Richard Harris and Jamie and by a niece, Annabelle. He had fallen into a coma in his final three days. Harris' body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Bahamas, where he had owned a home. Harris was a lifelong friend of actor Peter O'Toole, and his family reportedly hoped that O'Toole would replace Harris as Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". There were, however, worries of insuring O'Toole for the six remaining films in the series. Harris was ultimately replaced as Dumbledore by the Irish-born actor Michael Gambon. On 30 September 2006, Manuel Di Lucia, of
Religious debates over the Harry Potter series LaVaque-Manty of the liberal website Left2Right notes, "Religion plays no role in the books. There are no churches, no other religious institutions, nobody prays or meditates, and even funerals are non-religious affairs." When considering the role of religion within "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Christopher Hitchens observed the apparent secularism in the novel, stating that the characters of Harry and Hermione possess certain moral virtues while also expressing an ignorance of Christian ideas. In an article written for "Time" magazine before the publication of the seventh and final book in the series entitled "Who Dies in Harry Potter? God,"