Sir Michael Gambon has died aged 82.

 I first got to know Michael Gambon (as he was then) back at The National Theatre, at the Old Vic, in 1965. I was working as a dresser to a number of actors, including Gambon. He played a variety of small roles, in such shows as Mother Courage and her Children; a deputy in The Crucible and a senator in the outstanding production of Othello, with Sir Laurence Olivier playing the lead role..Gambon, came to public attention for the first time in the TV series The Singer Detective. He went onto the RSC - where I saw him in a thoughtful and sensitive Lear. More recently he has been in the Harry Potter films, to great public acclaim. What an extraordinary gifted and wonderful actor.