Sir Michael John Gambon ( ; 19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career, he received three Olivier Awards, four BAFTA TV Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.
Gambon appeared in many productions of works by William Shakespeare such as Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Coriolanus. Gambon was nominated for thirteen Olivier Awards, winning three times for A Chorus of Disapproval (1985), A View from the Bridge (1987), and Man of the Moment (1990). In 1997, Gambon made his Broadway debut in David Hare's Skylight, earning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination.
Gambon made his film debut in Othello (1965). His other notable films include The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Wings of the Dove (1997), The Insider (1999), Gosford Park (2001), Amazing Grace (2006), The King's Speech (2010), Quartet (2012), and Victoria & Abdul (2017). He also acted in the Wes Anderson films The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). He gained wider recognition through his role of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series from 2004 to 2011, replacing Richard Harris following his death in 2002.
For his work on television, Gambon received four BAFTA Awards for The Singing Detective (1986), Wives and Daughters (1999), Longitude (2000) and Perfect Strangers (2001). Gambon and Robbie Coltrane are the only actors to have won this award three consecutive times. He also received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Path to War (2002), and Emma (2009). Gambon's other notable projects include Cranford (2007), and The Casual Vacancy (2015). In 2017, he received the Irish Film & Television Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, he was listed at 28 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Early life Michael John Gambon was born in the Cabra suburb of Dublin on 19 October 1940. His mother, Mary (née Hoare), was a seamstress, while his father, Edward Gambon, was an engineering operative during World War II. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and moved the family to Mornington Crescent in London's Camden borough when Gambon was six. His father arranged for him to be registered as a British subject, a decision that would later allow him to receive a substantive (rather than honorary) knighthood. Brought up as a strict Roman Catholic, Gambon attended St Aloysius Boys' School in Somers Town and served at the altar. He went on from there to St Aloysius' College in Highgate, whose former pupils include the actor Peter Sellers. The family later moved to North End, Kent, where he attended Crayford Secondary School but left with no qualifications at the age of 15.
After leaving school, at the age of 16 Gambon gained an apprenticeship as a toolmaker with Vickers-Armstrongs. By the time he was 21, he was a qualified engineering technician and kept the job for a further year. He acquired a lifelong passion for collecting antique guns, clocks, watches and classic cars.
Career 1960–1979: Stage debut and National Theatre
At age 24, Gambon wrote a letter to Micheál Mac Liammóir, the Irish theatre impresario who ran Dublin's Gate Theatre, accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career: he was taken on.'This is easy, acting. Standing there with a spear. Anyone can do that', The Irish Times, 24 April 2010 Gambon made his professional stage debut in the Gate Theatre's 1962 production of Othello, playing "Second Gentleman", followed by a European tour. A year later, auditioning with the opening soliloquy from Richard III, he caught the eye of Laurence Olivier who was recruiting promising actors for his new National Theatre Company. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay, was hired as one of the "to be renowned" and played any number of small roles, appearing on cast lists as "Mike Gambon". The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being Hamlet, directed by Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole. Gambon played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in The Recruiting Officer and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, working with directors William Gaskill and John Dexter.
Gambon made his film debut in Laurence Olivier's Othello alongside Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi in 1965. After three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the National Theatre for the Birmingham Repertory Company, which was to give him his first crack at the title roles in Othello (his favourite), Macbeth and Coriolanus. In 1967, he made his television debut in the BBC television adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing as Watchman No. 4. He also appeared in British programmes such as Softly, Softly (1967) and Public Eye (1968). From 1968 to 1970, he featured in the BBC historical series The Borderers as Gavin Kerr. He also had a recurring role in the Canadian series The Challengers (1972). He also appeared in drama anthology series including Play for Today, Play of the Month and ITV Playhouse.
In 1974, Eric Thompson cast him as the melancholy vet in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests at Greenwich. A speedy transfer to the West End established him as a comic actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair and agonising over a choice between black or white coffee. Back at the National, now on the South Bank, his next turning point was Peter Hall's premiere staging of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, a performance marked by subtlety – a production photograph shows him embracing Penelope Wilton with sensitive hands and long slim fingers (the touch of a master clock-maker). He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the demands of the vast Olivier Theatre. As Simon Callow once said: "Gambon's iron lungs and overwhelming charisma are able to command a sort of operatic full-throatedness which triumphs over hard walls and long distances". After his film debut, Gambon was asked by James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli to audition for the role in 1970, to replace George Lazenby. He acted in the British horror films Nothing But the Night (1973) and The Beast Must Die (1974). The following year he played Tom Ossipon, in the television film The Secret Agent, based on the novel of the same name.
In 1976 he took the part of Lieutenant Commander Rogers in a filmed version of the play French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan, for a TV episode of the series BBC Play of the Month, directed by John Gorrie, with Nicola Pagett, Anthony Andrews, Barbara Kellerman, Tim Woodward and Nigel Havers. Set in a French Villa, the action takes place in a cram school for adults needing to acquire French for business reasons. Scattered throughout are Franglais phrases and schoolboy misunderstandings of the French language.
1980–1994: The Singing Detective and accolades Gambon's powerful voice and presence were to serve him in good stead in John Dexter's masterly staging of The Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht at the National Theatre in 1980, the first Brecht play to become a popular success. Hall called him "unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful," and The Sunday Times called his performance "a decisive step in the direction of great tragedy... great acting," while fellow actors paid him the rare compliment of applauding him in the dressing room on the first night. In 1985, he appeared in the British drama film Turtle Diary directed by John Irvin with a screenplay adapted by Harold Pinter. The film starred Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley.
His craggy looks soon made him into a character actor, a term which Gambon disputed. For his first major lead role in Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (1986) he won his first British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. He starred as detective Inspector Jules Maigret in an ITV adaptation of twelve of Georges Simenon's books. The National Theatre staged a revival of A View from the Bridge in 1987 at the Cottesloe Theatre. It was directed by Alan Ayckbourn, and Gambon gave an acclaimed performance as Eddie. The Guardian said, "In the first place it shows Michael Gambon shaking hands with greatness." In 1989, Gambon starred in the Peter Greenaway's crime drama The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, which also starred Helen Mirren, Tim Roth and Ciarán Hinds. Gambon played Albert Spica, "The Thief", a violent gangster. The film premiered at the 1989 Toronto International Film Festival. Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the performances writing, "Mirren and Gambon are among the most distinguished actors in Britain-they've played many of the principal roles in Shakespeare -- and here they find the resources to not only strip themselves of all their defenses, but to do so convincingly."
In 1990, he played Jerry in Harold Pinter's Betrayal for BBC Radio 3. In 1991, he starred as Tommy Hanbury in an episode of the ITV series Minder called "Look Who's Coming To Pinner". Ralph Richardson dubbed him The Great Gambon, an accolade which stuck, although Gambon dismissed it as a circus slogan. But as Sheridan Morley perceptively remarked in 2000, when reviewing Nicholas Wright's Cressida: "Gambon's eccentricity on stage now begins to rival that of his great mentor Richardson". Also like Richardson, interviews were rarely given and raised more questions than they answered. Gambon was a very private person, a "non-starry star" as Ayckbourn called him. Off-stage he preferred to stay out of the limelight. He won screen acclaim, while his ravaged King Lear at Stratford, while he was still in his early forties, formed a double act with a red-nosed Antony Sher as the Fool sitting on his master's knee like a ventriloquist's doll.
1995–2003: Broadway debut and film roles There were also appearances in Harold Pinter's Old Times at the Haymarket Theatre and Ben Jonson's Volpone and the brutal sergeant in Pinter's Mountain Language. In 1995, Gambon starred in David Hare's Skylight, with Lia Williams, which opened to rave reviews at the National Theatre. The play transferred first to Wyndham's Theatre and then on to Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre for a four-month run which left him in a state of advanced exhaustion. "Skylight was ten times as hard to play as anything I've ever done" he told Michael Owen in the Evening Standard. "I had a great time in New York, but wanted to return." Variety wrote of his performance, "Gambon, an Irishman revered on the London stage, gives his rough-hewn character a grace that goes beyond the physical". For this performance Gambon received his only Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play.
He later starred as Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the Hungarian director Károly Makk's film The Gambler (1997) about the writing of Dostoyevsky's novella The Gambler. In the 1990s he appeared in films such as, Barry Levinson's fantasy comedy Toys (1992), the period drama Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), the action film Plunkett & Macleane (1998), Michael Mann's political drama The Insider (1999) and Tim Burton's gothic horror film Sleepy Hollow (1999). He also appeared in the BBC serial Wives and Daughters (1999) based on the Victorian novel by the same name by Elizabeth Gaskell. He portrayed Squire Hamley and received his second BAFTA Award nomination and win for Best Actor. The New York Times described Gambon's performance as 'Gruff on the outside, with a huge sentimental streak, the country squire is a familiar type, but he makes him seem endearing and fresh.'