Veteran actor Michael Gambon, who was recognized to many for his portrayal of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter movies, has died, his publicist says. He was 82.
An announcement by his household, issued by his publicist, mentioned he died following “a bout of pneumonia.”
“We’re devastated to announce the lack of Sir Michael Gambon. Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital together with his spouse Anne and son Fergus at his bedside,” his household mentioned.
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It doesn’t matter what function he took on in a profession that lasted greater than 5 a long time, Gambon was all the time immediately recognisable by the deep and drawling tones of his voice.
He was forged because the much-loved Dumbledore after the demise of his predecessor, Richard Harris, in 2002.
He as soon as acknowledged not having learn any of JK Rowling’s best-selling books, arguing that it was safer to observe the script moderately than be too influenced by the books.
That did not stop him from embodying the spirit of Dumbledore, the highly effective wizard who fought towards evil to guard his college students.
Though the Potter function raised Gambon’s worldwide profile and launched him to a brand new technology of followers, he had lengthy been recognised as certainly one of Britain’s main actors.
His work spanned TV, theatre and radio, and he starred in dozens of movies from Gosford Park to The King’s Speech and the animated household film Paddington.
Gambon was knighted for companies to drama in 1998.
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Born in Eire on October 19, 1940, Gambon was raised in London and initially skilled as an engineer, following within the footsteps of his father. He made his theatre debut in a manufacturing of Othello in Dublin.
In 1963 he obtained his first large break with a minor function in Hamlet, the Nationwide Theatre Firm’s opening manufacturing, underneath the directorship of the legendary Laurence Olivier.
Gambon quickly turned a distinguished stage actor and acquired essential popularity of his main efficiency in Lifetime of Galileo directed by John Dexter. He was regularly nominated for awards and gained the Laurence Olivier award 3 instances and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards twice.
A multi-talented actor, Gambon was additionally the recipient of 4 coveted British Academy of Movie and Tv Arts awards for his tv work.
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He turned a family title in Britain after his lead function within the 1986 BBC collection The Singing Detective, written by Dennis Potter and thought of a traditional of British tv drama. Gambon gained the BAFTA for finest actor for the function.
Gambon was versatile as an actor however as soon as informed the BBC of his desire for enjoying “villainous characters”.
He performed gangster Eddie Temple within the British crime thriller Layer Cake — a assessment of the movie by the New York Occasions referred to Gambon as “reliably glorious” — and a Satanic crime boss in Peter Greenaway’s The Cook dinner, The Thief, His Spouse and Her Lover.
He additionally had a component as King George V within the 2010 drama movie The King’s Speech. In 2015 he returned to the works of JK Rowling, taking a number one function within the TV adaptation of her e-book The Informal Emptiness.
Gambon retired from the stage in 2015 after struggling to recollect his strains in entrance of an viewers attributable to his advancing age.
He as soon as informed the Sunday Occasions Journal: “It is a horrible factor to confess, however I am unable to do it. It breaks my coronary heart.”
The actor was all the time protecting when it got here to his non-public life. He married Anne Miller and so they had one son, Fergus. He later had two sons with set designer Philippa Hart.
