Michael Gambon was one of Britain’s most celebrated actors, but according to a new biography, he was just as famous behind the scenes for being an absolute menace in the best possible way.
Jasper Rees has written an authorised biography of the late actor, published three years after Gambon passed away in September 2023 at the age of 82. While the book covers his extraordinary career in serious detail, from his towering stage work in Shakespeare, Beckett and Pinter to his iconic television role in The Singing Detective and his years playing Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, it is the pranks and the chaos that have got everyone talking.
Gambon, it turns out, was a world-class wind-up merchant.
One of the most talked-about stories involves Daniel Radcliffe on the set of Harry Potter. Gambon reportedly rigged a fart machine into Radcliffe’s sleeping bag during a scene, setting it off at just the right moment to cause maximum embarrassment. Radcliffe, to his credit, took it well. Gambon, by all accounts, absolutely did not keep a straight face.
Judi Dench, one of the most respected actresses in the country, was apparently left completely unable to hold herself together after one of Gambon’s bits of mischief. The details in the biography paint a picture of a man who took genuine joy in making the people around him lose their composure, whether they were in the middle of a serious rehearsal or just trying to get through a normal working day.
Then there is the story involving Helen Mirren, which apparently involved Gambon spinning some kind of elaborate fantasy about a fry-up. It is the sort of thing that sounds completely baffling out of context but, knowing Gambon’s reputation, probably made perfect sense in the moment and left everyone in stitches.
One co-star, in what has quickly become the most quoted line from the biography, said of a Gambon prank: “I laughed so hard my Tampax fell out.” That single sentence probably tells you everything you need to know about the kind of energy the man brought to a room.
Brian Cox, another heavyweight of British acting, contributed to the biography with his memories of Gambon, including a description of his hands as “the biggest you’ve ever seen on anybody.” The book apparently dedicates entire chapters to both Gambon’s hands and his equally enormous feet, which gives you a sense of how much personality the man had. Even his physical presence was worth writing about at length.
Gambon was born in Dublin but moved to London as a child and spent the vast majority of his career working in England, becoming a cornerstone of British theatre and television. He was knighted in 1998 and is widely considered one of the finest stage actors of his generation. His performance as Philip Marlow in The Singing Detective, Dennis Potter’s landmark 1986 BBC drama, is still regularly cited as one of the greatest pieces of television acting ever committed to screen.
He took over the role of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films following the death of Richard Harris in 2002, bringing a slightly more unpredictable and gruff energy to the character that divided some fans of the books but won plenty of others over.
What the biography makes clear is that behind all the serious craft and the critical acclaim, there was a man who simply loved to laugh and loved to make others laugh even more. Colleagues describe someone who never let the weight of his own reputation get in the way of a good joke, and who seemed to find genuine delight in catching people off guard.
For anyone who only knew Gambon through his screen work, the biography apparently comes as something of a revelation. The performances were serious. The man himself very much was not, at least not all the time.
The book by Jasper Rees is out now and, based on the early reaction, it sounds like essential reading for anyone who loves British theatre and film history, or who just wants to hear more stories about one of the country’s great actors being an absolute nightmare to work with in the most loveable way imaginable.