Alright, here we go. First off, let’s go by absolute fact. Michael Gambon, although not entirely his fault, never looked or acted remotely like the book Dumbledore … EVER. Yeah okay, he wasn’t bad in HBP but even in POA (where he, like in HBP, didn’t get aggressive) he had no real grasp of Dumbledore’s wisdom, his twinkling eyes, his warm smile and he was just too aloof in POA. That isn’t Dumbledore. Now, let’s talk about something I have read on countless blog pages and websites about Richard Harris being too old for the action scenes in OoP.

No one seems to remember that the poor man was dying of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma a.k.a cancer of the lymphatic system. He was sick! Of course he seemed frail in Chamber of Secrets! Watch him in that film and, although he seems to walk around reasonably well, his voice sounds phlegmy and wispish. My strong belief is that it was the disease causing these effects on his body, not the results of being 71-72 years old.

So, if we are to imagine him in future films, picture him at a time when he at least appeared not to be suffering from cancer … YEP, Philosopher’s Stone, guys! Watch him closely in that movie, and you can tell that he was pretty much fine then! That movie was made less than a year before CoS, so you tell me: Would it likely be that aging a year caused him to sound so frail and, forgive me Mr Harris, appear to be breathing through his mouth most of the time? Or does it make more sense that his disease had taken its toll?