Significant actor of six Harry Potter films Sir Michael Gambon, who portrayed Professor Albus Dumbledore, passed away at the age of 82, and several of his former co-stars have paid homage to him.
“loved his job but never felt defined by it,” Daniel Radcliffe remarked of the “brilliant, effortless” actor.
For “showing us what it looks like to wear greatness lightly,” Emma Watson praised Sir Michael.
“Outstanding actor” and “wonderful man,” in the words of author J.K. Rowling
Fiona Shaw, another member of the cast of the Harry Potter films, said that Sir Michael’s career demonstrated that he “could do anything” as an actor.
The Dublin-born performer, who died of pneumonia in the hospital, had a career spanning six decades and spanning television, cinema, theater, and radio. A total of four Baftas were bestowed on him.
- Sir Michael Gambon’s Filmography
- A former actor and TV host becomes headmaster at Hogwarts.
Although Sir Michael and his family had relocated to London when he was young, he made his theatrical debut in 1962 in a Dublin production of Othello.
When he joined Laurence Olivier’s acting company at London’s National Theatre, his career took off. Three times, he was recognized for his work at the National Theatre with Olivier Awards.
His theater work was always his priority, but in the 1980s and 1990s, he also had a string of successful film and television appearances that earned him critical recognition.
Dennis Potter wrote The Singing Detective, a groundbreaking and contentious BBC One drama in which he played the title role.
He also portrayed Oscar Wilde in a 1985 BBC Two miniseries on Wilde’s criminal trial and imprisonment and a completely different investigator, the Parisian Jules Maigret, in an adaptation of Georges Simenon’s famous books.
The role of the gluttonous and irredeemable “thief” in 1989’s The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and Her Lover is one of his most famous in the movies.
He was a “naughty but very, very funny” buddy, according to Dame Helen Mirren, who portrayed his adulterous wife.
Dame Helen recounted how he kept her “constantly in laughter” both on set and in their 2007 stage performance of Antony and Cleopatra in an interview with Sunday’s Laura Kuenssberg.
She went on to say that the two had recently spoken about aging and its effects on their careers.
She said that Sir Michael was “utterly realistic” about his predicament. “He found it increasingly difficult to remember lines, which I have the greatest sympathy with, and that sort of took him away from theater,” she said.
In the next decade, he appeared in many more films with A-list Hollywood actors in blockbuster films including Toys, Sleepy Hollow, and Gosford Park. Ali G. Indahouse even found time for a cameo appearance as the prime minister.
Adorable Confidence Trickster
When acting legend Richard Harris passed away in 2002, Sir Michael stepped forward to take up the role of Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
“The first time I ever laid eyes on him was in King Lear, in 1982, and if you’d told me then that brilliant actor would appear in anything I’d written, I’d have thought you were insane,” Rowling said in a tribute on X, previously Twitter.
“Michael was an outstanding actor, but more importantly, he was a wonderful man, and I loved every minute of working with him on both Potter and The Casual Vacancy.”
When asked about his time spent with Sir Michael, Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, said, “Michael Gambon was one of the most brilliant, effortless actors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with, but, despite his immense talent, the thing I will remember most about him is how much fun he had doing his job.”
Adding that Sir Michael was “silly, irreverent, and hilarious,” Radcliffe recalled that Sir Michael liked to “blur the lines of fact and fiction” while speaking to journalists during a press event. He was dedicated to his work, but it was never his identity.
Hermione Grainger actress Emma Watson gushed about Watson on Instagram, writing, “You never took it too seriously but somehow delivered the most serious moments with all the gravitas.”
On set, Rupert Grint’s “personal role model” “brought so much warmth and mischief,” as the actor put it.
Jason Isaacs, who portrayed Lucius Malfoy on the show, credited Michael for teaching him “what acting could be” in a social media post.
“Knowing my name and sharing his fearless, filthy sense of fun with me was the greatest thrill of being in the Potter films.”
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s The World at One, Fiona Shaw, who portrayed Petunia Dursley in the films, said, “He varied his career remarkably and never judged what he was doing; he just played.”
She described him as “a trickster, just a brilliant, magnificent trickster,” adding, “With text, there was nothing like him.” Anything was within his reach.
Also, Fred Weasley’s movie counterpart, James Phelps, referred to Sir Michael as “a legend” in a memorial post on X (previously Twitter).
When he was performing in Peter and the Wolf with the Manchester Halle Orchestra, he remembered that Sir Michael volunteered to help him with his lines one weekend.
“We spent what should have been his downtime going over my weekend gig. It is a memory that I’ve always had as one of the highlights of my Harry Potter days,” he remarked.
Dame Joan Collins, who portrayed Sir Michael’s wife in the 1993 BBC comedy Mama’s Back, praised him as “a great actor and great fun.”
Longtime friend Dame Eileen Atkins described Sir Michael as “a great actor, but he always pretended he didn’t take it very seriously” and “amazing stage presence” on BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
He “just had to walk on stage, and he commanded the whole audience immediately,” she added. “There was something extremely charming about him,” Michael said of the hulking guy. “He could seem quite terrifying.
‘I will never forget that guy,’ she said.
Named “The Great Gambon,”
He also appeared in the film version of Dad’s Army and the film The King’s Speech, in which he played King George V, the father of King George VI, who stutters.
Both his portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson in Path to War (2002) and his part as Mr. Woodhouse in the 2010 production of Emma (based on the novel by Jane Austen) earned him Emmy nominations. In 1997, for his performance in Skylight, a play by David Hare, he was nominated for a Tony Award.
In 1998, he was knighted for his contributions to the film and television industries. Despite his Irish heritage, he was raised as a British citizen.
In 2012, the actor known as “The Great Gambon” in the acting world made his final theatrical appearance in a London production of All That Fall by Samuel Beckett.
Ryan Phillippe, an American actor, described himself as “so lucky” to have worked with Sir Michael on the set of Gosford Park. Even though Sir Michael was in his sixties when they met, he and this younger man “got along like schoolmates due to his irrepressibly youthful spirit,” as he put it.
Memories of riding home from work in his classic convertible at high speeds while listening to the Stones blast from the stereo are seared into my brain. X user “Rest in peace, mate,” he wrote.
Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), praised him as “a great actor.” He gave his all in every role, whether it was Beckett, Dennis Potter, or Harry Potter.
