Michael Gambon

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

CBE
Gambon in 2013
Born
Michael John Gambon

(1940-10-19)19 October 1940
Dublin, Ireland
Died27 September 2023(2023-09-27) (aged 82)
Witham, Essex, England
Citizenship
  • Ireland
  • United Kingdom
OccupationActor
Years active1962–2019
WorksFull list
Spouse
Anne Miller
​
(m. 1962)​
PartnerPhilippa Hart
Children3
AwardsFull list
Signature

Sir Michael John Gambon

Queen Elizabeth II
for services to drama.

Gambon appeared in many productions of works by

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, he received four BAFTA Awards for

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 No. 28 on The Irish Times's list of Ireland's greatest film actors.[1]

Early life

Michael John Gambon was born in the

Highgate, whose former pupils include the actor Peter Sellers.[6][7] The family later moved to North End, Kent, where he attended Crayford Secondary School but left with no qualifications at the age of 15.[8]

After leaving school, at the age of 16 Gambon then gained an apprenticeship as a toolmaker with Vickers-Armstrongs.[9] 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.[10]

Career

1960–1979: Stage debut and National Theatre

Laurence Olivier, the first artistic director of the National Theatre in 1963, was a mentor to Gambon

At age 24, Gambon wrote a letter to

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.[13]

Gambon made his film debut in

ITV Playhouse
.

In 1974,

Nothing But the Night (1973) and The Beast Must Die
(1974).

1980–1994: The Singing Detective and accolades

Gambon's powerful voice and presence were to serve him in good stead in

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.[17] 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.[18]

His craggy looks soon made him into a

Cottesloe Theatre. It was directed by Alan Ayckbourn, and Gambon gave an acclaimed performance as Eddie.[20] The Guardian said, "In the first place it shows Michael Gambon shaking hands with greatness."[21] 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."[22]

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.[23][24] 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.[25] He won screen acclaim, whilst 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

Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play.[28]

He later starred as

BAFTA Award nomination and win for Best Actor.[30] 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.'[31]

During the 2000s, Gambon appeared in several films including

'Art' at Wyndham's. But together with Simon Russell Beale and Alan Bates, he gave a droll radio account of the role of Marc. And for the RSC he shared Reza's two-hander The Unexpected Man with Eileen Atkins, first at The Pit in the Barbican and then at the Duchess Theatre
, a production also intended for New York, but finally delayed by other commitments.

In 2001, he played what he described as "'a physically repulsive" Davies in

Golden Globe Award
for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.

2004–2011: Harry Potter and acclaim

Mannequin of Gambon's Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter film series

He played Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster in the third instalment of J. K. Rowling's franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), taking over the role after the death of Richard Harris in 2002; Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role.[35] Gambon reprised the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), which was released in November 2005 in the United Kingdom and the United States.[36] He returned to the role again in the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009).[37][38] He appeared in the final two films of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011). Gambon told an interviewer that, when playing Dumbledore, he did not "have to play anyone really. I just stick on a beard and play me, so it's no great feat. I never ease into a role – every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. I'm not really a character actor at all."[39]

In 2004, he appeared in five films, including

Falstaff, in Nicholas Hytner's National production of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, co-starring with Matthew Macfadyen as Prince Hal. Michael Billington in The Guardian wrote that Gambon's Falstaff "conveyed a growing sense of age, decrepitude and melancholy".[42] In 2006, Gambon performed voiceover for a series of Guinness advertisements featuring penguins.[43] Also in 2006, he performed as Joe in Beckett's Eh Joe, giving two performances a night at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. That same year, he played Henry in Stephen Rea's play about Samuel Beckett's Embers for Radio 3.[44] In 2007, he was Sam in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming for Radio 3.[45]

In 2007, Gambon portrayed Lord Charles Fox in Michael Apted's historical drama Amazing Grace alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, and Rufus Sewell. The film focuses on William Wilberforce, who led the campaign against the slave trade in the British Empire.[46] The film is highly rated according to Rotten Tomatoes with critics’ consensus describing it as "your quintessential historical biopic: stately, noble, and with plenty of electrifying performances".[47] That same year, he played major roles in the acclaimed BBC five-part adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford novels alongside Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton, and in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace. In 2008, Gambon appeared in the role of Hirst in No Man's Land by Harold Pinter in the Gate Theatre, Dublin, opposite David Bradley as Spooner, in a production directed by Rupert Goold, which transferred to the London West End's Duke of York's Theatre, for which both roles each received nominations for the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. After Pinter's death on 24 December 2008, Gambon read Hirst's monologue selected by the playwright for Gambon to read at his funeral, held on 31 December 2008, during the cast's memorial remarks from the stage as well as at the funeral and also in Words and Music, transmitted on the BBC Radio 3 on 22 February 2009.[48] In late 2009, Gambon had to withdraw from his role of W. H. Auden in The Habit of Art (being replaced by Richard Griffiths) because of ill health.

In April 2010, Gambon returned once again to the Gate Theatre Dublin to appear in

MMORPG video game The Elder Scrolls Online
.

2012–2019: Television projects and final roles

Gambon on the set of Dad's Army in October 2014

In 2012, he starred with

same-titled play by Ronald Harwood and starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival to favourable reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 80% approval rating with the consensus reading, "It's sweet, gentle, and predictable to a fault, but Dustin Hoffman's affectionate direction and the talented cast's amiable charm make Quartet too difficult to resist."[58] The following year, he was cast in the role of Howard Mollison in the adaptation of the best-selling book The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.[59] The BBC One miniseries, produced in association with HBO, consists of three one-hour parts. Production began 7 July 2014 in South West England.[59]

In early 2015, Gambon announced that due to the increasing length of time it was taking him to memorise his lines, he was giving up stage work. He had previously tried using an earpiece and being given prompts by theatre staff, but found this unsatisfactory.

Johnny Flynn and Catherine McCormack.[67]

Personal life and death

Gambon married mathematician Anne Miller in 1962.[63] Known for being protective of his privacy, he once responded to an interviewer's question about his wife by asking, "What wife?". The couple had homes in Gravesend, Kent, and Aldeburgh, Suffolk.[68][69] They had one son, Fergus, who later became a ceramics expert on the BBC series Antiques Roadshow.[70]

Gambon brought Philippa Hart, a woman 25 years his junior, to the set while filming the 2001 film Gosford Park and introduced her to his co-stars as his girlfriend. When their affair was publicly revealed in 2002, he moved out of the home he shared with his wife, though they later reconciled.[69][71] He was with Hart, a set designer, from 2000, when they worked together on Channel 4 series Longitude.[71][69] In February 2007, it was revealed that Hart was pregnant with Gambon's child and gave birth to a son.[69] The couple had a second son in 2009.[69][72] They owned a home in West London.[69]

In the

Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace.[74]

Gambon was a qualified private pilot. His love of cars led to his appearance on the BBC series

Chevrolet Lacetti of 1:50.3, a significant improvement on his previous time of 1:55. He clipped his namesake corner the second time, and when asked why by Jeremy Clarkson, replied, "I don't know, I just don't like it."[77]

Gambon died in Witham on 27 September 2023, aged 82, with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia.[71][68][78] Gambon made headlines in March 2024 when it was revealed that Philippa Hart, his long-term girlfriend and mother of two of his sons, had been left nothing in the actor’s will. Almost all of Gambon’s fortune was passed to Lady Gambon, his wife of 61 years.[79]

Acting credits

Main article: Michael Gambon on screen and stage

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Michael Gambon
Year Award Category Nominated work Result
1997
Tony Award
 Best Actor in a Play Skylight Nominated
1979
Olivier Awards
 Best Actor of the Year in a New Play Betrayal Nominated
1980 Best Actor in a Revival The Life of Galileo Nominated
1983 Best Actor in a New Play Tales from Hollywood Nominated
1986 Best Comedy Performance A Chorus of Disapproval Won
1988 Best Actor A View from the Bridge Won
1990 Best Comedy Performance Man of the Moment Won
1997 Best Actor Skylight Nominated
1998
Tom and Clem
 		Nominated
1999 The Unexpected Man Nominated
2001 The Caretaker Nominated
2003 A Number Nominated
2005 Endgame Nominated
2009 No Man's Land Nominated
2002
Golden Globe Award
Best Actor in a Mini-Series or a TV Movie
 Path to War Nominated
Primetime Emmy Award
Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
 Nominated
2010
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
 Emma Nominated
2001
Screen Actors Guild Award
 Cast in a Motion Picture Gosford Park Won
2010 The King's Speech Won
1987 British Academy Television Awards Best Actor The Singing Detective Won
2000 Wives and Daughters Won
2001 Longitude Won
2002 Perfect Strangers Won
2012 British Independent Film Awards The Richard Harris Award[80] Honorary Won

Explanatory notes

  1. British citizen
    .

References

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Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Gambon.
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