JK Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe have paid tribute to Harry Potter star Michael Gambon, hailing him as a "wonderful man" and an "outstanding actor".
The Dublin-born star of stage and screen died peacefully in hospital aged 82, his family said.
Gambon found a legion of new fans in recent years after starring in six of the eight Harry Potter films as the beloved Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts.
He took over the role from fellow Irish actor Richard Harris following his death aged 72 in 2002, portraying the character from Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban through to Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter book series on which the films were based, paid tribute to Gambon saying she first saw him perform in King Lear in 1982. She said if someone had told her the late actor "would appear in anything I'd written, I’d have thought you were insane".
The author sent her condolences to his family and those who loved him as she recalled her experience of working with him on the Harry Potter films and in the BBC’s 2015 adaptation of her book The Casual Vacancy.
"Michael was a wonderful man in addition to being an outstanding actor, and I absolutely loved working with him, not only on Potter but also The Casual Vacancy", she said.
Radcliffe, who played the titular boy wizard alongside the late actor’s Dumbledore, praised Gambon as "one of the most brilliant, effortless actors" he has ever worked with.
"With the loss of Michael Gambon the world just became considerably less fun", Radcliffe said.
"Michael Gambon was one of the most brilliant, effortless actors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with, but despite his immense talent, the thing I will remember most about him is how much fun he had doing his job. He was silly, irreverent and hilarious. He loved his job, but never seemed defined by it."
The actor also described Gambon as an "incredible story and joke teller" and said he made the hours they spent on set "more memorable and joyous than they had any right to be".
"I’m so sad to hear he has passed, but I am so grateful for the fact that I am one of the lucky people who got to work with him", Radcliffe added.
His co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who played Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, also recalled fond memories with Gambon.
Grint remembered the "warmth and mischief" he brought to set.
"He captivated me as a kid and became a personal role model of mine for finding the fun and eccentricities in life. Sending all my love to his family, Rupert," he wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the actor dressed in full Dumbledore regalia.
Watson said Gambon would never take things "too seriously" but would still deliver "the most serious moments with all the gravitas".
"Thank you for showing us what it looks like to wear greatness lightly. We will miss you xx," she added in a post on her Instagram story.
Actor Jason Isaacs said the "greatest thrill" of playing Lucius Malfoy in the film franchise was that Gambon Michael knew his name and "shared his fearless, filthy sense of fun" with him – while James Phelps, who played Fred Weasley, regarded the late actor as a "legend" on and of the camera.
The son of Harris also described Gambon as a "brilliant actor", adding: "He took over Dumbledore from my father, which was fitting as he overtook (Marlon) Brando as my father’s favourite actor."
Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley in the film franchise, told BBC Radio 4 that she regarded him as a "magnificent trickster" as he would tell her he could make guns that could "fool the V&A into believing that they were 18th-century guns".
She said of working with him on the Harry Potter films: "He took over from Richard Harris and of course, he began to mimic Richard Harris, who had recently died, and he would do his accent, the slight Irish accent.
"Which of course he always loved having an excuse to do because his family had come from Ireland, and gone to live in Camden. He just loved the precariousness of reality and unreality and, of course, that made him a very great actor."
Source: Press Association
