Michael Gambon

An acolyte of Laurence Olivier, he honed his craft on the British stage in productions of plays by Samuel Beckett and Alan Ayckbourn; major theater awards precipitated celebrated turns on television in "The Singing Detective" (BBC1, 1986), which in turn launched a film career as dastards like his brutal gangster in "Thief" or men hobbled by regret in "Dancing in Lunghnasa" (1998). Hits in Hollywood like "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) boosted his …