The 82-year-old actor Sir Michael Gambon played Harry Potter.
According to his relatives, actor Sir Michael Gambon passed away at the age of 82.
In six of the eight Harry Potter films, he played Professor Albus Dumbledore, for which he was best known.
Over the course of his six-decade career, the Dublin-born actor worked in TV, film, theatre, and radio. He received four Baftas.
Following a battle of pneumonia, his wife Lady Gambon and son Fergus claimed their "beloved husband and father" passed away quietly in the hospital with his family by his side.
When Sir Michael was a little boy, his family relocated to London, although he gave his very first stage appearance in Ireland, in a production of Othello in Dublin in 1962.
His acting career took off when he joined Laurence Olivier's National Theatre playing company in London as one of the founding members.
As a result of his performances in National Theatre plays, he went on to win three Olivier Awards.
In the ITV series Maigret, he portrayed French detective Jules Maigret. He was also well-known for playing Philip Marlow in Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective on the BBC.
After Richard Harris passed away in 2003, Sir Michael filled the void left by the late actor in the popular Harry Potter series, which is based on JK Rowling's novels and has Dumbledore as its headmaster.
The World at One on BBC Radio 4 quoted Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley in the films, as saying: "He varied his career remarkably and never judged what he was doing, he just played."
She added: "With text, there was no one like him." She said she would always remember him as "a trickster, just a brilliant, magnificent trickster." He was capable of anything.
A longtime friend of Sir Michael's, Dame Eileen Atkins, said on BBC Radio 4's The World at One that he was "a great actor, but he always pretended he didn't take it very seriously" and that he had incredible stage presence.
"He just had to walk on stage and he commanded the whole audience immediately," she continued. "There was something very sweet about him, this huge man who could look very frightening - but there was something incredibly sweet inside Michael."
I shall always remember that man, she continued.
Gosford Park, the King's Speech, and the big-screen adaptation of Dad's Army are some of his other cinematic roles. In the latter, he played King George V, the father of the stuttering King George VI.
Both his portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 2002 film Path to War and his part as Mr. Woodhouse in the 2010 version of Jane Austen's Emma received Emmy nominations. He was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1997 for his performance in David Hare's play Skylight.
He received a knighthood in 1998 for his contributions to the entertainment sector. Despite being Irish by birth, he had acquired British citizenship as a young child.
The actor, referred to as "The Great Gambon" in the acting community, had last performed on stage in a 2012 London production of Samuel Beckett's play All That Fall.
Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), paid respect, praising the actor. He gave every performance, whether it was for Beckett, Dennis Potter, or Harry Potter, his everything.
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