British-Irish actor Michael Gambon, known for his iconic role as Professor Albus Dumbledore in "Harry Potter," passes away at 82.
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Michael John Gambon was born in Dublin on 19 Oct 1940, the son of an engineer and a seamstresss.
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While he achieved success on both TV and in the cinema, it was the theatre that was his greatest love.
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And he gained an international following when he took over the part of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films.
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He played many of the great Shakespearean parts, appeared on TV as Inspector Maigret and once auditioned for the role of James Bond.
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His father made him a British citizen, something that meant his future knighthood would be a substantive rather than honorary one.
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School was something of a trial for him. "I have no happy memories whatsoever," he said, and he quit at 15 to take up a job as an apprentice toolmaker with Vickers.
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Something in him had always been drawn towards acting, and he became an avid cinemagoer. But it was not until his early 20s that he began actively pursuing a stage career.
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Many critics have dubbed Michael Gambon as one of the great character actors but it's an epithet he dismissed. "Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality,." he once said. "No real character actor, just me."