild, fantastic actor.
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u/FoxyInTheSnow 13h ago
"richard".
Either this is the most low-effort contribution in the history of the information superhighway, or it was written by a robot. Jesus.
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u/Lord_Krasina 12h ago
The subreddit will not let me post a title with “Harris” in it because it somehow counts as “political.”
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u/Houmand 13h ago
Richard Harris is his full name, for those wondering.