Veteran actor Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies, dies at the age of 82 | Michael Gambon’s death news

LONDON — Irish-born actor Michael Gambon has been knighted for an illustrious career on stage and screen, and his role as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films has inspired a new generation. It received praise from movie fans. The movie is dead. He was 82 years old.

The actor passed away on September 27 from an “attack of pneumonia,” publicist Claire Dobbs announced last week.

“We are shocked to announce the death of Sir Michael Gambon. A beloved husband and father, Michael passed away peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside. ,” the family said in a statement.

Although the Potter role raised Gambon’s international profile and won him a large audience, he had long been hailed as one of Britain’s leading actors. His work spans television, theatre, film and radio, and he starred in dozens of films over the decades, from Gosford Park and The King’s Speech to the animated family film Paddington. . He recently starred in the 2019 Judy Garland biopic Judy.

Gambon was knighted in 1998 for his services to the entertainment industry.

The popular role of Professor Dumbledore was originally played by fellow Irish-born actor Richard Harris. When Harris died in 2002 after two films in the series were produced, Gambon took over, playing the role from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

He once admitted that he had not read any of JK Rowling’s best-selling books, and claimed it was safer to follow a script than be too influenced by books. However, this did not prevent him from embodying the spirit of a powerful wizard who fights evil to protect his students.

His co-stars often described Gambon as a mischievous and funny man who was self-deprecating about his talent. Actress Helen Mirren fondly remembered his “naturally Irish sense of humour, naughty but very, very funny”.

Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter series, recalled Gambon telling her how central acting was to her life.

“He said to me once in the car, ‘I know I talk a lot about this and that, but really, at the end of the day, it’s all about acting.’ ” Shaw told the BBC. “I think he always pretended he wasn’t taking it seriously, but he took this issue very seriously.”

Irish President Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to Gambon’s “extraordinary talent”, calling him “one of the finest actors of his generation”.

Born in Dublin on October 19, 1940, Gambon grew up in London and initially trained as an engineer, following in his father’s footsteps. He has no formal theatrical training, and it is said that he began working in the theater as a set builder. He made his theatrical debut in Othello in Dublin.

In 1963, he got his first big break in a bit role in the National Theater Company’s opening production of Hamlet, directed by the legendary Laurence Olivier.

Gambon quickly became a prominent stage actor, receiving critical acclaim for his starring performance in John Dexter’s The Life of Galileo. He was frequently nominated for awards and won three Laurence Olivier Awards and two Critics Circle Drama Awards.

A versatile actor, Gambon has won four coveted British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards for his television work.

He became well known in the UK after playing the lead role in the 1986 BBC television series The Singing Detective, written by Dennis Potter and considered a classic of British television drama. Gambon won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for this role.

Gambon has also been nominated for an Emmy Award for his recent television work, including his role as Mr. Woodhouse in the 2010 Jane Austen adaptation of Emma, ​​and former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 2002’s The Road to War. has been nominated for.

Gambon was a versatile actor, but once told the BBC that he liked playing “villains”. He played gangster Eddie Temple in the British crime thriller film Layer Cake. The New York Times called Gambon “certainly brilliant” in its review of the film, and he played a diabolical crime boss in Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His. his wife and her lover. ”

He also appeared in the 2010 drama film The King’s Speech as King George V. In 2015, he returned to work with JK Rowling, playing the lead role in the TV version of her non-Potter book, The Casual Vacancy.

“I absolutely loved working with him,” Rowling wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The first time I saw him was in King Lear in 1982. If you told me at the time that this wonderful actor was going to star in something I had written, I thought you were insane. I guess.”

Gambon retired from the stage in 2015 after struggling to remember lines in front of an audience due to his advanced age. He once told the Sunday Times Magazine: It breaks my heart. ”

Gambon always kept to himself when it came to his personal life. He married Ann Miller and had one son, Fergus. He later had two sons with set designer Philippa Hart.