‘I laughed so hard my Tampax fell out’: Michael Gambon’s pranks revealed by the stars he cracked up

Jasper Rees’s authorised biography of Michael Gambon, published three years after the great actor’s death, has nuanced accounts of his performances in Shakespeare, Beckett and Pinter as well as The Singing Detective and the Harry Potter films. There are even chapters devoted to his hands (“the biggest you’ve ever seen on anybody” – Brian Cox) and similarly enormous feet. But, Gambon being Gambon, there are also dozens of accounts of tomfoolery on and off stage …

‘One of the funniest people I’ve ever met’

David Hare’s 1995 play Skylight is set in a draughty flat where a dish of spaghetti is cooked up on stage. Those kitchen cupboards proved useful for Lia Williams to hide when Gambon’s goofing got to her at the National Theatre. Gambon would adopt a different accent or speak in tongues during a scene and “when he made me laugh it was hell on Earth because there was nothing I could do about it” said Williams, who called him “one of the funniest people I’ve ever met”. She continued: “One time I laughed so hard that my Tampax fell out and I had to deal with that for an entire act.”

Dinner with Judi, Ken and Natasha

Ibsen’s Ghosts was a hot potato when it was first staged in 1882 thanks to its scandalous plot involving syphilis and incest. Gambon had some fun with the spuds when playing the self-righteous Pastor Manders in an 80s BBC TV version. Director Elijah Moshinsky envisioned a tense, sombre dinner scene and Gambon sat alongside Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh. The potatoes were duly passed around by Natasha Richardson. “I’ll just have the usual eight,” requested Gambon. His co-stars’ corpsing led them to leave the set. “We couldn’t control ourselves at all,” confessed Dench.

Dumbledore unleashes Fartis Temporus

Not every actor’s biography includes “fart machines” in the index but toots fake and real are let off in several chapters. When Gambon took over the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, he and Alan Rickman pranked Daniel Radcliffe by triggering a fart machine during a closeup of the young star when he was in a sleeping bag alongside fellow Hogwarts students. “I was initially really annoyed,” said Radcliffe, before concluding that if Rickman and Gambon had engineered it then “that is pretty funny”.

A storm and a Fool

When Gambon played King Lear for the RSC in 1982, Antony Sher sported a red nose as the clownish Fool. The poster presented them as a sort of double act and Sher was widely seen as stealing the limelight. Rees likens it to Gambon taking on what is often referred to as an “actor’s Everest” only to find another climber “clambering frantically up the same rope”. Adrian Noble, who directed the tragedy, said Gambon “joshed [Sher] mercilessly”. During the storm scene he reportedly bellowed: “Come on out, you little red-nosed fucker!”

The fake De Niro

When he was appearing on stage in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, Gambon kept a signed photo of Robert De Niro – with words of admiration for Gambon’s work – on his dressing room table. The pair would appear together in the film The Good Shepherd in 2006 but had never even met by the time he was doing A View from the Bridge. The fake autograph and note – “I loved working with you Mike, you’re great – love Bobby” – were apparently written by Gambon himself.

Wink wink

One festive season in the late 60s, Gambon found himself starring in the Christmas show Hans, the Witch and the Gobbin at Birmingham Rep – much to his annoyance, remembered co-star Anthony Higgins. A prodigious swearer, Gambon decided to add to his stage makeup for a performance. “One night he’d written on one eyelid ‘fuck’ and on the other ‘off’,” said Higgins. Gambon blinked each eye to deliver the message to Higgins. Artistic director Peter Dews had to give him a word of warning.

‘Rupert wet himself regularly’

When Gambon played the tramp Davies in a 2000 revival of Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker, he revelled in repelling theatregoers – as well as the brothers played by Douglas Hodge and Rupert Graves. One night, according to Rees’s book, Gambon had his back to the audience and buried his hand in his trousers, where he had stowed away a serving of chocolate cake. He withdrew his smeared fingers and sniffed them, causing his co-stars to crack up. “Rupert was in terrible trouble,” remembered Hodge. “Rupert wet himself regularly.”

A fry-up with Cleopatra

Gambon loved to supply journalists with tall tales and see who believed him. He treated one interviewer to an “insight” into how he and Helen Mirren prepared while in the wings for their roles as Antony and Cleopatra for the RSC. Mirren, he assured the journalist, got into character by performing a mime in which she prepared a dish of ham and eggs for Antony. “Absolute rubbish,” Mirren told Rees, though added: “It’s a lovely story.”

• Michael Gambon: The Authorised Biography by Jasper Rees is published by Century (£30). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.