Muere a los 82 años Michael Gambon, el Dumbledore de Harry Potter

Michael Gambon, Dumbledore in ‘Harry Potter’ Franchise, Dies at 82

LONDRES.- El actor irlandés afincado en el Reino Unido Michael Gambon, conocido, entre otras cosas, por interpretar a Albus Dumbledore en la saga cinematográfica de Harry Potter, ha fallecido a los 82 años tras contraer una neumonía, ha informado este jueves su familia.

«Estamos destrozados por anunciar la pérdida de Michael Gambon», indica un comunicado emitido por su publicista, Clair Dobbs, en nombre de su esposa, Anne Miller, y su hijo Fergus.

«Amado esposo y padre, Michael murió pacíficamente en el hospital acompañado de su esposa Anne y su hijo Fergus, después de un brote de neumonía. Michael tenía 82 años», añade.

Michael Gambon, Dumbledore in ‘Harry Potter’ Franchise, Dies at 82

By Carmel Dagan – Michael Gambon, the Irish-English actor best known for his role as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the “Harry Potter” movies, has died, Variety has confirmed. He was 82.

“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon,” his family said in a statement. “Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia.”

While it is easier for a character actor, often working in supporting roles, to rack up a large number of credits than it is for lead actors, Gambon was enormously prolific, with over 150 TV or film credits in an era when half that number would be impressive and unusual — and this for a man whose body of stage work was also prodigious.

He played two real kings of England: King Edward VII in “The Lost Prince” (2003) and his son, King George V, in “The King’s Speech” (2010); Winston Churchill in his later years in the 2015 ITV/PBS “Masterpiece” telepic “Churchill’s Secret”; U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in John Frankenheimer’s 2002 HBO telepic “Path to War,” for which he was Emmy-nominated; and a fictional British prime minister in “Ali G Indahouse,” also in 2002. And as Hogwarts headmaster in the “Harry Potter” movies, he presided over the proceedings therein. In 2016, he served as the narrator for the Coen brothers’ paean to golden-age Hollywood, “Hail! Caesar.”

But Gambon was just as likely to play a gangster as an eminence grise: He recurred on David Milch’s HBO horse-racing drama “Luck” in 2011-12 as a powerful adversary of Dustin Hoffman’s mobster Ace Bernstein, but if there is a single film role for which Gambon should be remembered, it is his thunderous, sulfurous foray as the thief of the title — a gangster if ever there was one — in Peter Greenaway’s 1999 “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.” This role, after decades of appearing in movies, is what really brought him to the attention of the film world. Roger Ebert declared: “The thief’s thuggish personality stands astride the movie and browbeats the others into submission. He is a loud, large, reprehensible criminal, played by Michael Gambon as the kind of bully you can only look at in wonder, that God does not strike him dead.”

Playing another excellent gangster in Matthew Vaughn’s 2005 British crime film “Layer Cake,” Gambon was handed one of the best lines: “England. Typical. Even drug dealers don’t work weekends.” (Ebert said that Eddie Temple, Gambon’s character, is “the kind of man whose soul has warts on its scars.”)

But Gambon could equally well play upper crust, as in Robert Altman’s 2001 film “Gosford Park” or the 2008 rendition of “Brideshead Revisited.”

And he played an excellent villain in Michael Mann’s whistleblower film “The Insider,” in which the actor portrayed the head of a tobacco company.

Gambon took over the role of Albus Dumbledore after the death of Richard Harris, who had played the role in the first two films. Gambon admitted that he had never read the “Harry Potter” books, and he told the U.K.’s the Independent, “I’d never seen any of the previous films, but working on the series was huge fun — and for lots of dosh.”

Gambon was also among the stars of the 2015 BBC/HBO miniseries based on J.K. Rowling’s novel “The Casual Vacancy.”

In addition to his nomination for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or movie for “Path to War” in 2002, Gambon was Emmy-nominated for supporting actor in a miniseries or movie for playing Mr. Woodhouse in the 2009 adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma” that starred Romola Garai in the title role.

The actor won four BAFTA TV Awards for best actor, first for his career-changing role in 1986’s “The Singing Detective,” next for 1999’s “Wives and Daughters,” then for 2000’s exquisite telepic “Longitude” and then the following year for “Perfect Strangers.”

His TV career also included starring as the legendary French police inspector in the Granada Television series “Maigret,” which aired on PBS in early 1990s, and more recently included starring, in 2015, in the Scandinavian series “Fortittude,” airing in the U.S. on Pivot.

more in original source https://variety.com/2023/film/news/michael-gambon-dead-dies-dumbledore-harry-potter-1235738661/