Michael Gambon: an unshowy actor of enormous range and charm
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Friday, September 29, 2023
Fantasy, BBC TV, BBC2, The Singing Detective, Learning, Heart, Darkness, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Noise, BBC, Playhouse (British TV series), BBC Scotland, Rage, Borderers, Layer cake, Anger, Drama, Play, Spica, Affection, Nursing, ITV, Cook, Singing, Harry, Character, Scotland, Television, Film industry, Entertainment, Toy, Nightclub, John Falstaff
Gambon was also a titan of the theatre.
Key Points:
- Gambon was also a titan of the theatre.
- It is through film and television most audiences know Gambon and these are the media through which his image and presence will continue to circulate far into the future.
The acclaimed Singing Detective
- Indeed it was another Potter – Dennis, not Harry – through which Gambon first became a household name.
- In 1986, he starred as lead character Philip Marlow in the TV playwright’s most successful and seminal work for BBC TV, The Singing Detective.
- It was a towering performance which would go on to win him the Bafta for best actor in 1987.
Swashbucklers, gangsters, aristos
- In 1985, Gambon took the title role in the three-part BBC2 serial Oscar, about the life of Oscar Wilde.
- This gained him critical praise and TV industry attention ahead of being cast in The Singing Detective.
- By the end of the film, Spica embodies all the horrors of conspicuous consumption Greenaway clearly loathed about the 1980s.
Older wiser characters
- Though he retired from the theatre in 2015, Gambon continued to act in film and TV until just before his 80th birthday.
- It was that mesmerising combination of rage and vulnerability that always made him a compelling screen actor to watch, making audiences always care about the characters he inhabited.