'Heartbroken' Michael Gambon quits the stage because he can no longer remember lines

The 74-year-old admitted to struggling with memory problems for years.

17:13 09 February 2015

Harry Potter star Michael Gambon has decided to quit the stage after admitting that he has been struggling with memory problems for years.

The 74-year-old made the decision after a recent West End audition where he said: 'It's a horrible thing to admit but I can't do it. It breaks my heart.’

He said: 'And after about an hour I thought, "This can't work. You can't be in theatre, free on stage shouting and screaming and running around, with someone reading you your lines."'

Best known to contemporary audiences for playing Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, Sir Michael said that he had already consulted two doctors for Alzheimer’s disease. Although the tests were negative, the Irish-born actor remained concerned by his memory loss.

Sir Michael - who trained at the National Theatre under Laurence Olivier and was knighted in 1999 confessed that it was his ‘overwhelming fear’ of forgetting his words on stage that forced him to pull out of a 2009 National Theatre production of The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett.