The actor Sir Michael Gambon has died aged 82, his family has said.
He was best known for playing Professor Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films.
The Dublin-born star worked in TV, film, theatre and radio over his six-decade career. He won four Baftas.
His widow Lady Gambon and son Fergus said their “beloved husband and father” died peacefully in hospital with his family by his side, following a bout of pneumonia.
Sir Michael’s family had moved to London when he was a child but he made his very first stage performance in Ireland, in a production of Othello in Dublin in 1962.
His career took off when he became one of the original members of Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre acting company in London. He went on to win three Olivier awards for performances in National Theatre productions.
Dame Helen Mirren – who starred with him in 1989’s The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover – led tributes to her “naughty but very, very funny” friend.
In an interview for this weekend’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Dame Helen recalled how he had kept her “constantly in laughter” during filming and also when they appeared on stage in Antony and Cleopatra seven years previously.
She added that in recent times the two had discussed growing older, and how that affected their work:
Sir Michael was “utterly realistic” about his situation, she said. “He found it increasingly difficult to remember lines, which I have the greatest of sympathy with, and that sort of took him away from theatre,” she said. (BBC)