David Harris, who soared to international fame playing a notorious gang member in the classic film The Warriors, has died. He was 75.
Harris’s daughter, Davina Harris, confirmed to the New York Times that her father succumbed to cancer and died at his house in his New York hometown on Oct, 25.
Fans recognized David Harris around the world
Though Harris went on to star in many films and TV shows, he admitted that he could not have fathomed that The Warriors would become a seismic film that practically defined him for the rest of his career.
“We thought [The Warriors] was a little film that would run its little run and go, and nobody would ever talk about it again,” Harris once said, according to Variety magazine. “I was in Hong Kong, I was in the Philippines, I was in Tokyo. I’ve done a lot of movies, but I get off the plane and people go, ‘It’s the guy from The Warriors.’”
David Harris became famous in his New York hometown
David Dominic Harris was born in New York in 1949 and was inspired to go into acting by an English teacher who encouraged him to explore drama at the acclaimed High School of Performing Arts. He immediately discerned he’d found his raison d’être.
“I fell in love with it,” he said in a 2022 interview with The Claw’s Corner publication. “I said, ‘You know what, I think this is my niche.’”
He got his break with his first film role in the Emmy-nominated TV movie Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys in 1976. But it was The Warriors role of Cochise when Harris was 30 that changed his life.
The Warriors was based on a 1965 novel of the same name by Sol Yurick. The premise of the book and movie is a fictitious New York gang that is falsely accused of killing a rival gang leader. Harris played Cochise, whose gang, the Warriors, spend the rest of the film trying to flee the Bronx on foot to return to their Brooklyn borough, battling a succession of gangs along the way. Harris’ Cochise character was memorable due to his turquoise necklace, feathers, red bandana, and afro.
The film reportedly inspired numerous other stories and filmmakers, including Chad Stahelski, the director of John Wick: Chapter 4, People magazine reports.
Harris went on to play in a series of high-profile films in the 1980s, such as Brubaker, A Soldier’s Story, and Under Cover. He then pivoted towards television with starring and recurring roles in “The First Wives Club” television reboot on BET, “Elementary,” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
In addition to his daughter, according to Variety, Harris is survived by his mother, Maude Marie Harris; his sister, Jeannette C. Harris-Zwerin; brothers Arthur A. Harris and Vincent J. Harris; and two grandchildren.
