Richard Harris

In 2002, Richard Harris - the actor who played Albus Dumbledore - passed away, putting Warner Bros. in a bit of a predicament for the rest of the ‘Harry Potter’ series.

Although they considered writing the character out of the story, the studio decided Dumbledore was too important, and so the production team went in search for a replacement.

Warner Bros. eventually landed on Michael Gambon, who would go on to play the kindly wizard for the remaining movies.