Sir Michael Gambon remembered as the ‘loveliest of legends’

Sir Michael Gambon has been remembered fondly as a “magnificent trickster” and the “loveliest of legends” following his death aged 82.

The Dublin-born star of the stage and screen, who won four TV Baftas, died peacefully in hospital late on Wednesday, his family said.

In recent years he played Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films, entering as the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts following the death of fellow Irish actor Richard Harris.

Harris died in 2002 at the age of 72 after starring in the first two films in the franchise and Sir Michael then portrayed the character from Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban through to Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Harry Potter cast members were among those paying tribute to Sir Michael, with Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley in the film franchise, telling BBC Radio 4: “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.

“So I will think of him as a trickster, just brilliant, magnificent trickster, but with text, there was nothing like him, he could do anything.”

She said of working with him on the Harry Potter films: “He took over from Richard Harris and of course, he began to mimic Richard Harris, who had recently died, and he would do his accent, the slight Irish accent.

“Which of course he always loved having an excuse to do because his family had come from Ireland, and gone to live in Camden. He just loved the precariousness of reality and unreality and, of course, that made him a very great actor.”

Shaw added: “He did once say to me in a car ‘I know I go on a lot about this and that, but actually in the end, there is only acting’. I think he was always pretending that he didn’t take it seriously, but he took it profoundly seriously, I think.”

Dame Helen Mirren recalled working alongside Sir Michael in 1982’s Antony And Cleopatra, and hailed him as an “extraordinary actor”.

She told BBC News she would smile when she thinks of him, adding: “Because he was incredibly funny. He had this natural Irish sense of humour, naughty but very, very funny. He was enormously self-deprecating, and at the same time an instinctive actor and a wonderful person to be around just in general.