Jared Francis Harris (born 24 August 1961) is a British actor. He plays Hari Seldon in the Apple television series Foundation.
Early Life[]
Harris was born in Hammersmith, London, one of three sons of the Irish actor Richard Harris and his first wife, Welsh actress Elizabeth Rees-Williams. His younger brother is actor Jamie Harris, his older brother is director Damian Harris, and his maternal grandfather was politician David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore.
Harris was educated at Ladycross, a former preparatory boarding independent school in the coastal town of Seaford in East Sussex, as were his brothers Jamie and Damian. He says, "They were famous for discipline, with cold showers every morning," and that "You were never known by your first name there. You were either called by your number, or your last name. Since there were three of us, Damian was 'Harris Ma' for major. I was 'Harris Mi' for minor, and Jamie was 'Harris Minimus,' being the youngest and the smallest." He then went to Downside School, a Catholic boarding independent school in the village of Stratton-on-the-Fosse in Somerset, in South West England.
Career[]
Harris began his film career directing Darkmoor (1983), an unfinished feature-length film for Duke University's Freewater Films. His first film appearance as an actor was in The Rachel Papers (1989). He played the aged Will Robinson in the movie adaptation of the television series Lost in Space. Harris played Dr. Charles Ashford in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Benmont Tench in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and Kenneth Branagh's character's doppelgänger in How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog.
Other notable roles include King Henry VIII in the 2003 film adaptation of the novel The Other Boleyn Girl. He also portrayed Andy Warhol in I Shot Andy Warhol and John Lennon in the television movie Two of Us (2000). He played Vladimir in the black comedy drama film Happiness (1998), written and directed by Todd Solondz. He played the gruff Captain Anderson in the BBC2 adaptation of To the Ends of the Earth; Mac McGrath in the movie Mr. Deeds; Eamon Quinn in the FX series The Riches; and David Robert Jones in Fringe. One of his more recent film roles was Ulysses S. Grant in the Steven Spielberg-directed Lincoln. He played Lane Pryce in Mad Men from 2009 until 2012 and returned to the series to direct the 11th episode of Season 7, which aired in 2015. He also portrayed King George VI in the first season of The Crown. He played Captain Francis Crozier in the 2018 series The Terror, based on the Dan Simmons novel of the same name that provided a fictional account of the fate of Franklin's lost expedition. In November 2018, Harris was one of the first recipients of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society's Louie Kamookak Medal, awarded "for making Canada's geography better known to Canadians and to the world", for his portrayal of Captain Crozier. Harris said that he was "gratified" that the series inspired curiosity about the real expedition, remarking, "It’s sort of fitting that history will recall that it was the RCGS that first recognized The Terror, and that we as the recipients walked in the footsteps of Louie Kamookak." In March 2019, Harris joined Jared Leto in Sony's Spider-Man spinoff Morbius.
Personal Life[]
Harris married Jacqueline Goldenberg in 1989; they divorced in the early 1990s. On 16 July 2005, Harris married actress Emilia Fox, the daughter of actors Edward Fox and Joanna David, and filed for divorce in January 2009; the divorce was finalized in June 2010.
In 2009, Harris met Allegra Riggio, a lighting designer and TV host fourteen years his junior, at a comedy club where a mutual friend was performing. They married 9 November 2013.