David Ryall, most recently known for his role in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" but a star in British film and theater for five decades, died on Christmas. He was 79.
Ryall played Albus Dumbledore's close friend Elphias Doge in the next-to-last film in the "Harry Potter" film franchise, one of the most profitable in movie history.
BBC News noted that he replaced Peter Cartwright in the role for the 2010 movie.
Charlie Ryall, the actor's daughter and actress, wanted people to remember her father for more than just his Potter appearance,
reported Us Weekly.
Ryall was a member of Laurence Olivier's company with the National Theatre from 1965 to 1973 and was involved in several well-known plays, including Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead."
Ryall had received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1962 and won the Caryl Brahams Award for a musical, noted the BBC News.
He had 149 film and TV acting credits, including the 2012 film "Quartet," "Around the World in 80 Days" in 2004 and 1994's "Black Beauty," according to Us Weekly.
"He was familiar in patrician, or grandfatherly, roles in the most adventurous series on television in the last few decades or so: suffering from dementia as Claire Skinner's father, Frank, in the semi-improvised family comedy series 'Outnumbered;' as patriotic Eric in 'Goodnight Sweetheart' starring a time-travelling Nicholas Lyndhurst; or as old Bert, who recounts his life in a series of flashbacks, in 'The Village,' starring John Simm and Maxine Peake,"
wrote The Guardian's Michael Coveney.
The Guardian noted that Ryall portrayed Winston Churchill on three occasions in separate television projects.
"A jowly, rhetorical flourish (was) easily encompassed," Coveney wrote. "Everything he did, in fact, looked easy and unforced, and at the same time naturally funny."
Fellow actors and fans showed passed along their condolences online.