Michael Gambon, remarkable star of stage, television and film, dies at 82

Sir Michael Gambon, whose extraordinary acting career took him from Laurence Olivier's nascent National Theatre to screen roles in The Singing Detective and the Harry Potter films, has died at the age of 82.

- Chris Wiegand

A statement from his wife, Anne, and son, Fergus, said: "We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon. Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife and son at his bedside, following a bout of pneumonia. We ask that you respect our privacy at this painful time and thank you for your messages of support and love."

Called "the great Gambon" by Ralph Richardson and admired by generations of fellow actors, he excelled in plays by Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and Alan Ayckbourn. "I owe an enormous amount to Michael," Ayckbourn said yesterday. "He was a remarkable stage performer. It was a privilege to watch him at work on my stuff. You couldn't really term it acting - more an act of spontaneous combustion."

Ayckbourn directed Gambon in 1987 in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. It won him an Olivier award for his role as the Brooklyn longshoreman Eddie Carbone.

Gambon also starred in Ayckbourn's trilogy The Norman Conquests. Gambon's Harry Potter co-star Fiona Shaw told BBC Radio 4 he was "a brilliant, magnificent trickster" who "varied his career remarkably and never judged what he was doing, he just played".