Michael Gambon

**Sir Michael John Gambon** CBE (19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-born British actor with a career that spanned nearly five decades and included a variety of roles in movie, television and theatre.

## Early life

Gambon was born on 19 October 1940 in Dublin during World War II. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer and his mother, Mary (née Hoare), was a seamstress. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent in north London, when Gambon was five. His father had him made a British citizen — a decision that would later allow Michael to receive an actual, rather than honorary, knighthood and CBE. (although, under the British Nationality Act 1981 anyone born in Ireland before 1949 can still register as a British subject and, after five years' UK residence, as a British citizen).

Raised a strict Catholic, he attended St Aloysius Boys' School in Somers Town and served at the altar. He then moved to St Aloysius' College in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London, whose former pupils included Peter Sellers. He later attended a school in Kent, before leaving with no qualifications at fifteen. He then gained an apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong as a toolmaker. By the time he was 21 he was a fully qualified engineer. He kept the job for a further year – acquiring a fascination and passion for collecting antique guns, clocks and watches, as well as classic cars.

## Early acting career

Aged 19, he joined the Unity Theatre in Kings Cross. Five years later he wrote a letter to Michael MacLiammoir, the Irish theatre impresario who ran Dublin's Gate Theatre. It was accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career – and he was taken on.

Gambon made his professional stage début in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin's 1962 production of _Othello_, playing "Second Gentleman", followed by a European tour. A year later, cheekily auditioning with the opening soliloquy from Richard III, he caught the eye of star-maker Laurence Olivier who was recruiting promising spear-carriers 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.  The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being _Hamlet_, directed by Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole. He 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.

## Work in the theatre

After three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the NT for the Birmingham Repertory Company which was to give him his first crack at the title roles in _Othello_ (his favourite), _Macbeth_ and _Coriolanus_.

His rise to stardom began in 1974 when 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 brilliant comic actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair and sublimely 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_, an unexpectedly subtle performance — 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 harsh 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.”

This was to serve him in good stead in John Dexter's masterly staging of _The Life of Galileo_ in 1980, the first Brecht to become a popular success. Hall called him ‘unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful’, even the Sunday Times’ curmudgeonly critic of the day 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.

From the first Ralph Richardson dubbed him The Great Gambon, an accolade which stuck, outshining his 1990 CBE, even the later knighthood, although Gambon dismisses it as a circus slogan. But as Sheridan Morley perceptively remarked in 2000, when reviewing _Cressida_: ‘Gambon's eccentricity on stage now begins to rival that of his great mentor Richardson’. Also like Richardson, interviews are rarely given and raise more questions than they answer. Gambon is a very private person, a ‘non-starry star’ as Ayckbourn called him. Off-stage he prefers to back out of the limelight, an unpretentious guy sharing laughs with his fellow cast and crew.

While he has won screen acclaim, no-one who saw his ravaged _King Lear_ at Stratford, while still in his early forties, will forget his superb double act with a red-nosed Antony Sher as the Fool sitting on his master's knee like a ventriloquist's doll. There were also notable appearances in _Old Times_ at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and as _Volpone_ and the brutal sergeant in Pinter's _Mountain Language_.

David Hare's _Skylight_, with Lia Williams, which opened to rave reviews at the National in 1995, transferred first to Wyndhams Theatre and then on to Broadway 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 couldn’t wait to get back”.

Gambon is almost the only leading actor not to grace Yasmina Reza's _ART_ at Wyndham's. But together with Simon Russell Beale and Alan Bates he gave a deliciously 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 portrayed what he described as “a physically repulsive’’ Davies in Patrick Marber's revival of Pinter's _The Caretaker_, but he found the rehearsal period an unhappy experience, and felt that he had let down the author. A year later, playing opposite Daniel Craig, he portrayed the father of a series of cloned sons in Caryl Churchill's _A Number_ at the Royal Court, notable for a recumbent moment when he smoked a cigarette, the brightly lit spiral of smoke rising against a black backdrop, an effect which he dreamed up during rehearsals.

In 2004, he finally achieved a life-long ambition to play Sir John Falstaff, in Nicholas Hytner's National Theatre production of _Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2_, co-starring with Matthew Macfadyen as Prince Hal.

## Screen success and acceptance

He made his movie debut in the Laurence Olivier _Othello_ in 1965. He then played romantic leads, notably in the early 1970s BBC television series, _The Borderers_, in which he was swashbuckling Gavin Ker. As a result, Gambon was asked by James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli to audition for the role in 1970, to replace George Lazenby. His craggy looks soon made him into a character actor, although he won critical acclaim as Galileo in John Dexter's production of _The Life of Galileo_ by Brecht at the National Theatre in 1980. But it was not until Dennis Potter's _The Singing Detective_ (1986) that he became a household name. After this success, for which he won a BAFTA, his work includes movies such as _The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover_ which also starred Helen Mirren.

In 1992, he portrayed a psychotic general in the Barry Levinson movie _Toys_ and he also starred as Georges Simenon's detective Inspector Jules Maigret in an ITV adaptation of Simenon's series of books. He starred as Fyodor Dostoevsky in the Hungarian director Károly Makk's movie _The Gambler_ (1997) about the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella _The Gambler_.

## Recent career

In recent years, movies such as _Dancing at Lughnasa_ (1998) and _Plunkett & Macleane_ (1998), as well as television appearances in series such as _Wives and Daughters_ (1999) (for which he won another BAFTA), a made-for-TV adaptation of Samuel Beckett's _Endgame_ (2001) and _Perfect Strangers_ (2001) have revealed a talent for comedy. In 2004, he appeared in five movies, including Wes Anderson's quirky comedy _The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou_; the British gangster flick _Layer Cake_; theatrical drama _Being Julia_; and CGI action fantasy _Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_.

Perhaps his most significant role in 2004, however, was Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster in the third installment of J. K. Rowling's franchise, _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_, taking over from fellow Irish actor Richard Harris, who had died of Hodgkins disease. (Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role.) Gambon reprised the role of Albus Dumbledore in _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_, which was released in November 2005 in the UK and U.S. He returned to the role again in the fifth movie, _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_, which was released in 2007. He will once again return to portray Dumbledore in movie the sixth _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_. Gambon admits not having read the _Harry Potter_ novels and says that this is because he does not want to be upset by an extremely large change or death in the books.  Similarly, he has also stated in an interview that, when playing Dumbledore, "I don't 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..."

In an Ironic twist, Gambon also played a British spy in "The Good Shepherd" (2006). His codename was "The headmaster".

Most recently, he was Joe in Beckett's _Eh Joe_, giving two performances a night at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. He currently does the voice over to the new Guinness ads with the penguins. In 2007 he played major roles in Stephen Poliakoff's _Joe's Palace_, and the five-part adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's _Cranford_ novels, both for BBC TV.

## Personal life

Gambon married Anne Miller when he was 22, but has always been secretive about his personal life. The couple live together in a country house in Kent. Gambon was invested by Prince Charles as a Knight Bachelor on 17 July 1998 for services to drama (Queen Elizabeth II's approval for the award was notified in the 1998 New Year Honours List) and his wife thus became Lady Gambon. The couple have a son, Fergus, who appears as an expert on the BBC's _Antiques Roadshow_.

Gambon is a qualified amateur pilot, and his love of cars led to his appearance on the BBC's _Top Gear_ programme. Gambon raced the Suzuki Liana and was driving so aggressively that it was launched into the air on the last corner of his timed lap. The final corner of the Dunsfold Park track has been named "Gambon" in his honour. He reappeared on the programme on the 4 June 2006, and set a time in the 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 that 'I dunno - I just do not like it'.

In February 2015, Gambon spoke for the first time of the "frightening memory loss" that had forced him to retire from the stage after 50 years. He said he has taken the "heartbreaking" decision to stop after finding he could no longer remember his lines.

Gambon died on 27 September 2023, aged 82, after suffering from pneumonia.

### Cinema and television

|Year|Film|Role|Notes and awards|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1965|_Othello_|Company||
|1968|_The Borderers_ (TV)|Gavin Ker||
|1974|_The Beast Must Die_|Jan Jarmokowski||
|1985|_Oscar_ (TV)|Brian Bryant||
|_Turtle Diary_|George Fairbairn|||
|1986|_The Singing Detective_|Philip E. Marlow|BAFTA TV Award Royal Television Society Award Broadcasting Press Guild Awards|
|1989|_The Rachel Papers_|Doctor Knowd||
|_A Dry White Season_|Magistrate|||
|_The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover_|Albert Spica|Catalonian International Film Festival Award||
|1991|_Mobsters_|Salvatore Maranzano||
|1992|_Toys_|General Leland Zevo|Nominated - Saturn Award|
|1993|_Maigret_ (TV)|Inspector Maigret||
|1994|_A Man of No Importance_|Ivor J. Garney||
|_The Browning Version_|Dr. Frobisher|||
|1996|_Mary Reilly_|Mr. Reilly||
|1998|_The Gambler_|Fyodor Dostoevsky||
|1998|_Dancing at Lughnasa_|Father Jack Mundy||
|1999|_Wives and Daughters_ (TV)|Squire Hamley|BAFTA TV Award Royal Television Society Award|
|_Plunkett & Macleane_|Lord Gidson|||
|_The Insider_|Thomas Sandefur|||
|_Sleepy Hollow_|Baltus Van Tassel|||
|2000|_Longitude_ (TV)|John Harrison|BAFTA TV Award|
|_Endgame_ (TV)|Hamm|||
|2001|_Perfect Strangers_ (TV)|Raymond|BAFTA TV Award|
|_Charlotte Gray_|Levade|||
|_Gosford Park_|Sir William McCordle|||
|_Christmas Carol: The Movie_|Ghost of Christmas Present|(voice)||
|2002|_Ali G Indahouse_|Prime Minister||
|_Path to War_|Lyndon B. Johnson|Nominated - Golden Globe Award Nominated - Emmy Award||
|2003|_The Lost Prince_|Edward VII||
|_The Actors_|Barreller|||
|_Deep Blue_|Narrator|(voice)||
|_Open Range_|Denton Baxter|||
|_Sylvia_|Professor Thomas|||
|_Angels in America_ (TV)|Prior Walter Ancestor|||
|2004|_Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_|Albus Dumbledore||
|_Being Julia_|Jimmie Langton|||
|_Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_|Editor Paley|||
|_Layer Cake_|Eddie Temple|||
|_The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou_|Oseary Drakoulias|||
|2005|_Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_|Albus Dumbledore||
|2006|_The Omen_|Bugenhagen||
|_The Good Shepherd_|Dr. Fredericks|||
|_Celebration_ (TV)|Lambert|Irish movie and Television Awards||
|_Amazing Grace_|Lord Charles Fox|||
|2007|_The Good Night_|Alan Weigert||
|_Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_|Albus Dumbledore|||
|_Joe's Palace_ (TV)|Elliot Graham|||
|_Cranford_ (TV)|Mr. Holbrook|||
|_The Alps_ (TV)|Narrator|(voice)||
|2008|_Brideshead Revisited_|Lord Marchmain||
|_Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince_|Albus Dumbledore|post-production||

### Theatre

- _Othello_ (Second Gentleman), Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, professional debut 1962, followed by a European tour
- _Hamlet_, National Theatre at the Old Vic, 1963
- _Saint Joan_, National/Old Vic, 1963
- _The Recruiting Officer_ (Coster Permain), National/Old Vic, 1963
- _Andorra_, National/Old Vic, 1964
- _Philoctetes_, National/Old Vic, 1964
- _Othello_, National/Old Vic, 1964
- _The Royal Hunt of the Sun_ (Diego), Chichester Festival and National/Old Vic, 1964
- _The Crucible_ (Herrick), National/Old Vic, 1965
- _Mother Courage and Her Children_ (Eilif), National/Old Vic, 1965
- _Love for Love_ (Snap), National/Old Vic, 1965, also tour to Russia and Germany
- _Juno and the Paycock_ (Jerry Devine), National/Old Vic, 1966
- _The Storm_, National/Old Vic, 1966
- _Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun_ (Flynn), Birmingham Rep, 1967
- _A Severed Head_ (Palmer Anderson), Birmingham Rep, 1967
- _The Doctor's Dilemma_ (Patric Cullen), Birmingham Rep, 1967
- _Saint Joan_ (Cauchon), Birmingham Rep, 1967
- _Peer Gynt_ (The Button Moulder), Birmingham Rep, 1968
- _Othello_ (title role), Birmingham Rep, 1968
- _Macbeth_, The Forum Theatre, Billingham, 1968
- _In Celebration_ (Andrew), Liverpool Playhouse, 1969
- _Coriolanus_ (title role), Liverpool Playhouse, 1969
- _The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising_ (Wiebe), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1970
- _Major Barbara_ (Charles Lomax), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1970
- _Henry VIII_ (Surrey), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1971
- _When Thou Art King_ (Hotspur), RSC Roundhouse, 1971
- _The Brass Hat_ (Guy Holden), Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, 1972
- _Not Drowning But Waving_ (Robin), Greenwich Theatre, 1973
- _The Norman Conquests_ trilogy (Tom), Greenwich Theatre, 1974
- _The Norman Conquests_ (Tom), Globe Theatre, London 1975
- _The Zoo Story_ (Gerry), Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park lunchtime production, 1975
- _Otherwise Engaged_ (Simon), Queen's Theatre, 1976 (replacing Alan Bates)
- _Just Between Ourselves_ (Neil), Queen's Theatre, 1977
- _Alice's Boys_ (Bertie), Savoy Theatre, London, 1978
- _Betrayal_ (Jerry), National Theatre, 1978
- _Close of Play_ (Henry), National Lyttelton Theatre, 1979
- _Richard III_ (taking over as Buckingham), National, 1980
- _Othello_ (Roderigo), National, 1980
- _Sisterly Feelings_ (Patrick), National, 1980
- _The Life of Galileo_ (title role), National Olivier Theatre, 1980
- _King Lear_ (title role) RSC Stratford,1982; Barbican Theatre, 1983
- _Antony and Cleopatra_ (Antony), RSC Stratford, 1982; Barbican, 1983
- _Tales from Hollywood_ (Ödön von Horváth), National, 1983
- _Old Times_ (Deeley), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1985
- _A Chorus of Disapproval_ (Dafyd ap Llewellyn), National Olivier, 1985
- _Tons of Money_ (Sprules), National Lyttelton, 1986
- _A View from the Bridge_ (Eddie Carbone), National Cottesloe Theatre, 1987
- _A Small Family Business_ (Jack McCracken), National Olivier, 1987
- _Mountain Language_ (Sergeant), National Lyttelton, 1988
- _Uncle Vanya_ (title role), Vaudeville Theatre, 1988
- _Veterans' Day_ (Walter Kercelik), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1989
- _Man of the Moment_ (Douglas Beechey), Globe Theatre, London, 1990
- _Othello_ (title role), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 1991
- _Taking Steps,_ Stephen Joseph, Scarborough, 1981
- _Volpone_ (title role), National Olivier, 1995
- _Skylight_ (Tom Sergeant), National Cottesloe, 1995
- _Skylight_ (Tom Sergeant), Broadway, 1996
- _Tom and Clem_ (Tom Driberg), Aldwych Theatre, 1997
- _The Unexpected Man_ (The Man), RSC The Pit, Barbican, 1998
- _Cressida_ (John Shank), The Almeida Theatre at the Albery, 2000
- _The Caretaker_ (Davies), Comedy Theatre, 2001
- _A Number_ (The Father), Royal Court Theatre, 2002
- _Endgame_ (Hamm), Albery Theatre, 2004
- _Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2_ (Sir John Falstaff), National Olivier, 2005
- _Celebration (play)_ Pinter staged reading (Lambert), Gate Theatre, Dublin/Albery, 2005
- _Eh Joe_ (Joe), Duke of York's Theatre, 2006

## Sources

- _Who's Who in the Theatre_, Fourteenth edition, Pitman (1967) for National Theatre at the Old Vic playbills
- _Who's Who in the Theatre_, Seventeenth edition, Gale (1981)  for Michael Gambon's own CV up to 1980
- _Giant of the Stage: A Profile of Michael Gambon_ by John Thaxter, The Stage newspaper, (16 November, 2000)
- _Gambon: A Life in Acting_ by Mel Gussow, Nick Hern Books (2004)
- Theatre Record and Theatre Record annual indexes 1981-2007

## Other websites

- Biography  at Tiscali UK

## Infobox (person)

- **honorific prefix**: Sir
- **name**: Michael Gambon
- **image**: Michael Gambon cropped.jpg
- **image size**: 200px
- **caption**: Gambon in 2013
- **birth place**: Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland
- **death place**: Witham, England
- **years active**: 1962–2019
- **occupation**: Actor
- **partner**: Philippa Hart
- **children**: 3
- **works**: Michael Gambon on screen and stage, Full list
- **awards**: **Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance**
1986 _A Chorus of Disapproval_
**Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor**
1988 _A View From the Bridge_
**Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture**
2001 _Gosford Park_
**BAFTA Award for Best actor**
2002 _Perfect Strangers (BBC TV series), Perfect Strangers_
2001 _John Harrison, Longitude_
2000 _Wives and Daughters (1999 miniseries), Wives and Daughters_
1987 _The Singing Detective_
**Royal Television Society Award**
1987 _The Singing Detective_
2000 _Wives and Daughters (1999 miniseries), Wives and Daughters_
**Broadcasting Press Guild Awards**
1987 _The Singing Detective_
**Evening Standard Award for Best Actor**
1987 _A View from the Bridge_
1995 _Volpone_
 **Irish Film and Television Awards**
2006 _Celebration (play), Celebration_
**Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor**
1990 _Man of the Moment_
2000 _The Caretaker_
**Catalonian International Film Festival, Film Festival Catalonian International Film Festival Awards for Best Actor**
1989_ The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover_