Michael Gambon, the acclaimed Irish actor best known for portraying Dumbledore in six of the Harry Potter films, has died at the age of 82. “We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon. Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside,” a statement from his family read. According to his publicist, Gambon died after a brief battle with pneumonia.
Gambon was best known for playing Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore in the Harry Potter franchise from Prisoner of Azkaban onwards. Gambon stepped into the role after the role's original actor, Richard Harris, passed away following The Chamber Of Secrets. However, Gambon had a stage and television career that dated back to the 1960s. His final on-screen roles were in 2019, with roles in Judy and Cordelia. Furthermore, he had a special place in the hearts of motoring fans. The popular British motoring show Top Gear named a turn on their test track after Gambon. Gambon received the honor after almost flipping the car he was driving at the spot on the track.
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Sir Michael Gambon Fondly Remembered
“He did once say to me in a car ‘I know I go on a lot about this and that, but actually, in the end, there is only acting'. I think he was always pretending that he didn’t take it seriously, but he took it profoundly seriously," actress Fiona Shaw told the BBC. Shaw appeared alongside Gambon in several of the Harry Potter films, as well as The Last September. “I absolutely loved working with him/ 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," Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling wrote on social media. Gambon also appeared in the TV adaptation of Rowling's crime novel, The Casual Vacancy.
“With the loss of Michael Gambon the world just became considerably less fun. 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. He was silly, irreverent, and hilarious," Daniel Radcliffe told Page Six. Of course, like any esteemed British actor, Gambon also appeared on the long-running science fiction show, Doctor Who. In 2010, Gambon appeared in an homage to Ebeneezer Scrooge alongside David Tennant for one of the show's iconic Christmas specials.
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