Richard Griffiths, OBE (31 July 1947 – 28 March 2013) was an English actor of stage, film and television. He received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, all for his role in the play The History Boys.

He also played Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films, Uncle Monty in Withnail and I, Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky, and King George II in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He also appeared as a British journalist in Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning 1982 film Gandhi.

Biography

Griffiths met Heather Gibson in 1973 and they married in 1980, a marriage which lasted the rest of his life. The couple had no children.

He was awarded an honorary degree from Teesside University in 2006
and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.


Death
Griffiths died of complications following heart surgery on 28 March 2013 at University Hospital Coventry. He was 65 years old.

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