The article published on the website guardian.co.uk on March 29, 2013 is headlined Richard Griffiths: comic master who gave us the unforgettable Uncle Monty. It was written by Peter Bradshaw. The article is dedicated to Richard Griffiths who recently died on March 28, 2013.
Richard Griffiths was an English actor of stage, film and television. He was never a leading man, not as such, although his leading role as the schoolmaster in the Alan Bennett play and movie The History Boys won him a raft of prizes. He was the quintessential supporting character actor, and his massive physical presence was lasered into the minds of a young generation as Harry Potter's malign foster father, Vernon Dursley. I remember his role in Harry Potter's and for the first time I was afraid of him, but now I realise that it was a small but at the same time great role of a talented person.
The role, that made him a legend was Uncle Monty in Bruce Robinson's great film: the corpulent, fastidious bachelor – lonely and predatory as a certain type of Oxford don – whose semi-derelict country cottage Withnail secures for the much-needed restorative weekend, having given Monty to understand that his cute friend Marwood will submit to his sexual advances.
Richard Griffiths was an English actor of stage, film and television. He was never a leading man, not as such, although his leading role as the schoolmaster in the Alan Bennett play and movie The History Boys won him a raft of prizes. He was the quintessential supporting character actor, and his massive physical presence was lasered into the minds of a young generation as Harry Potter's malign foster father, Vernon Dursley. I remember his role in Harry Potter's and for the first time I was afraid of him, but now I realise that it was a small but at the same time great role of a talented person.
The role, that made him a legend was Uncle Monty in Bruce Robinson's great film: the corpulent, fastidious bachelor – lonely and predatory as a certain type of Oxford don – whose semi-derelict country cottage Withnail secures for the much-needed restorative weekend, having given Monty to understand that his cute friend Marwood will submit to his sexual advances.
He was unforgettably brilliant, anyway. His glorious voice – everyone quotes Monty's lines from Withnail, but no one can do justice to Griffiths's resonant melancholy or the quick, thin-lipped snap of his sudden petulant temper. He had a wonderfully pained moan on the "never" in "never play the Dane". He relished the bizarre sensuality in "There is a certain je ne sais quoi about a firm young carrot".
In conclusion I'd like to say that it's always uneasy when people leave us. Yesterday we left the great actor Valery Zolotukhin...
Richard Griffiths, that superb comic actor, found the role of a lifetime, grabbed it with both hands – a figure who combined Sir Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek with a tiny cantankerous touch of Morrissey. We will all be grateful to him for creating this masterpiece.
Richard Griffiths, that superb comic actor, found the role of a lifetime, grabbed it with both hands – a figure who combined Sir Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek with a tiny cantankerous touch of Morrissey. We will all be grateful to him for creating this masterpiece.
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Yesterday we PAID LAST RESPECTS TO the great actor Valery Zolotukhin...