![]() ![]() He is also one of the few actors to have mastered the harsh demands of the vast Olivier Theatre. 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.īack at the National, now on the South Bank, his next turning point was Peter Hall's premiere staging of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, an unexpectedly subtle performance - a production photograph shows him embracing Penelope Wilton with sensitive hands and long slim fingers (the touch of a master clock-maker). His rise to stardom began in 1974 when Eric Thompson cast him as the melancholy vet in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests at Greenwich. In 1967, he left the NT for the Birmingham Repertory Company which was to give him his first crack at the title roles in Othello (his favourite), Macbeth and Coriolanus. ![]() Work in the theatre Īfter three years at the Old Vic, Olivier advised Gambon to gain experience in provincial rep. He played for four years in many NT productions, including named roles in The Recruiting Officer and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, working with directors William Gaskill and John Dexter. The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being Hamlet, directed by Olivier and starring Peter O'Toole. Gambon, along with Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Frank Finlay, was hired as one of the ‘to be renowned’ and played any number of small roles. A year later, cheekily auditioning with the opening soliloquy from Richard III, he caught the eye of star-maker Laurence Olivier who was recruiting promising spear-carriers for his new National Theatre Company. Gambon made his professional stage début in the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin's 1962 production of Othello, playing "Second Gentleman", followed by a European tour. It was accompanied by a CV describing a rich and wholly imaginary theatre career – and he was taken on. Five years later he wrote a letter to Michael MacLiammoir, the Irish theatre impresario who ran Dublin's Gate Theatre. ![]() 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.Įarly acting career Īged 19, he joined the Unity Theatre in Kings Cross. By the time he was 21 he was a fully qualified engineer. He then gained an apprenticeship with Vickers Armstrong as a toolmaker. He later attended a school in Kent, before leaving with no qualifications at fifteen. He then moved to St Aloysius' College in Hornsey Lane, Highgate, London, whose former pupils included Peter Sellers. Raised a strict Catholic, he attended St Aloysius Boys' School in Somers Town and served at the altar. (although, under the British Nationality Act 1981 anyone born in Ireland before 1949 can still register as a British subject and, after five years' UK residence, as a British citizen). 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. His father decided to seek work in the rebuilding of London, and so the family moved to Mornington Crescent in north London, when Gambon was five. His father, Edward Gambon, was an engineer and his mother, Mary ( née Hoare), was a seamstress. Gambon was born on 19 October 1940 in Dublin during World War II. Sir Michael John Gambon CBE (born 19 October 1940) is an Irish-born British actor with a career that spans nearly five decades and includes a variety of roles in movie, television and theatre.īiography Early life Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion PictureĬritics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actorįilm Festival Catalonian International Film Festival Awards for Best Actorġ989 The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance ![]()
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