Michael Gambon

Michael Gambon lied to journalists just for fun. He claimed to have been a ballet dancer or said his training came from a prestigious school in Dublin that didn't exist. He found the solemnity of interviews boring and preferred to invent a life that wasn't his own.

The truth is that at 21 years old, he was a skilled technical craftsman in tool manufacturing. He worked with metal and industrial precision at the Vickers factory before acting definitively crossed his path.

In 1963, he wrote a letter to Micheál MacLiammóir asking for an audition at the Gate Theatre. He got the part, and shortly after, Laurence Olivier recruited him as one of the founding members of the National Theatre at the Old Vic.

He spent years in supporting roles there. But his imposing presence and a voice that seemed to rumble up from the floor made him stand out from the rest of the cast, even when he had no lines.

The Detective and Psoriasis

His massive recognition beyond the stage came with The Singing Detective in 1986. He played a writer bedridden in a hospital bed with a paralyzing skin disease, who escapes into his own film noir fantasies.

And that role changed his status forever.

He won his first BAFTA for that BBC series. But Gambon hated being asked about his working method or his inner motivations. He said acting simply meant putting on a costume, saying the lines and not bumping into the furniture on set.

In 1989, he shot The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover under Peter Greenaway's direction. That shoot was an exercise in visual excess and violence that put him on the map of the international industry as an actor capable of embodying absolute brutality.

Because his range had no technical limits. He could go from the most absurd comedy to Shakespearean drama in a single workday without losing his composure or sense of humor.

Albus Dumbledore's Robe

In 2004, he accepted the challenge of replacing the late Richard Harris in the Harry Potter franchise. He didn't try to imitate his predecessor (who played the wizard as a frail, wise old man), preferring to give the Hogwarts headmaster a more energetic and somewhat dangerous air.

He never read the books by J.K. Rowling.

He was only interested in the script he received each morning on the film set. He appeared in six films of the saga until the story ended in 2011. During that time, he also worked with directors such as Robert Altman on Gosford Park or Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

His ability to move between commercial cinema and auteur cinema was a matter of scheduling. In 2010, he appeared in The King's Speech as King George V (a brief role, but loaded with the authority that only actors of his generation knew how to project on screen).

His memory failed him permanently in 2015.

He had to retire from the stage because he couldn't remember his lines during live performances. He kept working in film and television because the pace of filming allows the use of earpieces or reading cue cards placed off camera.

In 2019, he appeared in the film Judy and the thriller Cordelia. These were his last appearances before his health declined due to the passage of time and respiratory complications.

He died on September 27, 2023 at a hospital in Chelmsford from pneumonia at the age of 82.