I agree. He always seemed grumpy. Dumbledore would never have manhandled Harry the way he did in GoF!
Richard Harris was the best Dumbledore they could have ever casted.

It's not a requirement to read Harry Pott5b4er to be able to appear in it. I am sure many of the adult actors in Harry Potter hasn't read it either.
They probably just wanted to be a part of film-history and the hype, or act with their friends or similar. They also figured it would do wonders for their career:)
They just read what the script says, nothing else.

''At any rate, I personal severe distaste for "respected" actors who think their above genre fiction.''
But Michael Gambon is clearly not like that anyway. He didn't need to do Harry Potter and he liked appearing in it, he just simply has no time for the books because he is meant to be performing from a script and wouldn't want to read parts and things they left out and be annoyed by it.
'Harry Potter' may indeed get darker but it is still juvenile fiction, fiction for younger readers. Nothing changes that fact.
Formerly KingAngantyr

Harry Potter doesn't appeal to me either. But ti's more then a Children's series, it gets Darker with each installment, it set out to mature with it's readers and that's why it's remained so popular and didn't die about in a few years like I thought it would.
At any rate, I personal severe distaste for "respected" actors who think their above genre fiction. If Superman wasn't below Brando then nothing is below any actor working today.
"When the chips are down these
Civilized
people will Eat each Other"

Gambon has been in countless roles ('The Singing Detective' being example) to much acclaim and then we have a very, very long post with heated discussion about a silly wizard in a pointless childrens' film series!
Formerly KingAngantyr

Michael Gambon is a celebrated actor of the stage and screen. Who cares if he didn't play your children's book wizard the way you imagined him?

INSIGHTFUL SAYINGS!

I never heard that "this" Dumbledore never read the books, but I knew it to be the case as soon as I saw him attempt to play the part. It was such a distraction that I did not like any of the HP movies in which he played since it made him such a 2 dimensional character. It would have been like, halfway through the series, Radcliffe started playing his part as if he were conceited or timid. But the worst part was, just as you are starting to get used to him playing Bizzaro Dumbledore, he still has to read the line asking if he can borrow Slughorn's magazine of knitting patterns. I cringed, then groaned, then refused to watch the rest of the series.

His attempt at an English accent in Prisoner of Azkaban is appalling.
Michael Gambon is English!
"Sometimes it's right to feel a fool"- Cleggy