Michael Gambon

It was only a few weeks ago I watched Michael Gambon in 1999's Sleepy Hollow and now he's passed away at the age of 82. He was an actor with great stage presence and a magnificently deep voice but he was also capable of great nuance and warmth. He's most famous for taking over the role of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies when Richard Harris died and I always thought it was a big improvement. I've never had particularly strong feelings about the Harry Potter series, I neither loved nor hated them, but I definitely thought Gambon brought a lot of life to the role Harris had seemed a bit bored playing.

Gambon had a long and successful stage career. Early on, he was part of Laurence Olivier's company. I would love to see some of the performances he gave before being forced to retire in 2009 due to an inability to remember lines. I'd especially like to see his turn as Falstaff in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, in 2005.

One thing you can see is his starring role, alongside David Thewlis, in Samuel Beckett's Endgame on YouTube. Gambon and Thewlis are perfect actors for Beckett as they're both exceptionally good at infusing expressive humanity into roles. That's especially important to tether Beckett's absurdism, to show the audience how Beckett is using absurdism to isolate human nature.