• Biography
• More Bios
• Movies

• More ...
• Filmbug Top 100
• Movie Dictionary

Browse ..
A-Z
By Date
By Year
By State
By Country

•  

Michael Gambon reprises his role as Professor Albus Dumbledore, the wise and respected headmaster of Hogwarts School. He also starred as Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Gambon has been honored for his work on the stage, screen and television over the course of his career, spanning more than four decades. He shared in both a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Award as part of the ensemble cast of Robert Altman's Gosford Park. He has also won four BAFTA TV Awards for his performances in the longform projects Perfect Strangers; Longitude; Wives and Daughters, for which he also won a Royal Television Society (RTS) Award; and The Singing Detective, also winning RTS and Broadcast Press Guild Awards for his work in the title role. Gambon also received Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations for his portrayal of President Lyndon Baines Johnson in the HBO movie The Path to War. In 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to theatre.

Gambon more recently appeared in the independent feature Brideshead Revisited. He will next be seen in the post-apocalyptic drama The Book of Eli, in which he stars with Denzel Washington under the direction of Albert and Allen Hughes. The film is due out in early 2010.

Gambon's many film credits also include Jake Paltrow's The Good Night, Robert De Niro's drama The Good Shepherd, the remake of The Omen, Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sylvia, Open Range, The Insider, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, The Last September, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Gambler, The Wings of the Dove and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.

On the small screen, he appeared in HBO's award-winning miniseries Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols; the BBC miniseries Masterpiece Theatre: Cranford; and the HBO movie Joe's Palace. Later this year, he will be seen in the BBC series Emma.

A native of Ireland, Gambon began his career with the Edwards-MacLiammoir Gate Theatre in Dublin. In 1963, he was one of the original members of the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic under Laurence Olivier. He later joined Birmingham Rep, where he played Othello. His extensive theatre repertoire also encompasses numerous productions in London's West End, including Simon Gray's Otherwise Engaged; the London premieres of three plays by Alan Ayckbourn, The Norman Conquests, Just Between Ourselves and Man of the Moment; Alice's Boys; Harold Pinter's Old Times; the title role in Uncle Vanya; and Veterans Day with Jack Lemmon, to name only a portion. In 1987, he won numerous awards, including an Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the London revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge.

With the Royal National Theatre (RNT), Gambon had major roles in the premieres of Harold Pinter's Betrayal and Mountain Language; Simon Gray's Close of Play; Christopher Hampton's Tales from Hollywood; three more plays by Alan Ayckbourn, Sisterly Feelings A Chorus of Disapproval, for which he won an Olivier Award, and A Small Family Business; and David Hare's Skylight, which moved on to the West End and Broadway. Also with the RNT, Gambon did Endgame, with Lee Evans, and played Falstaff in Henry IV, Parts I and II. His more recent stage work includes lead roles in Volpone, for which he won an Evening Standard Award; Nicholas Hytner's production of Cressida, at the Almeida; Patrick Marber's production of Caretaker in the West End; and Stephen Daldry's production of A Number at The Royal Court Theatre.