LONDON (AP) — Veteran actor Michael Gambon, recognized to many for portraying Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight “Harry Potter” movies, has died, his publicist mentioned Thursday. He was 82.
A press release 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.
It doesn’t matter what position he took on in a profession that lasted greater than 5 a long time, Gambon was at all times immediately recognizable by the deep and drawling tones of his voice. He was forged because the much-loved Dumbledore after his predecessor, Richard Harris, died in 2002.
He as soon as acknowledged not having learn any of J. Ok. Rowling’s best-selling books, arguing that it was safer to comply with the script somewhat than be too influenced by the books. That didn’t forestall him from embodying the spirit of Professor Dumbledore, the highly effective wizard who fought towards evil to guard his college students.
Though the Potter position raised Gambon’s worldwide profile and launched him to a brand new era of followers, he had lengthy been acknowledged as one among 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 providers to drama in 1998.
Born in Eire on Oct. 19, 1940, Gambon was raised in London and educated initially as an engineer, following in his father’s footsteps. He made his theatre debut in a manufacturing of “Othello” in Dublin.
In 1963, he bought his first massive break with a minor position in “Hamlet,” the Nationwide Theatre Firm’s opening manufacturing, beneath 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, profitable the Laurence Olivier Award 3 occasions and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards twice.
A multi-talented actor, Gambon additionally acquired 4 coveted British Academy of Movie and Tv Arts awards for his tv work.
He turned a family title in Britain after his lead position within the 1986 BBC sequence “The Singing Detective,” written by Dennis Potter and regarded a basic of British tv drama. Gambon gained the BAFTA for Finest Actor for the position.
Gambon was versatile as an actor however as soon as instructed the BBC 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 an element as King George V within the 2010 drama movie “The King’s Speech.” In 2015, he returned to the works of J.Ok. Rowling, taking a number one position within the TV adaptation of her e-book “The Informal Emptiness.”
Gambon retired from the stage in 2015 after struggling to recollect his traces in entrance of an viewers on account of his advancing age. He as soon as instructed the Sunday Occasions Journal: “It’s horrible to confess, however I can’t do it. It breaks my coronary heart.”
The actor was at all times 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.
