Sir Michael Gambon, the actor known for his role as Dumbledore in the last six Harry Potter films, died at 82 years old. His widow, Lady Anne Gambon, and son Fergus shared that Gambon died in the hospital after a “bout with pneumonia,” according to the BBC on September 28. “We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon,” his family said in a press release per Birmingham Mail. “Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside.” In his lifetime, Gambon was known to his fellow actors as “The Great Gambon,” after fellow actor Sir Ralph Richardson christened him with the moniker. Gambon himself was self-effacing with regards to the name, telling Playbill in 1996, “Peter Hall told me that’s what Ralph said to him about me, but he well might have meant it in the circus sense, you know, like a clown or something.”
Gambon was born Cabra, a suburb of Dublin, in 1940, and lived there until he was 6, at which point his family moved to London. “I used to run around the streets of London by myself at the age of 8,” he told the Irish Times in 2010. “I’d spend my time breaking into London Zoo.” His first role was in the Unity Theater as a boy — his role was to ask if anybody needed tea. Gambon got his professional start in Othello in Dublin at the Gaiety. Then, Gambon spent three years with the National Theater under Laurence Olivier.
Gambon received his first Olivier nomination for Betrayal in 1979, later going on to receive 12 additional nominations throughout his career, with three wins. He additionally received four BAFTA wins for his television work, two Emmy nominations, and a Tony nomination throughout his career. Prior to his work as Dumbledore, Gambon was perhaps best known for his role in The Singing Detective, an acclaimed U.K. series for which he won his first BAFTA in 1987. He became internationally beloved for his role as Albus Dumbledore, which he took on after the original portrayer, Richard Harris, died in 2002. “This will stick out as being a happy memory, being with a thing for so long and the worldwide love of it,” Gambon told Today in 2009 about playing Dumbledore. “You never forget that.”
Daniel Radcliffe, who played the titular bespectacled wizard in the Harry Potter movies, remembered Gambon as a “brilliant, effortless” actor who was also “silly, irreverent, and hilarious.” “He loved his job, but never seemed defined by it,” Radcliffe said in a statement to Variety. “He was an incredible story and joke teller and his habit of blurring the lines of fact and fiction when talking to journalists meant that he was also one of the most entertaining people with whom you could ever wish to do a press junket.” Radcliffe added that he spent the most time with Gambon on the set of the sixth Harry Potter film. “[H]e made the hours spent in front of a green screen together more memorable and joyous than they had any right to be,” he recalled. “I’m so sad to hear he has passed, but I am so grateful for the fact that I am one of the lucky people who got to work with him.” Emma Watson, who played Hermione, paid tribute on her Instagram Story. “Kind kind kind Michael Gambon. You never took it too seriously but somehow delivered the most serious moments with all the gravitas. Thank you for showing us what it looks like to wear greatness lightly. We will miss you,” she captioned a photo of him as Dumbledore. Below, find tributes to Gambon from Rupert Grint, J.K. Rowling, and more.
This post has been updated.
