LONDON --- British-Irish actor Michael Gambon, best known to global audiences for playing the wise professor Albus Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" movie franchise and whose career was launched by his mentor Laurence Olivier, died aged 82 on Thursday. He died peacefully in hospital, PA Media reported citing a family statement. Gambon began his acting on the stage in the early 1960s and later moved into TV and film. Notable film roles include a psychotic mob leader in Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" in 1989 and the elderly King George V in Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech" in 2010. But his best-known role was as Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter...Keep on reading: Michael Gambon, British actor who played Dumbledore, dies aged 82