Richard Griffiths, the renowned character actor, grew up in a council flat in a less than prosperous environment, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. His father, Thomas, was a steelworker who had a penchant for fighting in pubs for prize money. Griffiths' "mother tongue" was sign language, as his parents were deaf.
As a child, Griffiths' world did not include television, and he had to explain sounds to his parents, such as music. He developed a talent for dialects, which later allowed him to excel in ethnic portrayals. Griffiths attended the Manchester Polytechnic School Of Drama and began his career in radio drama and repertory theatre.
He became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he often played Shakespeare's comic characters. In a 2007 interview, Griffiths mentioned that he enjoyed playing Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter because it gave him the opportunity to be horrible to kids. However, unlike his jovial characters on screen, Griffiths did not tolerate fools gladly.
He was known for his wit and was often stroppy with audience members who failed to switch off their mobile phones during a performance. Griffiths excelled in his work for the small screen, particularly in his roles as Henry Jay in Bird of Prey and Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky. He made numerous guest appearances in popular series, including The Vicar of Dibley and Bleak House.
Griffiths was also sought-after by Hollywood producers, appearing in films such as The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, Sleepy Hollow, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He won numerous awards, including a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award.
Griffiths was uncommonly skinny as a child and required radiation treatment on his pituitary gland from the age of eight. This treatment caused his metabolism to slow, leading to obesity, which likely contributed to his death from complications during heart surgery on March 28, 2013, at the age of 65.
