‘Harry Potter’ Cast Members Remember Dumbledore Actor Michael Gambon After His Death at Age 82

Harry Potter cast members are taking time to honor Dumbledore actor Michael Gambon, who passed away Thursday at the age of 82.

Although he starred in a variety of roles on stage and screen, including appearances in Layer Cake and The King's Speech, Gambon was best known for playing Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Potter movies. (He adopted the role from Richard Harris, who passed away in 2002 after finishing the second installment.) When news of Gambon’s death broke, cast members began pouring out their sympathies.

James Phelps, who played Fred Weasley in each of the films, shared a warm memory about Gambon helping him prepare for another role. “Whilst shooting HP6 I worked on the [Assistant Director] department for the whole shoot (apart from the days I was acting). And for that reason, I spent many hours with Michael. He was always very funny and very welcoming to share any knowledge he had,” Phelps wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Phelps continued: “One day, we were shooting Dumbledore's final clock tower scene, obviously quite an intense scene. In between [camera] setups, Michael asked what I was up to that weekend. As it happened my brother and I were reading Peter and the Wolf with the Manchester Halle Orchestra. ‘Do you have the script with you?’ he asked. 'I‘ve done that, let's go through it and if you like I can give some notes.' So we spent what should have been his downtime going over my weekend gig.”

Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy in several installments, also took to X to share condolences. “Magnificent Michael Gambon has died. I learned what acting could be from Michael in The Singing Detective – complex, vulnerable, and utterly human. The greatest thrill of being in the Potter films was that he knew my name and shared his fearless, filthy sense of fun with me.”

Jared Harris, son of Richard Harris and a noted actor in his own right (having appeared in Mad Men and Chernobyl) called Gambon's taking over of Dumbledore “fitting, as he overtook Brando as my father’s favorite actor.”

Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley, spoke fondly of Gambon during an interview with the BBC on Thursday. "He varied his career remarkably and never judged what he was doing, he just played. With text, there was nothing like him. He could do anything," the Killing Eve star marveled. She remembers Gambon "as a trickster, just a brilliant, magnificent trickster.”

“He did once say to me ‘I know I go on a lot about this and that, but actually in the end, there is only acting,’” Shaw revealed. “I think he was always pretending that he didn’t take it seriously, but he took it profoundly seriously.”

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson have yet to weigh in on Gambon’s passing. However, in a recently resurfaced behind-the-scenes clip from the Prisoner of Azkaban shoot, Radcliffe recalled a ribald prank played upon him by Gambon and Snape actor Alan Rickman (who passed in 2016) involving a very long night shoot and a disruptive fart machine.

You can watch the clip below.