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| Harry Potter actor Richard Griffiths dies | Harry Potter actor Richard Griffiths dies |
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| Actor Richard Griffiths, who starred in the Harry Potter movies and Withnail and I, has died at the age of 65 after complications following heart surgery. | |
| Griffiths enjoyed a long career of success on film and on TV, but also on the stage where he was a Tony-winning character actor. | |
| He was best known for playing Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films and Uncle Monty in Withnail and I. | |
| TV roles included playing a cookery-loving detective in Pie in the Sky. | |
| And on stage, his most acclaimed performance was as the charismatic teacher Hector in Alan Bennett's The History Boys, a role he recreated in the 2006 film version. | |
| He was appointed an OBE in the 2008 New Year Honours. | |
| He was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, he first built up a reputation on the stage with a series of comic Shakespearean roles. | |
| His Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe - who also appeared on stage with him in Equus - was among the first to pay tribute, saying: "Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career. I was proud to know him." | |
| Sir Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, said Griffiths's unexpected death would devastate his "army of friends". | |
| He said: "Richard Griffiths wasn't only one of the most loved and recognisable British actors - he was also one of the very greatest. | |
| "His performance in The History Boys was quite overwhelming: a masterpiece of wit, delicacy, mischief and desolation, often simultaneously." |