LONDON: British-Irish actor Michael Gambon, best known to global audiences for playing the wise professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movie franchise and whose career was launched by his mentor Laurence Olivier, died aged 82 on Thursday.

He died peacefully in hospital, PA Media reported citing a family statement.

Gambon began his acting on the stage in the early 1960s and later moved 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.

But his best-known role was as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter franchise, a role he took over from the third instalment in the eight-movie series after he replaced the late Richard Harris in 2004. Gambon played down the praise for his performance and said he simply played himself “with a stuck-on beard and a long robe”.

Michael John Gambon was born on Oct 19, 1940, in Dublin to a seamstress mother and an engineer father. The family moved to Camden Town in London when Gambon was six as his father sought work in the city’s post-war rebuilding.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2023