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- The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for prize money'. Like most children, Richard's "mother tongue" was the same as his parents. In his case, that was sign language. Like many kids in the 50s, his world did not include television. He had to explain sounds to his parents, for example music. Griffiths made a career out of language. For instance, he developed a talent for dialects which later allowed him to shine in a number of ethnic portrayals. He attended the Manchester Polytechnic School Of Drama and then began his career in radio drama and repertory theatre. He subsequently became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he often excelled playing Shakespeare's comic characters.
In a 2007 interview, Griffiths said "I like playing Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids. I hate the odious business of sucking up to the public." In fact, unlike those jovial characters he so often portrayed on screen, Griffiths did not tolerate fools gladly. On occasion, he would get stroppy with members of an audience, especially those failing to switch off their mobile phones during a performance (who could blame him?). He was also highly thought of as a raconteur and wit.
The ever-versatile, often bespectacled and bearded Griffiths did his best work for the small screen, excelling as the inquisitive and resourceful civil servant Henry Jay in Bird of Prey (1982) and as the lovable 'cooking policeman' Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994), a role specially created for him. As comic relief he made many a hilarious guest appearance, in, among other popular series, The Vicar of Dibley (1994) (as the Bishop of Mulberry) and as Dr. Bayham Badger in the superb BBC adaption of Bleak House (2005). He could also play evil and sinister, none more so than Swelter in Gormenghast (2000), a character Griffiths described being at once "laughably comic" and "a monster like Idi Amin". He was also much sought-after by Hollywood producers, appearing in a dual role in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), as the ill-fated Magistrate Philipse in Tim Burton 's Sleepy Hollow (1999) and as King George in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).
The much-acclaimed actor won 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 this required radiation treatment on his pituitary gland from the age of eight. It caused his metabolism to slow to such an extent that he eventually became obese, a condition which in all likelihood contributed to his death from complications during heart surgery on 28 March 2013 at the age of 65. - Actress
- Producer
Born in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, in the North-east of England, Marlene Sidaway originally trained as an adding-machine operator when she left school, but in 1961 she left for London to join a childrens' theatre group and studied acting at the East 15 acting school. Although she has been a familiar character player on television since the 1970s she is also the secretary of the International Brigade Society, commemorating the volunteers who enlisted to fight Fascism in the Spanish Civil War, Marlene's much older partner, David Marshall, having been a member of the Brigade. They lived together from 1990 until his death in 2005.- Pat Barker was born on 8 May 1943 in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She is a writer, known for Stanley & Iris (1990), Behind the Lines (1997) and Bookmark (1983). She was previously married to David Barker.
- Nikita Rachel Shepherdson was born on 5 August 1996 in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Bad Samaritan Must Die! (2012) and ITV Fixers: Express Yourself (2013).
- Anne Egglestone was born in 1941 in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for H.M.S. Pinafore (1973). She was married to Keith Bonnington. She died on 18 March 2018 in North Yorkshire, England, UK.