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Michael John Gambon, CBE
Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
 (born 19 October 1940) is a BAFTA Award
British Academy Television Awards

The British Academy Television Awards, also known as the BAFTAs — or, to differentiate them from the British Academy Film Awards, the BAFTA Television Awards — are the most prestigious awards given in the United Kingdom television industry, analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States....
-winning Irish
Irish people

The Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha D? Danann and the Milesians ?the last group supposedly representing the "pure" Gaelic a...
-born British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 actor
Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acting in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio programming in that capacity....
 who has worked in theatre
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
, television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 and film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
.

on was born in Dublin
Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer and his mother, Mary Hoare was a seamstress
Sewing

Sewing or stitching is the fastening of cloth, leather, furs, bark, or other flexible materials, using Sewing needle and yarn. Its use is nearly universal among human populations and dates back to Paleolithic times ....
. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent
Mornington Crescent (street)

Mornington Crescent is a street in London Borough of Camden, London, England was built in the 1820s, on a greenfield site just to the north of central London....
 in north London, when Gambon was five.






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Michael John Gambon, CBE
Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom....
 (born 19 October 1940) is a BAFTA Award
British Academy Television Awards

The British Academy Television Awards, also known as the BAFTAs — or, to differentiate them from the British Academy Film Awards, the BAFTA Television Awards — are the most prestigious awards given in the United Kingdom television industry, analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States....
-winning Irish
Irish people

The Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha D? Danann and the Milesians ?the last group supposedly representing the "pure" Gaelic a...
-born British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 actor
Actor

An actor or actress is a person who acting in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio programming in that capacity....
 who has worked in theatre
Theatre

Theatre is the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more actor, isolated in time and/or Theater , present themselves to Audience." By this broad definition, theatre has existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for story telling....
, television
Television

Television is a widely used telecommunication mass-media for transmitting and receiving moving , either monochrome or color, usually accompanied by sound....
 and film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
.

Biography


Early years

Gambon was born in Dublin
Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer and his mother, Mary Hoare was a seamstress
Sewing

Sewing or stitching is the fastening of cloth, leather, furs, bark, or other flexible materials, using Sewing needle and yarn. Its use is nearly universal among human populations and dates back to Paleolithic times ....
. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent
Mornington Crescent (street)

Mornington Crescent is a street in London Borough of Camden, London, England was built in the 1820s, on a greenfield site just to the north of central London....
 in north London, when Gambon was five. His father had him made a British citizen — a decision that would later allow Michael to receive an actual, rather than honorary, knighthood and CBE. (although, under the British Nationality Act 1981 anyone born in Ireland before 1949 can still register as a British subject
British subject

In British nationality law, the term British subject has at different times had different meanings. The current definition of the term British subject is contained in the British Nationality Act 1981....
 and, after five years' UK residence, as a British citizen).

Raised a strict Catholic
Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
, he attended St Aloysius Boys' School in Somers Town
Somers Town, London

Somers Town, named after the Somers family who owned the land, is an area of London south of Camden Town. Historically, the locality known as Somers Town was the whole of the triangular space between the Hampstead, Pancras, and Euston Roads....
 and served at the altar. He then moved to St Aloysius' College
St Aloysius College, London

St. Aloysius' College is a Catholic school, boys-only state school in Islington, North London. Each year around 180 pupils are admitted to Year 7 on the basis of examination, however the local education authority also assigns students without a school to this school....
 in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London, whose former pupils included Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers

'Richard Henry Sellers', Order of British Empire, commonly known as 'Peter Sellers' was a United Kingdom comedian and actor best known for his roles in Dr....
. He later attended a school in Kent, before leaving with no qualifications at fifteen. He then gained an apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong
Vickers Armstrong

Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Armstrong Whitworth in 1927....
 as a toolmaker. By the time he was 21 he was a fully qualified engineer. He kept the job for a further year – acquiring a fascination and passion for collecting antique guns, clocks and watches, as well as classic cars.

Career

Aged 19 he joined the Unity Theatre
Unity Theatre, London

The Unity Theatre was a theatre club formed in 1936, and initially based in St Judes Hall, Britannia Street, Kings Cross, in 1937 they moved to a former chapel in Goldington Street, near St Pancras, London, in the London Borough of Camden....
 in Kings Cross. Five years later he wrote a letter to Michael MacLiammoir, the Irish theatre impresario who ran Dublin's Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre

The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Miche?l MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by Europe and American dramatists....
. It was accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career – and he was taken on.

Gambon made his professional stage début in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin's 1962 production of Othello
Othello

Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian language short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio first published in 1565....
, playing "Second Gentleman", followed by a European tour. A year later, cheekily auditioning with the opening soliloquy from Richard III, he caught the eye of star-maker Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, Order of Merit was an English people Stage actor, Theatre director, and Theatrical producer. He is one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson....
 who was recruiting promising spear-carriers for his new National Theatre
Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre, London, England, is generally known as the National Theatre and commonly as The National. It is located on the The South Bank in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, immediately east of the southern end of Waterloo Bridge....
 Company. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens
Robert Stephens

Sir Robert Stephens was a leading actor in the early years of England's Royal National Theatre....
, Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi

Sir Derek George Jacobi Order of the British Empire is an England actor and film director. Like Laurence Olivier, he bears the distinction of holding two knighthoods, Danish and British....
 and Frank Finlay
Frank Finlay

Francis "Frank" Finlay, Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom stage, film and television actor....
, was hired as one of the ‘to be renowned’ and played any number of small roles. The company initially performed at the Old Vic
Old Vic

The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road, London. It became a Grade II* listed building in 1951....
, their first production being Hamlet
Hamlet

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle King Claudius, who has murdered King Hamlet, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude ....
, directed by Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole

Peter Seamus O'Toole is an Irish people actor of stage and screen who achieved instant stardom in 1962 playing T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia ....
. He played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in The Recruiting Officer
The Recruiting Officer

The Recruiting Officer is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury to recruit soldiers....
 and The Royal Hunt of the Sun
The Royal Hunt of the Sun

The Royal Hunt of the Sun is a 1964 play by Peter Shaffer that portrays the destruction of the Inca empire by conquistador Francisco Pizarro....
, working with directors William Gaskill
William Gaskill

William 'Bill' Gaskill is a United Kingdom theatre director.He worked alongside Laurence Olivier as a founding director of the Royal National Theatre from its time at the Old Vic in 1963....
 and John Dexter
John Dexter

John Dexter was an United Kingdom award-winning theatre, opera, and film director.Born in Derby, England, Dexter left school at the age of 14 to serve in the British army during World War II....
.

Stage
After three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. In 1967, he left the NT for the Birmingham Repertory Company
Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Birmingham Repertory Theatre is a theatre and theatre company based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. It is one of the most influential companies in the history of the English Stage....
 which was to give him his first crack at the title roles in Othello
Othello

Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian language short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio first published in 1565....
 (his favourite), Macbeth
Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest Shakespearean tragedy and is believed to have been written some time between 1603 and 1606, with 1607 being the very latest possible date....
 and Coriolanus
Coriolanus

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a possibly legendary ancient Rome general who lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymy title "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli....
.

His rise to stardom began in 1974 when Eric Thompson
Eric Thompson

Eric Norman Thompson was an England actor, television producer and television presenter.Thompson was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of George Henry and Anne Thompson, and grew up Rudgwick, Sussex, attending Collyer's School, Horsham....
 cast him as the melancholy vet in Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn

Sir Alan Ayckbourn Order of the British Empire is a popular and prolific English playwright....
's The Norman Conquests
The Norman Conquests

The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of Play written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. The small scale of the drama is typical of Ayckbourn. There are only six characters, namely Norman, his wife Ruth, her brother Reg and his wife Sarah, Ruth's sister Annie, and Tom, Annie's next-door-neighbour....
 at Greenwich. A speedy transfer to the West End established him as a brilliant comic actor, squatting at a crowded dining table on a tiny chair and sublimely agonising over a choice between black or white coffee.

Back at the National, now on the South Bank, his next turning point was Peter Hall's premiere staging of Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, Companion of Honour, Order of the British Empire , an English people playwright, screenwriter, actor, Theatre director, poet, author, political activist, and the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, was at the time of his death considered by many "the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation."...
's Betrayal
Betrayal (play)

Betrayal is a play written by 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature English playwright Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of his major Drama, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship, face-saving, dishonesty, and...
, an unexpectedly subtle performance — a production photograph shows him embracing Penelope Wilton
Penelope Wilton

Penelope A. Wilton, Lady Holm Order of the British Empire is an English people actress....
 with sensitive hands and long slim fingers (the touch of a master clock-maker). He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the harsh demands of the vast Olivier Theatre. As Simon Callow
Simon Callow

Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, Order of the British Empire is a United Kingdom theatre, film and television actor and director....
 once said: “Gambon's ‘iron lungs and overwhelming charisma are able to command a sort of operatic full-throatedness which triumphs over hard walls and long distances.”
Endgame
This was to serve him in good stead in John Dexter
John Dexter

John Dexter was an United Kingdom award-winning theatre, opera, and film director.Born in Derby, England, Dexter left school at the age of 14 to serve in the British army during World War II....
's masterly staging of The Life of Galileo in 1980, the first Brecht to become a popular success. Hall called him ‘unsentimental, dangerous and immensely powerful’, even the Sunday Times’ curmudgeonly critic of the day called his performance ‘a decisive step in the direction of great tragedy...great acting’, while fellow actors paid him the rare compliment of applauding him in the dressing room on the first night.

From the first Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson

Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
 dubbed him The Great Gambon, an accolade which stuck, outshining his 1990 CBE, even the later knighthood, although Gambon dismisses it as a circus slogan. But as Sheridan Morley
Sheridan Morley

Sheridan Morley was an England author, biographer, critic, director, actor and broadcaster. He was the eldest son of actor Robert Morley and grandson of actress Dame Gladys Cooper, and wrote biographies of both....
 perceptively remarked in 2000, when reviewing Cressida: ‘Gambon's eccentricity on stage now begins to rival that of his great mentor Richardson’. Also like Richardson, interviews are rarely given and raise more questions than they answer. Gambon is a very private person, a ‘non-starry star’ as Ayckbourn called him. Off-stage he prefers to back out of the limelight, an unpretentious guy sharing laughs with his fellow cast and crew.

While he has won screen acclaim, no-one who saw his ravaged King Lear
King Lear

King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered one of his greatest works....
 at Stratford
Stratford

Stratford is a place name found in many English-speaking countries. It derives from the Old English words str?t and ford . A variant of the name is "Stretford"....
, while still in his early forties, will forget his superb double act with a red-nosed Antony Sher
Antony Sher

Sir Antony Sher Order of the British Empire is a British actor, writer, theatre director and painter....
 as the Fool sitting on his master's knee like a ventriloquist's doll. There were also notable appearances in Old Times
Old Times

Old Times is a play by the List of Nobel laureates#Literature Harold Pinter. It was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in London on June 1, 1971....
 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and as Volpone
Volpone

Volpone is a comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606, drawing on elements of city comedy, black comedy and animal fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is among the finest English literature#Jacobean literature comedies....
 and the brutal sergeant in Pinter's Mountain Language
Mountain Language

Mountain Language is a one-act play written by Harold Pinter, first published in the The Times Literary Supplement on 7?13 October 1988....
.

David Hare
David Hare (dramatist)

Sir David Hare is an English people playwright and Theatre director and film director....
's Skylight
Skylight (play)

Skylight is a play by British dramatist David Hare . It opened at the Royal National Theatre, Cottesloe, directed by Richard Eyre, in 1995. The production then moved to the Wyndham's Theatre for a short run from 13 February 1996, after winning the Laurence Olivier Award for the 1995 season....
, with Lia Williams
Lia Williams

Lia Williams is an award winning English actress, notable for many stage, film, and television appearances. She is married to writer/producer Guy Hibbert, with whom she occasionally collaborates....
, which opened to rave reviews at the National in 1995, transferred first to Wyndhams Theatre and then on to Broadway for a four-month run which left him in a state of advanced exhaustion. “Skylight
Skylight

Skylight may refer to:* Skylight * Skylight , by David HareSee also* Diffuse sky radiation* Light pollution...
 was ten times as hard to play as anything I’ve ever done” he told Michael Owen in the Evening Standard. “I had a great time in New York but couldn’t wait to get back”.

Gambon is almost the only leading actor not to grace Yasmina Reza
Yasmina Reza

Yasmina Reza is a France playwright, actor, novelist and screenwriting. Her parents were both of Jewish origin, her father Iranian, her mother Hungary....
's ART
'Art' (play)

?Art? is a French language play by Yasmina Reza that premiered on 28 October 1994 at Com?die des Champs-?lys?es in Paris. The English language adaptation, translated by Christopher Hampton opened in London's West End theatre on 15 October 1996....
 at Wyndham's. But together with Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale

Simon Russell Beale Commander of the British Empire is a English actor. He has been described as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."...
 and Alan Bates
Alan Bates

Sir Alan Arthur Bates Order of British Empire was a United Kingdom actor of stage, screen and television....
 he gave a deliciously droll radio account of the role of Marc. And for the RSC he shared Reza's two-hander The Unexpected Man
The Unexpected Man

The Unexpected Man is a Play written in 1995 by Yasmina Reza. Reza is best known in the English speaking world as the author of Art' ....
 with Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins

Dame Eileen June Atkins Order of British Empire is an award-winning England actress and occasional screenwriter....
, first at The Pit in the Barbican and then at the Duchess Theatre, a production also intended for New York but finally delayed by other commitments.

In 2001 he played what he described as “a physically repulsive’’ Davies in Patrick Marber
Patrick Marber

Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an England comedian, playwright, director, actor and screenwriter....
's revival of Pinter's The Caretaker
The Caretaker

The Caretaker is a play by the List_of_Nobel_laureates#Literature Harold Pinter, first published in 1959. It was Pinter?s sixth stage/TV play and was the work that gave him his first significant commercial success....
, but he found the rehearsal period an unhappy experience, and felt that he had let down the author. A year later, playing opposite Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig

Daniel Wroughton Craig is an England actor. His early film roles included The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert....
, he portrayed the father of a series of cloned sons in Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill is an England dramatist known for her use of non-Naturalism techniques and feminist themes. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer....
's A Number
A Number

A Number is a 2002 play by English people playwright Caryl Churchill which addresses the subject of human cloning and identity, especially nature versus nurture....
 at the Royal Court
Royal court

Royal court, as distinguished from a court of law, may refer to:*Noble court, the household or entourage of a monarch or other ruler*Royal Court , a theatre in Liverpool, England...
, notable for a recumbent moment when he smoked a cigarette, the brightly lit spiral of smoke rising against a black backdrop, an effect which he dreamed up during rehearsals.

In 2004 he finally achieved a life-long ambition to play Sir John Falstaff
Falstaff

Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England....
, in Nicholas Hytner
Nicholas Hytner

Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director, regarded by some as one of the most prolific and accomplished of his generation on either side of the Atlantic....
's National Theatre production of Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1

Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second of Shakespeare's tetralogy that deals with the successive reigns of Richard II of England, Henry IV of England , and Henry V of England....
 and Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2

Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V ....
, co-starring with Matthew Macfadyen
Matthew Macfadyen

Matthew Macfadyen is a United Kingdom actor, known for his role as MI5 agent Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks and for starring as Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice ....
 as Prince Hal.

Film
He made his film debut in the Laurence Olivier Othello
Othello (1965 film)

Othello is a 1965 in film film based on the William Shakespeare play Othello; starring Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay, and Joyce Redman....
 in 1965. He then played romantic leads, notably in the early 1970s BBC television series, The Borderers
The Borderers

The Borderers is a United Kingdom television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1970....
, in which he was swashbuckling Gavin Ker. As a result, Gambon was asked by James Bond
James Bond

James Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections....
 producer Cubby Broccoli to audition for the role in 1970, to replace George Lazenby
George Lazenby

George Robert Lazenby is an Australian actor and former model , best known for portraying James Bond in the 1969 in film film On Her Majesty's Secret Service ....
. His craggy looks soon made him into a character actor
Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays a particular type of role rather than leading actor ones. Character actor roles can range from bit parts to leading actor....
, although he won critical acclaim as Galileo in John Dexter
John Dexter

John Dexter was an United Kingdom award-winning theatre, opera, and film director.Born in Derby, England, Dexter left school at the age of 14 to serve in the British army during World War II....
's production of The Life of Galileo by Brecht
Brecht

Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgium province of Antwerp . The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts....
 at the National Theatre in 1980. But it was not until Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter

Dennis Christopher George Potter was an England dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social....
's The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective

The Singing Detective is a critically acclaimed BBC television serial, written by Dennis Potter, starring Michael Gambon. Jon Amiel directed....
 (1986) that he became a household name. After this success, for which he won a BAFTA, his work includes films such as The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover which also starred Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren, Order of the British Empire is a multi-award winnning English actor. She has won an Academy Award, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards during her career....
.

In 1992 he played a psychotic general in the Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson

Barry Levinson is an Academy Award-winning United States screenwriter, film director, actor, and Film producer of film and television....
 film Toys and he also starred as Georges Simenon
Georges Simenon

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgium writer who wrote in French language. He is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Jules Maigret....
's detective Inspector Jules Maigret in an ITV
ITV

ITV is a public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television network of British television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC....
 adaptation of Simenon's series of books. He starred as Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the Hungarian director Károly Makk
Károly Makk

K?roly Makk is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. Five of his films have been nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival without success; however, he has won lesser awards at Cannes and elsewhere....
's movie The Gambler (1997) about the writing of Dostoyevsky's novella The Gambler.

Recent work
In recent years, films such as Dancing at Lughnasa
Dancing at Lughnasa

Dancing at Lughnasa is a 1990 play by dramatist Brian Friel set in Ireland's County Donegal in August 1936 in the fictional town of Ballybeg....
 (1998) and Plunkett & Macleane
Plunkett & Macleane

Plunkett & Macleane is a 1999 UK historical film action comedy film directed by Jake Scott , starring Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Liv Tyler....
 (1998), as well as television appearances in series such as Wives and Daughters
Wives and Daughters

Wives and Daughters is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the Cornhill Magazine as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866....
 (1999) (for which he won another BAFTA), a made-for-TV adaptation of Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish people writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett's work offers a bleak outlook on human culture and both formally and philosophically became increasingly minimalism....
's Endgame
Endgame (play)

Endgame, by Samuel Beckett, is a one-act Play with four characters. It was originally written in French , entitled Fin de partie; as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English ....
 (2001) and Perfect Strangers (2001) have revealed a talent for comedy. In 2004, he appeared in five films, including Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson

Wesley Wales Anderson is an United States Film director, scriptwriter, actor, and film producer of film, short subjects and Television commercial....
's quirky comedy The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is Wes Anderson's fourth feature length film, released in the United States on December 25 2004. It was written by Anderson and Noah Baumbach and was filmed in and around Naples, Ponza and the Italian Riviera....
; the British gangster flick Layer Cake
Layer Cake (film)

Layer Cake is a 2004 in film United Kingdom gangster Thriller , directed by Matthew Vaughn. It is based on a Layer Cake by J. J. Connolly....
; theatrical drama Being Julia
Being Julia

Being Julia is a 2004 in film Canada/United States/Hungary/United Kingdom drama film with comic undertones directed by Istv?n Szab?. The screenplay by Ronald Harwood is based on the 1937 novel Theatre by W....
; and CGI
Computer-generated imagery

Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, Television commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media....
 action fantasy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a 2004 in film Cinema of the United States pulp adventure, science fiction film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut....
.

Perhaps his most significant role in 2004, however, was Albus Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character and a major protagonist within the Harry Potter novels written by United Kingdom author J....
, Hogwarts' headmaster in the third installment of J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling

Joanne "Jo" Rowling Order of the British Empire , who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling, is a United Kingdom author, best known as the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990....
's franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a 2004 in film fantasy adventure film, based on the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J....
, taking over from fellow Irish
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
 actor Richard Harris
Richard Harris

Richard St. John Harris was a two-time Academy Award-nominated and Grammy Award-winning Ireland actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
, who had died of Hodgkins disease. (Harris had also played Maigret on television four years before Gambon took that role.) Gambon reprised the role of Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a 2005 in film fantasy adventure film, based on J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and is the fourth film in the popular Harry Potter ....
, which was released in November 2005 in the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 and U.S.
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 He returned to the role again in the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a 2007 in film fantasy film adventure film film, based on the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J....
, which was released in 2007. He will once again return to portray Dumbledore in film the sixth Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is an upcoming 2009 in film fantasy film-adventure film, based on the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J....
. Gambon admits to not having read the Harry Potter
Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a Heptalogy fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the eponymous adolescent wizard Harry Potter , together with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, his friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry....
 novels and says that this is because he does not want to be upset by an extremely large change or death in the books. Similarly, he has also stated in an interview that, when playing Dumbledore, "I don't have to play anyone really. I just stick on a beard and play me, so it's no great feat. I never ease into a role – every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. I’m not really a character actor at all..."

Most recently, he was Joe in Beckett's Eh Joe
Eh Joe

Eh Joe is a piece for television, written in English by Samuel Beckett, his first work for the medium. It was begun on the author?s fifty-ninth birthday, 13 April 1965, and completed by 1 May....
, giving two performances a night at the Duke of York's Theatre
Duke of York's Theatre

The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End Theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre, until her death in 1935....
 in London. He currently does the voice over to the new Guinness
Guinness

Guinness is a popular dry stout that originated in Arthur Guinness' first brewery in Leixlip, County Kildare but it then moved to its present home at St....
 ads with the penguin
Penguin

Penguins are a group of Aquatic animal, flightless bird birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershading dark and white plumage, and their wings have become Flipper ....
s. In 2007 he played major roles in Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff

Stephen Poliakoff CBE is an acclaimed Great Britain playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists....
's Joe's Palace
Joe's Palace

Joe's Palace is a BBC television drama, and written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff. It was first aired on BBC One on 4 November 2007. It is linked, by the central character of Joe, to the Poliakoff drama Capturing Mary which was aired on 12 November 2007....
, and the five-part adaptation of Mrs Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, n?e Stevenson, , often referred to simply as Mrs. Gaskell, was an England novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era....
's Cranford novels, both for BBC TV.

In 2008 Gambon appeared in the role of Hirst in No Man's Land
No Man's Land

No Man's Land may refer to the following:...
 by Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter, Companion of Honour, Order of the British Empire , an English people playwright, screenwriter, actor, Theatre director, poet, author, political activist, and the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, was at the time of his death considered by many "the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation."...
 in the Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre

The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Miche?l MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by Europe and American dramatists....
, Dublin
Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
, opposite David Bradley
David Bradley (actor)

David Bradley is an England character actor. He has recently become known for playing the caretaker of Hogwarts, Argus Filch, in the Harry Potter series of films....
 as Spooner, in a production directed by Rupert Goold
Rupert Goold

Rupert Goold is English theatre director. He is artistic director of Headlong Theatre and from 2010 he will be an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company....
, which transferred to the London West End
West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's "Theatreland". Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English language world....
's Duke of York's Theatre
Duke of York's Theatre

The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End Theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre, until her death in 1935....
, for which roles each received nominations for the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, to be announced on 8 March 2009; if he wins, it would be Gambon's second Olivier award in that category. After Pinter's death occurred on 24 December 2008, Gambon read Hirst's monologue selected by the playwright for Gambon to read at his funeral, held on 31 December 2008, during the cast's memorial remarks from the stage as well as at the funeral and also in Words and Music, transmitted on the BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on European classical music, but jazz, world music, drama and the arts also feature....
 on 22 February 2009.

Personal life

Gambon married Anne Miller when he was 22, but has always been secretive about his personal life, responding to one interviewer's question about her: "What wife?" The couple lived together in a country house near Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent

Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the administrative town of the Districts of England of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of England....
 in Kent
Kent

Kent is a Counties of England in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary....
, where Anne has her workshop. Gambon was invested by Prince Charles as a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor

The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Chivalric order....
 on 17 July 1998 for services to drama (Queen Elizabeth II's approval for the award was notified in the 1998 New Year Honours List) and his wife thus became Lady Gambon. The couple have a son, Fergus, who appears as an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow
Antiques Roadshow

Antiques Roadshow is a United Kingdom human interest television show in which antiques appraisals travel to various regions of the United Kingdom and appraise antiques brought in by local residents....
.

While filming Gosford Park
Gosford Park

Gosford Park is a 2001 in film film directed by Robert Altman. The screenplay is by Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman and producer Bob Balaban....
, Gambon brought Philippa Hart on to the set and introduced her to co-stars as his girlfriend. When the affair was revealed in 2002, he moved out of the marital home, but rather than moving in with his lover, he bought himself a bachelor pad. Philippa, who worked with Gambon on the film Sylvia in 2003, in late 2006 moved into a Ł500,000 terraced home in Chiswick
Chiswick

Chiswick is an affluent area of West London, located west of Charing Cross, which covers the eastern part of the London Borough of Hounslow....
, West London
West London

West London is the area of Greater London to the west of Central London. Although it is only ambiguously defined, it is one of the most economically active areas of London outside of the centre, containing significant amounts of office space along with London Heathrow Airport and many of its associated businesses....
 with her pet pug dog. In February 2007, it was revealed that Philippa was pregnant with Gambon's child, and gave birth to son Michael in May 2007. In October 2008, it was revealed that Philippa is pregnant with the couple's second child.

Gambon is a qualified amateur pilot, and his love of cars led to his appearance on the BBC's Top Gear
Top Gear (current format)

Top Gear is a BAFTA, multi-National Television Awards and International Emmy Award-winning BBC television series about motor vehicles, primarily automobile....
 programme. Gambon raced the Suzuki Liana and was driving so aggressively that it was launched into the air on the last corner of his timed lap. The final corner of the Dunsfold Park
Dunsfold

Dunsfold is a village in the Waverley, Surrey district of the county of Surrey, England, 8.7 miles south of Guildford. The census area Chiddingfold and Dunsfold has a population of 3,812....
 track has been named "Gambon" in his honour. He reappeared on the programme on the 4 June 2006, and set a time in the Chevrolet Lacetti of 1:50.3, a significant improvement on his previous time of 1:55. He clipped his namesake corner the second time, and when asked why by Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English people Presenter and journalist who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC Television show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May....
, replied that 'I dunno - I just don't like it'.

Work


Theatre

  • Othello
    Othello

    Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian language short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio first published in 1565....
     (Second Gentleman), Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, professional debut 1962, followed by a European tour
  • Hamlet
    Hamlet

    Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle King Claudius, who has murdered King Hamlet, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude ....
    , National Theatre
    Royal National Theatre

    The Royal National Theatre, London, England, is generally known as the National Theatre and commonly as The National. It is located on the The South Bank in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, immediately east of the southern end of Waterloo Bridge....
     at the Old Vic
    Old Vic

    The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road, London. It became a Grade II* listed building in 1951....
    , 1963
  • Saint Joan
    Saint Joan (play)

    Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises based on what is known of her life and on the substantial records of her trial....
    , National/Old Vic, 1963
  • The Recruiting Officer
    The Recruiting Officer

    The Recruiting Officer is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury to recruit soldiers....
     (Coster Permain), National/Old Vic, 1963
  • Andorra
    Andorra (play)

    Andorra is a play written by the Swiss dramatist Max Frisch in 1961. The original text came from a prose sketch Frisch had written in his diary titled Der andorranische Jude ....
    , National/Old Vic, 1964
  • Philoctetes
    Philoctetes

    In Greek mythology, Philoctetes was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer, and was a participant in the Trojan War....
    , National/Old Vic, 1964
  • Othello
    Othello

    Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian language short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio first published in 1565....
    , National/Old Vic, 1964
  • The Royal Hunt of the Sun
    The Royal Hunt of the Sun

    The Royal Hunt of the Sun is a 1964 play by Peter Shaffer that portrays the destruction of the Inca empire by conquistador Francisco Pizarro....
     (Diego), Chichester Festival and National/Old Vic, 1964
  • The Crucible
    The Crucible

    The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play based on the actual events that, in 1692, led to the Salem Witch Trials, a series of hearings before local magistrates to prosecute over 150 people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693....
     (Herrick), National/Old Vic, 1965
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
    Mother Courage and Her Children

    Mother Courage and Her Children is a play written in 1939 by the Germany dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht with significant contributions from Margarete Steffin....
     (Eilif), National/Old Vic, 1965
  • Love for Love
    William Congreve

    William Congreve was an England playwright and poet....
     (Snap), National/Old Vic, 1965, also tour to Russia and Germany
  • Juno and the Paycock
    Juno and the Paycock

    Juno and the Paycock is a Play by Sean O'Casey, the second of his well-known "Dublin Trilogy" and one of the most highly regarded and oft-performed plays in Ireland....
     (Jerry Devine), National/Old Vic, 1966
  • The Storm, National/Old Vic, 1966
  • Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun
    Alexandr Ostrovsky

    Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was a Russian playwright....
     by John McGrath
    John McGrath

    John Peter McGrath, , was a Liverpool-Ireland playwright and theatre theorist who grew up in Wales and notably took up the cause of Scottish independence in his plays....
     (Flynn), Birmingham Rep, 1967
  • A Severed Head
    A Severed Head

    A Severed Head is a satire, sometimes farce 1961 novel by Iris Murdoch.Primary themes include marriage, adultery, and incest within a group of civilized and educated people....
     (Palmer Anderson), Birmingham Rep, 1967
  • The Doctor's Dilemma
    The Doctor's Dilemma

    The Doctor's Dilemma is a play by George Bernard Shaw first staged in 1906.In the play a number of dilemmas crop up, of which the surface one is that of a doctor who has developed a new cure for tuberculosis, but has only enough of it for one patient....
     (Patric Cullen), Birmingham Rep, 1967
  • Saint Joan
    Saint Joan

    Saint Joan may refer to:People* Joan of Arc * Saint Joan of Portugal * Joan of Lestonnac Theatre* Saint Joan , by George Bernard Shaw* Saint Joan , adaptation directed by Otto Preminger...
     (Cauchon), Birmingham Rep, 1967
  • Peer Gynt
    Peer Gynt

    Peer Gynt is a five-Act play in Verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. Interpreted in its day as a satire on the Norwegian people personality, Peer Gynt is the story of a life based on avoidance....
     (The Button Moulder), Birmingham Rep, 1968
  • Othello
    Othello

    Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian language short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio first published in 1565....
     (title role), Birmingham Rep, 1968
  • Macbeth
    Macbeth

    Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest Shakespearean tragedy and is believed to have been written some time between 1603 and 1606, with 1607 being the very latest possible date....
    , The Forum Theatre, Billingham, 1968
  • In Celebration
    In Celebration

    In Celebration is a 1975 in film film directed by Lindsay Anderson. It is based in the 1969 stage production of the same name by David Storey which was also directed by Anderson....
     (Andrew), Liverpool Playhouse
    Liverpool Playhouse

    The Liverpool Playhouse is a theatre in Williamson Square in the city of Liverpool, England.Although a concert room had existed on the site since approximately 1844, the Listed building theatre seen today was built in 1866, when it was the Star Music Hall....
    , 1969
  • Coriolanus
    Coriolanus (play)

    File:Gavin Hamilton - Coriolanus Act V, Scene III edit2.jpgCoriolanus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, based on the life of the legendary Roman Republic leader, Coriolanus....
     (title role), Liverpool Playhouse, 1969
  • The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising
    Günter Grass

    G?nter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning Germany author and playwright.He was born in the Free City of Danzig . Since 1945, he has lived in West Germany , but in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood....
     (Wiebe), RSC
    RSC

    RSC is a Three-letter acronym that can stand for several things:*RuneScape#Community or RuneScape Classic*Chromatin Structure Remodeling Complex...
     Aldwych Theatre
    Aldwych Theatre

    The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed building on 20 July 1971 Its seating capacity is 1,200....
    , 1970
  • Major Barbara (Charles Lomax), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1970
  • Henry VIII
    Henry VIII (play)

    The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth is a history play by William Shakespeare, based on the life of Henry VIII of England....
     (Surrey), RSC Aldwych Theatre, 1971
  • When Thou Art King
    Alexandr Ostrovsky

    Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was a Russian playwright....
     (Hotspur), RSC Roundhouse
    Roundhouse

    A roundhouse is a building used by rail transports for servicing locomotives. Roundhouses are large, circular or semicircular structures that were traditionally located surrounding or adjacent to turntable ....
    , 1971
  • The Brass Hat
    Alexandr Ostrovsky

    Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was a Russian playwright....
     (Guy Holden), Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
    Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

    The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Surrey is a theatre presenting in-house productions which often tour and transfer into the West End theatre along with a variety of other performances including opera, ballet and pantomime....
    , Guildford, 1972
  • Not Drowning But Waving
    Alexandr Ostrovsky

    Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was a Russian playwright....
     by Leonard Webb (Robin), Greenwich Theatre
    Greenwich Theatre

    The Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London....
    , 1973
  • The Norman Conquests
    The Norman Conquests

    The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of Play written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. The small scale of the drama is typical of Ayckbourn. There are only six characters, namely Norman, his wife Ruth, her brother Reg and his wife Sarah, Ruth's sister Annie, and Tom, Annie's next-door-neighbour....
     trilogy (Tom), Greenwich Theatre, 1974
  • The Norman Conquests
    The Norman Conquests

    The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of Play written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. The small scale of the drama is typical of Ayckbourn. There are only six characters, namely Norman, his wife Ruth, her brother Reg and his wife Sarah, Ruth's sister Annie, and Tom, Annie's next-door-neighbour....
     (Tom), Globe Theatre
    Globe Theatre

    The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613....
    , London 1975
  • The Zoo Story
    The Zoo Story

    The Zoo Story is American playwright Edward Albee first play; written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks.The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, social disparity and dehumanization in a commercial world....
     (Gerry), Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
    Regent's Park

    Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London of London. It is in the northern part of central London partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden....
     lunchtime production, 1975
  • Otherwise Engaged
    Otherwise Engaged

    Otherwise Engaged is a bleakly comic play by English playwright Simon Gray. It opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 10 July 1975, with Alan Bates as the star and Harold Pinter as director, produced by Michael Codron....
     (Simon), Queen's Theatre
    Queen's Theatre

    The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It opened on 8 October 1907 with a comedy called The Sugar Bowl by Madeleine Lucette Ryley....
    , 1976 (replacing Alan Bates
    Alan Bates

    Sir Alan Arthur Bates Order of British Empire was a United Kingdom actor of stage, screen and television....
    )
  • Just Between Ourselves
    Alan Ayckbourn

    Sir Alan Ayckbourn Order of the British Empire is a popular and prolific English playwright....
     (Neil), Queen's Theatre, 1977
  • Alice's Boys
    Alexandr Ostrovsky

    Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was a Russian playwright....
     by Felicity Browne and Jonathan Hales (Bertie), Savoy Theatre
    Savoy Theatre

    The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand, London in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, which became known as the Savoy Operas...
    , London, 1978
  • Betrayal
    Betrayal (play)

    Betrayal is a play written by 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature English playwright Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of his major Drama, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship, face-saving, dishonesty, and...
     (Jerry), National Theatre
    Royal National Theatre

    The Royal National Theatre, London, England, is generally known as the National Theatre and commonly as The National. It is located on the The South Bank in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, immediately east of the southern end of Waterloo Bridge....
    , 1978
  • Close of Play
    Harold Pinter

    Harold Pinter, Companion of Honour, Order of the British Empire , an English people playwright, screenwriter, actor, Theatre director, poet, author, political activist, and the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, was at the time of his death considered by many "the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation."...
     (Henry), National Lyttelton Theatre, 1979
  • Richard III
    Richard III (play)

    Richard III is a Shakespearean history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England....
     (taking over as Buckingham), National, 1980
  • Othello
    Othello

    Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian language short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio first published in 1565....
     (Roderigo), National, 1980
  • Sisterly Feelings (Patrick), National, 1980
  • The Life of Galileo (title role), National Olivier Theatre, 1980
  • King Lear
    King Lear

    King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered one of his greatest works....
     (title role) RSC Stratford
    Stratford

    Stratford is a place name found in many English-speaking countries. It derives from the Old English words str?t and ford . A variant of the name is "Stretford"....
    ,1982; Barbican Theatre, 1983
  • Antony and Cleopatra
    Antony and Cleopatra

    Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623.The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Markus Antonius and follows the relationship between Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Mark Antony from the time of the Roman-Persian Wars to Cleopatra's suicide....
     (Antony), RSC Stratford, 1982; Barbican, 1983
  • Tales from Hollywood
    Christopher Hampton

    Christopher James Hampton CBE is an Academy Award-winning British playwright, screen writer and film director. He is best known for his play based on the novel Les Liaisons dangereuses and the film version Dangerous Liaisons and also more recently for writing the nominated screenplay for the Atonement of Ian McEwan Atonement ....
     (Ödön von Horváth
    Ödön von Horváth

    ?d?n von Horv?th, born December 9 1901, in Su?ak, a suburb of Rijeka,Austria-Hungary , and killed by a falling tree branch June 1 1938, in Paris, was one of the most important German-language playwrights and authors of the twentieth century....
    ), National, 1983
  • Old Times
    Old Times

    Old Times is a play by the List of Nobel laureates#Literature Harold Pinter. It was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych Theatre in London on June 1, 1971....
     (Deeley), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1985
  • A Chorus of Disapproval
    A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval is a 1988 British film adapted from the Alan Ayckbourn A Chorus of Disapproval , directed by Michael Winner. Among the movie's cast are Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons, Richard Briers, and Alexandra Pigg....
     (Dafyd ap Llewellyn), National Olivier, 1985
  • Tons of Money
    Alan Ayckbourn

    Sir Alan Ayckbourn Order of the British Empire is a popular and prolific English playwright....
     (Sprules), National Lyttelton, 1986
  • A View from the Bridge
    A View from the Bridge

    A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller first staged on 29 September 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway....
     (Eddie Carbone), National Cottesloe Theatre, 1987
  • A Small Family Business
    Alan Ayckbourn

    Sir Alan Ayckbourn Order of the British Empire is a popular and prolific English playwright....
     (Jack McCracken), National Olivier, 1987
  • Mountain Language
    Mountain Language

    Mountain Language is a one-act play written by Harold Pinter, first published in the The Times Literary Supplement on 7?13 October 1988....
     (Sergeant), National Lyttelton, 1988
  • Uncle Vanya
    Uncle Vanya

    Uncle Vanya is a tragicomedy by the Russian literature playwright Anton Chekhov published in 1899. Its first major performance was in 1900 under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
     (title role), Vaudeville Theatre
    Vaudeville Theatre

    The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on Strand, London in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days....
    , 1988
  • Veterans' Day
    Donald Freed

    Donald Freed is a politically-engaged United States playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and actor. He has a long association with writing programs at the University of Southern California, and is an Artist in Residence at the Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds, United Kingdom , and Playwright in Residence at York Theatre Royal , particip...
     (Walter Kercelik), Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1989
  • Man of the Moment
    Man of the Moment

    Man of the Moment may refer to:*Man of the Moment , starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Laura La Plante*Man of the Moment , featuring Norman Wisdom...
     (Douglas Beechey), Globe Theatre
    Globe Theatre

    The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613....
    , London, 1990
  • Othello
    Othello

    Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian language short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio first published in 1565....
     (title role), Stephen Joseph Theatre
    Stephen Joseph Theatre

    The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
    , Scarborough, 1991
  • Taking Steps, Stephen Joseph, Scarborough, 1981
  • Volpone
    Volpone

    Volpone is a comedy by Ben Jonson first produced in 1606, drawing on elements of city comedy, black comedy and animal fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-performed play, and it is among the finest English literature#Jacobean literature comedies....
     (title role), National Olivier, 1995
  • Skylight
    Skylight (play)

    Skylight is a play by British dramatist David Hare . It opened at the Royal National Theatre, Cottesloe, directed by Richard Eyre, in 1995. The production then moved to the Wyndham's Theatre for a short run from 13 February 1996, after winning the Laurence Olivier Award for the 1995 season....
     (Tom Sergeant), National Cottesloe, 1995
  • Skylight
    Skylight

    Skylight may refer to:* Skylight * Skylight , by David HareSee also* Diffuse sky radiation* Light pollution...
     (Tom Sergeant), Broadway
    Broadway theatre

    Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
    , 1996
  • Tom and Clem
    Stephen Churchett

    Stephen Churchett is a United Kingdom actor and writer.One of his most notable roles was as solicitor Marcus Christie in EastEnders, on and off from Storylines of EastEnders #1990 to Storylines of EastEnders #2004....
     (Tom Driberg), Aldwych Theatre, 1997
  • The Unexpected Man
    The Unexpected Man

    The Unexpected Man is a Play written in 1995 by Yasmina Reza. Reza is best known in the English speaking world as the author of Art' ....
     (The Man), RSC The Pit, Barbican
    Barbican

    A barbican is a fortified outpost or gateway, such as an outer defense to a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes....
    , 1998
  • Cressida
    Cressida (disambiguation)

    Cressida may refer to:* Kathryn Cressida, a voice-over artist.* Cressida, a character in Medieval and Renaissance literature* Cressida , a moon of Uranus...
     (John Shank
    John Shank

    John Shank, also spelled Shanke or Shanks , was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a leading comedian in the King's Men during the 1620s and 1630s....
    ), The Almeida Theatre
    Almeida Theatre

    The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off A1 road , in the London Borough of Islington....
     at the Albery, 2000
  • The Caretaker
    The Caretaker

    The Caretaker is a play by the List_of_Nobel_laureates#Literature Harold Pinter, first published in 1959. It was Pinter?s sixth stage/TV play and was the work that gave him his first significant commercial success....
     (Davies), Comedy Theatre
    Comedy Theatre

    The Comedy Theatre, is a West End Theatre, and opened on Panton Street in the City of Westminster, on 15 October 1881, as the Royal Comedy Theatre....
    , 2001
  • A Number
    A Number

    A Number is a 2002 play by English people playwright Caryl Churchill which addresses the subject of human cloning and identity, especially nature versus nurture....
     (The Father), Royal Court Theatre
    Royal Court Theatre

    The Royal Court Theatre is a West End Theatre#London's non-commercial theatres theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea....
    , 2002
  • Endgame
    Endgame (play)

    Endgame, by Samuel Beckett, is a one-act Play with four characters. It was originally written in French , entitled Fin de partie; as was his custom, Beckett himself translated it into English ....
     (Hamm), Albery Theatre, 2004
  • Henry IV, Part 1
    Henry IV, Part 1

    Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second of Shakespeare's tetralogy that deals with the successive reigns of Richard II of England, Henry IV of England , and Henry V of England....
     and Henry IV, Part 2
    Henry IV, Part 2

    Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V ....
     (Sir John Falstaff
    Falstaff

    Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England....
    ), National Olivier, 2005
  • Celebration
    Celebration (play)

    Celebration is a Play by United Kingdom playwright Harold Pinter. It was first presented as a double-bill with Pinter's first play The Room on Thursday 16 March 2000 at the Almeida Theatre in London ....
     Pinter staged reading (Lambert), Gate Theatre
    Gate Theatre

    The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Miche?l MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by Europe and American dramatists....
    , Dublin
    Dublin

    Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
    /Albery, 2005
  • Eh Joe
    Eh Joe

    Eh Joe is a piece for television, written in English by Samuel Beckett, his first work for the medium. It was begun on the author?s fifty-ninth birthday, 13 April 1965, and completed by 1 May....
     (Joe), Duke of York's Theatre, 2006
  • No Man's Land
    No Man's Land (play)

    No Man's Land is a Play by 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first produced and published in 1975....
     (Hirst) , Gate Theatre
    Gate Theatre

    The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Miche?l MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by Europe and American dramatists....
     , 2008


Filmography


Awards and nominations



Further reading

  • Who's Who in the Theatre, Fourteenth edition, Pitman (1967) for National Theatre at the Old Vic playbills
  • Who's Who in the Theatre, Seventeenth edition, Gale (1981) ISBN 0810302357 for Michael Gambon's own CV up to 1980
  • Giant of the Stage: A Profile of Michael Gambon by John Thaxter, The Stage newspaper, (16 November, 2000)
  • Gambon: A Life in Acting by Mel Gussow
    Mel Gussow

    Melvyn H. Gussow was an influential USA theater critic who wrote for The New York Times for 35 years.Born in New York City to parents Donald and Betty Gussow, the elder of two sons, Gussow was of Lithuanian descent, grew up in Rockville Centre, New York, located in the Town of Hempstead , New York, Long Island, New York; his younger b...
    , Nick Hern Books (2004) ISBN 185497736
  • Theatre Record and Theatre Record annual indexes 1981-2007


External links

  • at Tiscali
    Tiscali SpA

    Tiscali SpA is a European telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Italy, and provides internet and telecommunications services to Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Czech Republic....
     UK
  • The Guardian
    The Guardian

    Sorry, no overview for this topic
     (2004-04-23)