Michael Gambon, best known for his role as Dumbledore in Harry Potter films, has died after falling ill with pneumonia.
Gambon began in theatre in the early 1960s before moving into TV and film. Notable film roles include a psychotic mob leader in Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover in 1989 and the elderly King George V in Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech in 2010.
His best-known role, however, was as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, a role he took over from the third instalment in the eight-movie series when he replaced the late Richard Harris in 2004.
Gambon completed an engineering apprenticeship at 15 and qualified at 21 before he became an actor. He was inspired by Marlon Brando and James Dean, who he believed reflected the angst of teenage boys.
In 1962 he auditioned for the great Shakespearean actor Laurence Olivier, who made him a founding member of the National Theatre at the Old Vic, together with other emerging greats such as Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith.
Gambon built his reputation on the stage, making his name in particular with his 1980 portrayal of Galileo in John Dexter’s Life of Galileo.
In 1986, in The Singing Detective, he played a writer suffering from a debilitating skin condition whose imagination provided the only escape from his pain. The performance won him one of his four BAFTAs.
He won three Olivier Awards, and two ensemble cast Screen Actors Guild Awards for Gosford Park and The King’s Speech.
Gambon was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1992 and knighted for services to drama in 1998.
He retired from the stage in 2015, but continued to act on screen until 2019. He said that his work made him feel ‘the luckiest man in the world’.
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