He’s best known probably as Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter movies (and co-starred with Radcliffe again in Equus) but was truly great in The History Boys.
A very talented actor, both in comedy and drama (though from interviews I’ve read, he apparently had a reputation as “difficult”).
He once joked that he and fellow obese Brit character actor Ian McNeicewere close mouthed around each other because they were always up for the same roles.
And he was a terrible cunt, as Uncle Monty in Withnail and I
I’m surprised he was so young, he was only about 40 when he played Uncle Monty, and he looked much older. It’s a sad loss, a truly gifted actor, and by all accounts a very funny and charming man.
Yeah he was only in his late 30s when he played Monty. Loved him in Pie In The Sky too. Class actor, seems to have been a bit of a character too. May he rest in peace.
“The older order changeth, yielding place to new. God fulfills himself in many ways. And soon, I suppose, I shall be swept away by some vulgar little tumour. Oh, my boys, my boys, we’re at the end of an age. We live in a land of weather forcasts and breakfasts that set in. Shat on by Tories, shoveled up by Labour. And here we are, we three, perhaps the last island of beauty in the world.”
I’m sad to hear it. I think I first saw him in Blame It on the Bellboy. Later when I saw Withnail and I he was so good at being awful. He was good in everything I saw him in.
Monty: Well, I’d hardly say that. It’s true, I crept the boards in my youth. But I never really had it in my blood, and that’s what’s so essential, isn’t it, theatrical zeal in the veins. Alas I have little more than vintage wine and memories. It is the most shattering experience of a young man’s life when one morning he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself “I will never play the Dane.” When that moment comes, one’s ambition ceases. Don’t you agree?
I have to say, though he’s probably best known for his supporting parts in the Potter movies, he will always be Uncle Monty to me. Every time I saw him in some bit part or other I’d think “hey, it’s Uncle Monty!” What an amazing movie.
And as one would expect, Mr. Griffiths plays Sir John Falstaff beautifully in Arkangel Shakespeare’s audio productions of Henry IV–Part One and Part Two.
We got all of his series, Pie in the Sky from Netflix. He plays a police inspector (somewhat unbelievable) who is also a great cook (somewhat more believable) who opens a restaurant on the side. This was done pre-Potter.
