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The Great Gambon

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One of the all-time greats. Always worth watching. I just heard on the news that he started his acting career in the same way as Orson Welles by blagging a role from Michéal MacLiammior in the Gate Theatre using a fake CV. I doubt that MM was fooled – he just liked to give young actors a start.

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  2. I remember his portrayal of Oscar Wilde in a BBC three part series in the early 80’s, which led to my interest in the life of Wilde. The last time I saw him on TV he was in a reboot of Dad’s Army playing Private Godfrey. A wonderful actor.

  3. He was a great story-teller, not always sticking to the absolute truth though.
    He was apparently offered the James Bond role but turned it down because he said he was too fat.
    Might be true, might be made up, but I’ve heard hi m string the story out for about 10 minutes.
    First seen in The Singing Detective, but I think my favourite role was the menacing Eddie Temple in Layer Cake.
    And his legacy is assured with a corner on the Top Gear track

    • He had a pilot’s licence. Once took fellow thesp and sworn aerophobe Terence Rigby up in a light aircraft to “show him it’s not so bad” and promptly faked a heart attack at the controls

  5. My first exposure to him was in The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover so naturally I have always hated him. That’s as great a compliment as I can pay an actor.

  6. I fell in love with him in The Singing Detective – no mean feat as he wasn’t exactly physically attractive in that role…
    He had a knack for being the most memorable actor on screen, seemingly without having to do very much. It was just the weight of his presence, a glance, a small twitch of a lip, his voice.
    I’ve seen him in bad films, but never being a bad actor.

    • I disliked The Singing Detective and never rated Dennis Potter, but Michael Gambon was terrific in it. Just lying in the hospital bed and being lathered in that awful skin cream, he was heartbreaking.

      In his various performances, you never got the feeling he was phoning it in. He always seemed to givd it his all. And what a great voice he had for a big, momentous bit of dialogue. Elsewhere, his delivery of the “Welcome to the layer cake” speech was very well done.

      RIP.

    • @Locust

      @mikethep

      IMDb has a wonderful story about the moment MG arrived on TSD set in full make up for the first time

      The first time Sir Michael Gambon was wheeled onto set in his full make-up, all the cast and crew were reduced to a stunned silence. Gambon broke the ice by saying “What’s all this fuss about Chernobyl then? I went there for a holiday and it didn’t do me any harm.”

      Wonderful actor and it seems a lovely man.

      Will be rewatching TSD this weekend in his honour

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