For the chess expert, see Richard Griffith. For the Confederate general, see Richard Griffith (general).
Richard Griffiths (born 31 July 1947) is a Tony-award winning English actor who has appeared on stage, film and television. He has been awarded 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 in a Play, and the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, all for his role in the play The History Boys.
Griffiths was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, Yorkshire, England to a steelworker father and a bagger mother. He had a Catholic upbringing. The son of deaf parents, he learned sign language at an early age in order to communicate with them. He even developed an ear for dialects that subsequently landed him several ethnic roles. In his childhood he attempted to run away from home many times. He dropped out of school at age 15 and worked as a porter for a while, but his boss eventually convinced him to go back to school. Here he decided to attend a drama class at Stockton & Billingham College.
After graduating, Griffiths earned a spot on BBC Radio. He also worked in small theatres, sometimes acting and sometimes managing. He built up an early reputation as a Shakespearean "clown" with hilarious portrayals of Henry VIII and several other characters such as Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He eventually settled in Manchester and began to get lead roles in plays. From there he began to appear on television and then got his big break in film in It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1975). His more recognised roles have been in both contemporary and period pieces such as Gorky Park (1983), Withnail and I (1987), King Ralph (1991), The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), Guarding Tess (1994), and Sleepy Hollow (1999). Recently he has been seen as Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).
Although typically known for comic performances, he is probably best recognised, aside from Harry Potter, as Inspector Henry Crabbe, disillusioned policeman and pie chef extraordinaire, in the British Detective-drama Pie in the Sky, a role which was created specifically for him. He also made an extended appearance in the 2005 version of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. In 2004 he originated the role of Hector (the teacher) in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys, winning the 2005 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. During the play's subsequent United States run, he added a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Tony Award. He reprised his role in the movie version which was released in October 2006. Together with Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter, he appeared in a stage revival of Peter Shaffer's Equus at the Gielgud Theatre in London.
During a performance of The History Boys, Griffiths became so annoyed at a man in the audience whose mobile phone rang repeatedly through the play that Griffiths stopped acting after the sixth time and ordered the man out of the theatre. More recently, Griffiths asked an audience member to leave a performance of Heroes after her phone rang three times.
Griffiths was at one point considered for the part of the Doctor in Doctor Who following Tom Baker's departure in 1981, and was strongly considered once again to take on the role of the Eighth Doctor, had the series continued past 1989. Co-incidentally, two of his co-stars from Withnail and I went on to play the role in some capacity. Griffiths was the voice for Slartibartfast for the radio adaptation of Life, the Universe and Everything Griffiths was the voice for the Vogon Jeltz in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
In The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, one character seems to pull down Griffiths' pants and underpants. However, the credits list the "stunt butt" as being played by Chuck Le Fever.
He shares his birthday (July 31) with his character of Vernon Dursley's nephew Harry Potter (it was for a time rumored that Radcliffe shared his birthday with him).
