Michael Gambon, a British-Irish actor best known for portraying the sage professor Albus Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” film series and whose career was launched by his mentor Laurence Olivier, is reported to have passed away.
About Michael John
On October 19, 1940, in Dublin, Michael John Gambon was born to an engineer father and a seamstress mother.
When Gambon was six years old, the family relocated to Camden Town in London as his father looked for employment in the post-war redevelopment of the city.
Gambon dropped out of school at age 15 to start an engineering apprenticeship, and by age 21, he had earned his full degree.
He did, however, participate in an amateur theater troupe and admitted to The Herald newspaper in 2004 that he always knew he would act.
He took his cues from American performers James Dean and Marlon Brando, who he thought captured the agony of adolescent lads.
Is Dumbledore actor dead?
Michael Gambon, an Irish-born actor who received praise for his stage and screen performances and gained much more notoriety as Dumbledore, the strict but loving headmaster of the Hogwarts wizarding school in the “Harry Potter” movies, passed away on Wednesday night. He was 82.
His personal life
At the age of 22, Gambon wed mathematician Anne Miller in 1962. He was known for guarding his privacy, so when asked about his wife during an interview, he replied, “What wife?” The pair resided in Kent’s Gravesend.
Their only child, Fergus became a ceramics specialist on the BBC program Antiques Roadshow.
While filming the 2001 movie Gosford Park, Gambon brought Philippa Hart, a lady 25 years his junior, on the set and introduced her to his co-stars as his girlfriend.
He left the house he and his wife occupied when their romance was made public in 2002. Since 2000, when they collaborated on the Channel 4 television series Longitude, he has been with Hart.
It was disclosed in February 2007 that Hart gave birth to a son while carrying Gambon’s child. Gambon’s third child was born in 2009, thanks to Hart.
Career
He went to the Old Vic 1962 to try out for the legendary Shakespearean actor Laurence Olivier, who hired him and other young up-and-comers like Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith to form the National Theatre.
The next years saw Gambon establish a name for himself on the stage, and his 1980 performance as Galileo in John Dexter’s “Life of Galileo” helped him do so.
With the lead part in the 1986 television series “The Singing Detective,” in which he portrayed a writer with a crippling skin ailment whose only solace came from his imagination, he gained more recognition in the 1980s. He received one of his four BAFTAs for the performance.
His achievements
He was frequently nominated for prizes and took home the Critics’ Circle Theatre Award twice and the Olivier Award three times.
He received four British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards for his television work.
For the 2001 films “Gosford Park” and “The King’s Speech,” he also received three Olivier Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for ensemble cast.
In 1998, Gambon was knighted for his contributions to theatre.
However, he was arguably most recognized for playing Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” series, succeeding the late Richard Harris in the third film of the eight-film series.
Gambon admitted in the past that he had not read any of J. K. Rowling’s best-selling books, even though the role increased his international reputation and exposed him to a new generation of fans.
