"Acting is like quicksilver. It's difficult to pin down exactly what makes one actor great and another merely good. As a critic, you can run the gamut of the thesaurus and it's still hard to capture a truly great performance with your pen. What, then, of an actor's whole oeuvre? How do you convey their career in a meaningful way, so mercurial is the talent, so ephemeral is the product they leave behind, especially when major parts of their career are on the stage?"
"Milly Ellis's new book on the Dublin-born star charts a career from playing a spear carrier alongside Anthony Hopkins in 'Hamlet' to fleeing the set of a production about Oscar Wilde hotly pursued by crew Michael Gambon is best known to the general public as Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, in the Harry Potter films (a role he took over after the death of fellow Irish actor Richard Harris). But to theatre-goers he was a Beckett, Pinter, Ayckbourn, Shakespeare man."
A Dublin-born actor's career spans early minor roles—playing a spear carrier alongside Anthony Hopkins in Hamlet—to dramatic incidents such as fleeing the set of an Oscar Wilde production while hotly pursued by crew. Acting is described as mercurial and elusive, making it difficult for critics to capture the essence of great performances or to summarize an entire career, especially when much work occurs on stage. The actor achieved widespread popular recognition as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, a role taken after Richard Harris's death. Among theatre audiences he was revered for performances in Beckett, Pinter, Ayckbourn, and Shakespeare.
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