Richard Griffiths

Richard Thomas Griffiths was born on July 31, 1947, in North Yorkshire, England, in the United Kingdom. He was a famous British actor of film, television, and theatre. He was married to Heather Gibson. He was brought up by differently abled parents, Jane Griffiths and Thomas Griffiths, and his living status was in a dysfunctional family. To cope with them, he had to inculcate sign language at a tender age. He did not have access to television and had to explain what music was to his father. Due to getting exposed to these obstacles, Griffiths developed a talent for dialects through these activities, which later allowed him for ethnic portrayals. His parents bought him up as a Roman Catholic.

He dropped out of school several times and was finally persuaded by his father to complete his education. So he decided to attend drama lessons at Stockton & Billingham College. He entered the theatre and film industry through the radio and the classical stage. From there, he built his career as a Shakespearean clown, Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Bottom in the famous love comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespearean under the Royal Shakespeare Company, played authentic portrayals of Henry VIII and many more. He is famously known as Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter series, Sleepy Hollow (1999), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), and in Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011). He said he enjoyed the role of Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter because he got to be horrible to kids. He has worked in Gorky Park (1983), Guarding Tess in 1994, Sleepy Hollow in 1999, Withnail & I (1987), King Ralph (1991), and small banner roles like a civil servant named Henry Jay in Bird of Prey in 1982 and the lovable policeman named Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky in 1994.

He also appeared as George II in the famous film by Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He received awards such as Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor in 2004, Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Actor for The History Boys, Best Picture Academy Award twice in consecutive years for Chariots of Fire in 1981 and Gandhi in 1982 and many more. He was the godfather to the comedian, Jack Whitehall. He died on March 28, 2013, in the University Hospital, Coventry, situated in West Midlands, England, due to health complications following heart surgery.