Richard Griffiths, star of Harry Potter movies and Withnail & I, dies
British character actor counted Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon among many celebrated roles
The stage and screen star, one of Britain's best-loved character actors, died on Thursday from complications following heart surgery, Simon Beresford said.
Griffiths will be remembered as Uncle Monty by fans of Withnail & I, but reached his biggest audience as Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films.
Daniel Radcliffe, who played the boy wizard in the blockbuster Potter series, led the tributes to a man he said had offered him "encouragement, tutelage and humour". The two men worked together on the Harry Potter films and later in the play Equus. "Any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence. I am proud to say I knew him," Radcliffe said.
Griffiths was born on July 31, 1947 in Yorkshire, northern England, the son of a steelworker. His parents were deaf, so he learned sign language at an early age. He left school at 15 and worked as a porter, but his boss persuaded him to go back to education to study drama. He later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, excelling in playing the clown.