“When I see the posters of Mike Gambon… I think sometimes it is me. ![]() And it turns out, McKellen feels the same. That said, I’m sure him playing Dumbledore would have been instantly iconic.Īnd even though McKellen didn’t actually play Dumbledore, I’m one of those people who always assumed he and Michael Gambon were one and the same. McKellen made the decision out of respect rather than bitterness or anger, and I doff my cap to him. Plus, did he really need Harry Potter when he had The Lord of the Rings? He knew Harris wasn’t a huge fan of his, and stepping into his shoes just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t take over the part from an actor who I’d known didn’t approve of me.”Īpart from the shade about playing a “real” wizard, I respect McKellen’s decision to ultimately not take on the role. Richard Harris had this great grandfatherly Aurora to him, which is exactly what Dumbledore was in the first two books. “When they called me up and said would I be interested in being in the Harry Potter films, they wouldn’t say what part, I worked out what they were thinking. I played the real wizard,” McKellen said. “When he died, he played Dumbledore, the wizard. McKellen opted not to replace him because apparently Harris had been critical of McKellen’s work, calling him “technically brilliant, but passionless.” Because of that “nonsense” statement, McKellen was turned off by the idea of taking over for the role. In 2002, Harris passed away in between the filming of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In an interview with the BBC, McKellen said that there was some drama with the late Harris that prevented him from playing Harry’s mentor.ĭrama, you say? Why Sir Ian McKellen turned down the role of Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter Although, I did love when he asked to keep the knitting magazine in HBP. Michael Gambon looked the part, but there were certain important qualities I felt he was lacking. His soft spoken voice, his mannerisms, and sense of humor truly resembled Dumbledore. Why didn’t he accept? There’s an interesting story behind that. Richard Harris will always be Dumbledore to me. He had the perfect look for this sort of role, so you probably won’t be surprised to learn that he was indeed approached to play Dumbledore after Harris passed away. The 82-year old grew his fanbase by a million-fold when he joined The Lord of the Rings films as Gandalf back in the early 2000s. Of course, McKellen didn’t take over - the role went to Michael Gambon - but it just makes sense, doesn’t it? He’s a wizard at playing wizards, after all. Roles of note include Philip Marlow in the mid-‘80s BBC series “The Singing Detective” and Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1997’s “The Gambler.” Others include Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park,” Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” and Michael Mann’s “The Insider.There is a part of me that always assumed Sir Ian McKellen took over the role of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies following the death of Richard Harris, who played the Hogwarts headmaster in the first two films. He’s amassed more than 100 film and TV credits in his career, predominantly as a character actor. “Then Dumbledore is the complete opposite, isn’t he? He’s a nice old man.” “I’ve played quite a lot of crooks and killers, and that’s quite interesting,” says Gambon. Franchise mainstay Albus Dumbledore, played by Michael Gambon in six Harry Potter movies, and Jude Law in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them spin-offs, was initially portrayed by Irish actor Richard Harris in the first two Harry Potter movies. He was given the nickname “The Great Gambon,” praised for the physicality, nuance and unpredictability of his performances. He established himself on the stage with widely hailed performances of Shakespeare (“Othello,” “Macbeth,” “King Lear”) and Harold Pinter (“Betrayal,” “The Caretaker”). ![]() Born in Ireland and raised in London, Gambon was classically trained and eventually recruited by Laurence Olivier for his National Theatre Company. Gambon comes from a different generation of actors: a “working actor” eager for constant work and not as “fussy” as today’s younger crop of thespians.
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