Harry Potter actor Sir Michael Gambon dies aged 82

The actor Sir Michael Gambon has died aged 82 on Thursday, his family has said.

He was best known for playing Professor Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films.

The Dublin-born star worked in TV, film, theatre and radio over his six-decade career. He won four Baftas.

His widow Lady Gambon and son Fergus said their "beloved husband and father" died peacefully in hospital with his family by his side, following a bout of pneumonia.

Sir Michael's family had moved to London when he was a child but he made his very first stage performance in Ireland, in a production of Othello in Dublin in 1962.

His career took off when he became one the original members of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre acting company in London. He went on to win three Olivier awards for performances in National Theatre productions.

The breakthrough that led the actor Ralph Richardson to call him “the great Gambon” came with Mr. Gambon’s performance in Brecht’s “Life of Galileo” at London’s National Theater in 1980, although he had already enjoyed modest success, notably in plays by Alan Ayckbourn and Harold Pinter.

Peter Hall, then the National Theater’s artistic director, described Mr. Gambon as “unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful,” and recalled in his autobiography how he had approached four leading directors to accept him in the title role, only for them to reject him as “not starry enough.”