Hellraiser actor Dumbledore left his Rolls-Royce in a parking lot for 25 years
Photo: Yahoo/Warner Bros. (Composite)
We’ve all been there: you leave the house and suddenly realize that you don’t know if you locked the door or not, or you don’t remember where you put your keys or even where it was. where you parked your car at the mall. But this is on a whole other level.
Today’s Blast From the Past comes from a man who was once considered one of the most promising actors of his generation before coming to Hollywood and becoming what trade publications describe as “a womanizing drunk who has a taste for punches.” Richard Harris was able to redeem himself later in life after going cold turkey, most notably with a memorable turn as Professor Dumbledore in the first two. Harry Potter films, but its reputation as hell has survived it.
In the ’60s and ’70s, when he was at the height of his career, Harris was also at his craziest peak, something he often talked about in his interviews. As talented and wealthy as he was, Harris was just as wild, indulging in week-long drinking binges when he only intended to go out to buy bread and getting so wasted by alcohol and cocaine that he often forgot where he was and how he got there.
In this context, it’s probably not surprising that he forgets that he bought a new car. The amazing thing is that he got it, parked it in an underground car park and forgot about it for the next 25 years, during which time the bills piled up to an astronomical amount. And he only remembers owning the car by accident, which is perhaps the icing on the cake.
Photo: Rolls-Royce
Forgetting where you put your keys or where you parked your car has nothing to do with Harris’ most famous anecdote, which has since become something of an urban myth – and the perfect example of the debauched and crazy life of rich and famous of the time. .
Harris was born in Ireland to middle-class parents, but he worked hard at home and made a name for himself in theater. In the early 1960s, he crossed the Atlantic to Hollywood and settled in a room originally intended for Richard Burton. A shrewd sales call regarding securing the rights ensured that the play became Harris’s success. So by the end of the tour he was so rich that he was telling the media that it would take him four lifetimes to spend all that money.
So Harris began buying properties all over the world, including the United States. In 1965, after starring with the late Kirk Douglas in the World War II drama Telemark heroes, Harris was given a Rolls-Royce Phantom V, which he admittedly loved. Maybe he was, but he didn’t love him enough to keep him close.
Photo: Rolls-Royce
In New York, the actor parked the vehicle in an underground parking garage and apparently forgot about it – not for a day, a month or even a year, but for a full 25 years. During this time, Harris got sober, liquidated almost his entire property portfolio and returned to the United Kingdom where he continued to work in film and theater.
He “remembered” the car by accident. To be more precise, he didn’t remember it at all, but he finally found out after coming across a photo of him leaning against the Phantom. Intrigued, he called his two ex-wives, but neither of them could provide him with any information on the matter. Her accountant finally solved the riddle, confirming that the car was in her name and, worse, that she was racking up unpaid bills at the New York garage.
Depending on which source you believe, at that time Harris was owed between $92,000 and $543,000 in unpaid bills. Accounts also vary as to when Harris discovered the car: some claim it happened some time before his death in 2002, giving him enough time to have the vehicle shipped to the UK, restored , then sold. Apparently he hated the idea of ​​riding in such an expensive – and now vintage – vehicle.
Photo: Rolls-Royce
Other sources claim that the Ghost remained lost until after Harris’s death and that it was his first wife, Elizabeth Harris, who arranged for its sale. According to local reports, she said selling the car at auction was the only way she could cover part of the bill. In 2003, when this report was published, Elizabeth said she hoped to get some $220,000 for the Phantom.
Perhaps the strangest part of this very strange story about a celebrity-owned classic is that the Phantom V doesn’t seem to exist beyond the details of this anecdote. This and the fact that the calculations do not match any of the variants of the story in circulation seem to indicate that it was perhaps a simple story told by a man famous for his scandalous tales, who relied on the inability of the public to understand. check the details.
It’s true that Harris probably owned a Phantom V at one point and may have even forgotten that he abandoned it in a parking lot, costing him more than if he had taken it home for the store. But everything else might just be part of the Harris brand, which was built on his hellish image, the tales of his epic follies with his famous friends, and the cult of celebrity – which was a completely different thing of what we have today. relying much more on stories like this, whether or not supported by fact.
