Witham (UK), (UNI) ”Harry Potter” Actor Sir Michael Gambon has passed away on Thursday due to bout of penumonia, his family said.
He was 82.
He was best known for playing Professor Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films.
The Dublin-born star worked in TV, film, theatre and radio over his six-decade career. He won four Baftas, according to media reports.
His widow Lady Gambon and son Fergus said their “beloved husband and father” died peacefully in hospital with his family by his side, following a bout of pneumonia.
Michael’s family had moved to London when he was a child but he made his very first stage performance in Ireland, in a production of Othello in Dublin in 1962, BBC reports.
His career took off when he became one the original members of Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre acting company in London and went on to win three Olivier awards for performances in National Theatre productions.
Gambon took on the role of Dumbledore – headmaster of wizarding school Hogwarts – in the hit Harry Potter series, based on JK Rowling’s novels, after the death of Richard Harris in 2003.
His other film work includes the big screen adaptation of Dad’s Army, Gosford Park and the King’s Speech, in which he portrayed King George V, father of the stammering King George VI.
He was nominated for Emmy awards for his role as Mr Woodhouse in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma in 2010, and for playing President Lyndon B Johnson in Path to War in 2002.
He also got a Tony nomination in 1997 for a role in David Hare play Skylight.
The actor, known as “The Great Gambon” in acting circles, had last appeared on stage in 2012 in a London production of Samuel Beckett’s play All That Fall.
