scorecard
  1. Home
  2. entertainment
  3. news
  4. Michael Gambon, the actor who played Dumbledore, used to prank Daniel Radcliffe on the set of 'Harry Potter'

Michael Gambon, the actor who played Dumbledore, used to prank Daniel Radcliffe on the set of 'Harry Potter'

Joshua Zitser,Eammon Jacobs   

Michael Gambon, the actor who played Dumbledore, used to prank Daniel Radcliffe on the set of 'Harry Potter'
  • British actor Michael Gambon has passed away aged 82, his family said Thursday.
  • The star was best known for playing Professor Albus Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" movies.

Actor Michael Gambon, who has died at the age of 82, will be fondly remembered for his role in the "Harry Potter" franchise — as well as for being something of a prankster on set.

Gambon appeared in the likes of "Sleepy Hollow," "Layer Cake," and "The King's Speech." But he was best known for his role as Hogwarts headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore, in the "Harry Potter" franchise based on the books by J.K. Rowling.

While Gambon was one of many older actors in the franchise alongside the younger stars, he built up a great rapport with Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe.

In an interview with GQ in October last year, Radcliffe revealed that the late Gambon used to play pranks on him, often leaving him in fits of laughter.

Radcliffe said in the interview that Gambon learned that he could make the teenage actor "laugh very, very easily," often right up until the director yelled "action."

"At which point, I was pretty much unable to recover and he could just snap into a performance with inherent gravitas and charm," said Radcliffe. "Yeah, he's awesome."

One such occasion took place during the filming of the third movie, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," during which Radcliffe told GQ that he fell for one of Gambon's practical jokes.

In behind-the-scenes footage from the 2004 movie, Radcliffe recalled how Gambon had placed a fart machine in his sleeping bag during filming for a complicated scene.

"Michael Gambon had actually been pressing it during the take, I found out," he said in the footage.

In a 2015 interview with Future Movies, Gambon himself addressed the practical joke.

He told the publication: "On my first 'Potter' film, the director and I shoved a fart machine in Harry Potter's sleeping bag. He had his eye on one of the extra girls and asked, 'Can she be in the next sleeping bag to me in this scene?'"

Gambon continued: "She was a beautiful girl playing a non-speaking part so we agreed. I had the controller, and as soon as he wakes up in the Great Hall, I pressed the button. It destroyed his credibility with her."

The star joined the Wizarding World franchise as Dumbledore in the third film, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," replacing Richard Harris, who died in 2002 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease.

Speaking to the "Today" show in 2009, Gambon said that he took the role without too much consideration.

"They rang me up and said, 'Will you do it?' Like any other job, I said, 'Sure.' Then you find yourself in the middle of this thing," said Gambon.

"I hadn't realized before just how powerful these things are. I just do the job and go home and you forget it," he added.



Popular Right Now



Advertisement