The Untold Truth Of The Late Michael Gambon
Like many actors of his age, Michael Gambon had a career that went through a variety of stages. Over the course of the decades that he was active, he was a revered theater actor on stage, a television regular, and a worldwide movie star. Known as The Great Gambon — a moniker given to him by the legendary Ralph Richardson — he became a household name when he replaced the late Richard Harris in the role of Professor Albus Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" series.
But while his part in the wizarding franchise brought a new level of fame and attention, Gambon was never defined completely by the success of "Harry Potter." Instead, he continued to work voraciously as a stage and screen actor for as long as he could, winning plaudits and awards along the way.
In reality, Gambon had few contemporaries who could match his talent and acclaim, which made his death on September 27, 2023, all the sadder, despite the fact that he lived a full and interesting life. Here is the untold truth of Michael Gambon.
He had no formal acting training and almost became an engineer
Although he is also a British citizen, Michael Gambon was actually born in Ireland. Hailing from Dublin, he lived in the country for the first few years of his life before moving to London. A student who didn't enjoy school, Gambon left education when he was 15 years old and embarked on an apprenticeship as a toolmaker, eventually qualifying as an engineering technician before deciding on a career in acting.
However, with no formal training in performing, Gambon gained experience first with small parts in amateur productions while working as a set builder, putting his engineering background to good use. He was able to land his first professional role back in Ireland after lying about his experience in London, where he claimed he had a lead part in a George Bernard Shaw play.
During these early years of his career, Gambon toured Europe and also joined the Birmingham Repertory Company. It was here that he began to be cast in significant roles in plays such as "Othello" and "Macbeth."
The actor always preferred stage work to screen acting
For many people, Michael Gambon will be best remembered as a brilliant actor in television series and films. After all, he rose to fame for his role in the hit BBC show "The Singing Detective" and came to further public attention after replacing Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" film adaptations. But Gambon actually preferred acting on stage compared to on-screen.
That makes sense, considering his massive success as a stage actor. Gambon was nominated for a total of 13 Olivier Awards during his career, winning three, including the best actor award for "A View from the Bridge." He was well known for appearing in various William Shakespeare productions and performed on Broadway in "Skylight." He has also admitted to feeling wrong if he didn't have a play lined up in the near future.
"I can't remember any of the films I've done," he said in an interview (via BBC). "You go from one to the other and they all blend into a big mass. I remember Harry Potter because of the costume I wore, just two layers of silk and carpet slippers. Very comfortable."
A corner was named after him on Top Gear
Throughout his life, Gambon was always an avid collector of cars and had a number of high-performance sports cars. These expensive possessions included a Ferrari and Audi R8 among others, and were used to travel around the UK when the actor was living at his permanent home. So it shouldn't be a huge surprise that he was one of the first guests on the revived "Top Gear" that aired in 2002.
Appearing as the eighth Star in the Reasonably Priced Car, Gambon was memorable for the way he almost caused a massive accident when he took the final turn too quickly and ended up in the air. The car, a Suzuki Liana, came close to rolling over, and the corner was subsequently named in his honor.
When the actor returned to "Top Gear" several years later to set a lap time in the new car, he only just avoided losing control at the same corner. When presenter Jeremy Clarkson asked what his problem with that corner is, Gambon responded: "I don't know, I just don't like it!"
He has collaborated with J.K. Rowling outside of Harry Potter
Many people will be aware of Michael Gambon from his role as the elderly Professor Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" film series. However, that is not the only time that the actor appeared in an on-screen adaptation of a J.K Rowling novel. In 2015, he starred alongside the likes of Keeley Hawes, Rory Kinnear, Emilia Fox, and Simon McBurney in "The Casual Vacancy," an adaptation of the author's novel of the same name.
A joint production between the BBC and HBO, the three-episode miniseries follows a sleepy village in the UK that begins to unravel following the death of a parish councilor, revealing that not everything is as it seems in Pagford. "The Casual Vacancy" was J.K. Rowling's first novel following the conclusion of the "Harry Potter" series, and Gambon took on the role of Council leader Howard Mollison — a cruel man who has a controversial affair with his business partner during the events of the story.
Gambon was surprised by how famous Dumbledore was around the world
The role of Professor Dumbledore may have made Gambon a household name around the world, but the actor was continually surprised by just how famous the role was. The series has become one of the biggest success stories of the last 30 years, and thrust fantasy stories back into the mainstream. The novels have sold more than 500 million copies, while the film adaptations are among the highest-grossing of all time, with an HBO television reboot also on the way.
Yet the stardom that the series brought to Gambon was still shocking. He has spoken about his surprise at being stared at by children when drinking coffee in a cafe or doing other everyday activities — something that he was not used to, as he would tend to forget about film roles after shooting had finished. "It's very odd," Gambon said (via Today). "I hadn't realized before just how powerful these things are. I just do the job and go home and you forget it."
The actor worked for almost 60 years
Michael Gambon began acting professionally at the age of 24, having landed his first role at Dublin's Gate Theatre. While his early work was dominated by stage performances, he appeared in a 1965 film adaptation of "Othello" — which also counted Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi among the cast — and was later given a regular role in the television series "The Borderers" between 1968 and 1970. Throughout the next few decades, he appeared in a wide range of movies, television shows, and stage productions.
The actor continued working well into the 2000s, appearing in the likes of Gosford Park and "The King's Speech" alongside his work in Harry Potter. However, he retired from stage acting in 2015, although he continued to pursue other on-screen projects. In recent years, Gambon had smaller roles in "Judy," "Fortitude," and "Johnny English Strikes Again," in addition to voicing characters in "Paddington 2," "The Elder Scrolls Online," and "Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery."
His spare time was spent making replicas of antique guns
His background in engineering inspired a lifelong passion for making things, something that the actor expressed in a hobby that many people might find strange. For years, Gambon has amassed a collection of antique gun replicas he handcrafted at home. In fact, according to the Guardian, he was so good at this process that he was actually able to fool other collectors and art dealers. At some points, Gambon was even able to sell the weapons as genuine to others, although it isn't clear if he ever came clean or how often he did this.
Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley in "Harry Potter", explained to BBC Radio 4 (via Irish Independent) how dedicated Gambon was to his hobby, saying: 'I will remember him because he was also a gun maker, he could make guns, he always said he could fool the V&A into believing that they were 18th-century guns."
Earlier in his career, he qualified as a private pilot
No one could say that Michael Gambon was a man who didn't have many talents. On top of his considerable acting ability and his passion for creating antique gun replicas and collecting sports cars, the actor was also a qualified private pilot. Before he found success as an actor, Gambon even considered becoming an airline pilot. He told The Times in 2014 about his experience in flying private planes and how he has flown them during his life, saying, "I've had a private pilot's license for years and flown all round the UK and over to France."
However, in the last few years of his life, the actor was more restricted in his ability to fly. Rather than take long trips, he instead focused on shorter "circuits and bumps" that involved flying around closed airfields for take-off and landing maneuvers. Gambon is far from alone in the world of actors who are also trained aviators. Harrison Ford is a well-known airplane and helicopter pilot who has taken part in rescue missions, while John Travolta has been a qualified pilot since he was 15 and Angelina Jolie learned how to fly in 2004.
He has worked with many of his heroes
As a young man learning his trade, Gambon was able to work alongside some of the greatest actors, directors, and playwrights of the time. One of his first professional roles came when he joined Laurence Olivier's National Theatre, performing alongside the actor in "Othello" and other Shakespeare productions while receiving key advice from him. During his early career, Gambon was also able to work on plays by both Harold Pinter and Alan Ayckbourn, two writers and directors who had a lot of influence over the young actor.
Yet, it is not just on stage that Gambon has been able to work alongside some of the acting greats. In fact, he has starred alongside some of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, including three of his screen heroes. Speaking to The Standard, Gambon explained how fortunate he feels to have worked with such titans of film. He said, "I've worked with De Niro and Brando and Pacino, and that's made me feel very lucky. "
He spent time helping his co-stars
Following Gambon's death, many of his fellow actors and co-stars spoke out about the influence he had on them along with touching stories about their time together. Perhaps the most moving of these came from James Phelps. The "Harry Potter" star portrayed Fred Weasley while his brother played his twin, George Weasley. While filming a particularly important scene set in the Astronomy Tower for the 2009 movie "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" where Dumbledore is killed, Gambon took time to offer advice and share knowledge with his young colleague.
Speaking on X, formerly known as Twitter, Phelps detailed how Gambon asked what his weekend plans were. Upon discovering that he was reading "Peter and the Wolf," the elder actor spent all of his spare time going through the script with Phelps to provide notes. Phelps said, "So we spent what should have been his downtime going over my weekend gig. It is a memory I've always had as one of the highlights of my HP days."
Gambon didn't feel portraying Dumbledore was hard and didn't read the books
Despite being his most notable role, portraying Albus Dumbledore was not a particularly challenging part for Gambon — at least according to the actor. Speaking in a Q&A with Future Movies, he revealed that he feels he is not playing the character but rather a version of himself. "Well, I don't have to play anyone really," he said. "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."
One thing that may surprise "Harry Potter" fans is to learn that Gambon didn't read any of the books before taking the role. This didn't change when he began filming either, with the actor explaining that taking time to read the novels would have been pointless because of the fact the actors were using a script that wasn't always utterly faithful to the source material. He also suggested that reading the books and finding parts that were then missing in the film adaptation could have been upsetting.
In later years, the actor faced memory issues
Gambon effectively quit stage acting in 2015, with the main reason behind this decision being his declining memory. The actor has revealed that he was struggling to remember his lines, and this caused the most problems for plays when he would have to remember the entire script to be able to perform every night.
The problem became so bad that Gambon sought medical expertise to test for Alzheimer's disease, believing it may have been the cause of his condition. However, two doctors could find no evidence that he had Alzheimer's disease, although they were unable to determine why he had memory problems.
While the issue prevented him from working on stage, Gambon could still appear in television series and movies until 2019, when he seemingly retired from acting altogether. The actor put this down to the fact that he was able to be fed lines through an earpiece. Even this method was not foolproof, however, and Gambon was dropped from a British comedy series in 2019 after filming the pilot, as he couldn't remember parts of the script.
The actor loved telling lies during interviews
Knowing whether anything Michael Gambon said during an interview was true or not proved a difficult task. That's because the veteran actor often lied during interviews, something that he admitted to doing to make them more interesting and alleviate boredom while speaking to Jeremy Clarkson on "Top Gear" (via The Independent).
The BBC reports that he has previously told journalists that his career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet was cut short because he fell off the stage and injured his back, and that he was able to convince another reporter that he was dating the daughter of a Botswanan chief. Frequently asked about his sexuality, he made up a story about once being homosexual, with the Telegraph reporting him saying, "I used to be gay, but I was forced to give it up, because it made my eyes water." The actor even had a signed photograph from Robert De Niro that was entirely fictitious and hadn't been given to him by the movie actor.
Gambon was well known for playing pranks and his sense of humor
For many years, stories have been told about Gambon's legendary sense of humor and his penchant for playing pranks on his co-stars. A great example of this was during the filming of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." While actor Daniel Radcliffe was focused on attempting to impress the supporting artists, Gambon and Alan Rickman managed to sneak a fart machine into his sleeping bag and let it off to embarrass the young actor.
Gambon also explained how he once tricked Johnny Depp into believing that he was close friends with Queen Elizabeth II. While shooting "Sleepy Hollow," the cast and crew were on land frequently visited by the Queen. One day, she rode past with several members of her close acquaintances, including Henry Herbert who just happened to be a friend of Gambon's as well. This gave the actor the opportunity to convince Depp that he knew the Queen and often popped into her home for tea.
Actor Rufus Jones also told a story on X about how Gambon once started a series of water fights when he began using water pistols to squirt water at any actor smoking out of their dressing room window. These water fights escalated as more actors joined in, prompting Gambon to acquire a hose to drench anyone in the surrounding area.
He was not the first choice to play Dumbledore after Richard Harris died
For the first two "Harry Potter" films, Irish actor Richard Harris portrayed Professor Dumbledore. However, the actor died in 2002 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, with "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" serving as one of his final credits. The sudden loss of Harris meant that a new actor was needed for the important role, with Michael Gambon eventually securing the part. Yet, he was not the first choice by many of those involved in the process at the time.
Producers reached out to Ian McKellen as a potential replacement before contacting Gambon. McKellen had already found success portraying the wizard Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings," but didn't want to take over the role as he felt it was inappropriate given Harris' previous criticism of him. Meanwhile, Harris' close friend Peter O'Toole was also considered and met with producer Chris Columbus and director Alfonso Cuaron. O'Toole ultimately passed as he felt it was too intrusive, since he had been such a good friend of Harris.
The actor was considered to play James Bond
When Sean Connery decided to leave the "James Bond" franchise, the task of replacing him fell onto the relatively unknown George Lazenby. The results were mixed, and Lazenby ended up filming just one movie in the series before departing. This once again opened up the part of the fictional spy to other actors.
It was at this time that Michael Gambon was approached about the possibility of playing James Bond. The actor met with producer Albert R. Broccoli about auditioning for the part but was concerned because of the fact that he didn't have the build or looks of someone like Sean Connery. The Independent quotes Gambon as saying "I haven't got nice hair and I'm a bit fat" when discussing the opportunity with Broccoli. Eon Productions subsequently managed to convince Sean Connery to return for "Diamonds Are Forever," making the discussion of a potential replacement a moot point.