Who played a better part as Albus Dumbledore: Richard Harris or Michael Gambon?

Harris

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by Kenneth Andrews

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"Richard Harris and Michael Gambon have both played Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter films. But who's better? There's only one way to find out - FIGGGGHT!"

Now that would be an excellent episode of Harry Hill's TV Burp...

Private Eye, the UK's legendary satirical magazine, printed an obituary to the late Richard Harris in which they described him as a great British actor most famous for being in Harry Potter for five minutes. And while it is indeed sad that such a great figure in cinema was in the end most associated with a glorified cameo, it is also a credit to Harris's great skill as an actor that he was able to make such an impression on a new generation of cinemagoers with such limited screen time.

Now, don't get me wrong. Both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon are fine actors and I'm really not sure I'd want to choose between them in terms of who is the better actor. I saw Gambon play Falstaff at the National Theatre a few years ago and he has a fantastic range and a wonderful voice. Like Harris, he's an actor who has kept working over the years and turned up in the unlikeliest of places (The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou springs to mind, and it's always worth remembering that Gosford Park and Ali G In Da House came out in the same year).

The fact remains, however, that while both are fine actors, Richard Harris took on the part of Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School and a wizard of legendary power. Michael Gambon, for reasons best known to himself and the director, took on the part of Richard Harris playing Dumbledore. There was little attempt to reinterpret the role for an actor who was a bit younger and a good deal less frail, he even puts on this bizarre throaty Irish accent to try and sound like Harris. It's a really odd approach, and I can't imagine that Gambon is particularly proud of his achievements in the Harry Potter films so far (my fingers are crossed that the Half Blood Prince adaptation, where Dumbledore gets to do a bit more, will redress the balance). He LOOKS as though he was recast following the death of the original actor, and while we all know that's what happened, it really shouldn't be so obvious when you're watching the film.

Towards the end of his life, Richard Harris even looked like a wizard. Not just in the Potter films - if you look at his turn in The Count of Monte Cristo or Gladiator, he had the sprightly old man with a twinkly eye schtick down pat. It wouldn't have surprised me if he really was a wizard, to be honest. Michael Gambon could probably look like a wizard as well if he was allowed free rein, but it would be a different kind of wizard, the portly kind who waves his arms and shouts a lot. Given that he is stuck doing a Richard Harris impersonation, however, he just looks like someone wearing a false beard. I'd be heartbroken to think that was his real facial hair. He just isn't a twinkly-eyed old man of a wizard, and with so many of Rowling's descriptions of Dumbledore centring on his kind twinkly eyes, that is a bit of a problem.

I shall assume that some people do not know what happens in Half Blood Prince, so I shall be deliberately vague when I say that I hope the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will finally give Gambon the chance to shine in the films like the great actor he is, free of the burden of having to slavishly impersonate Richard Harris.

So, yes, sorry Sir Michael but I'm afraid I have firmly decided that Richard Harris was the definitive Albus Dumbledore, and I urge you all to raise a glass (or twenty, given Richard Harris's hell-raising reputation) to his fantastic performance. We are not, indeed, worthy.

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