Richard Griffiths played eccentric men with complete faith in their own good sense. We rate the precision of his comedy, especially when that resonant voice makes geniality and menace difficult to tell apart.
Fi1m perspective
Monty in Withnail & I (1987) has complete confidence in his own good sense. Richard Griffiths gives his eccentricity the assurance another actor might reserve for a statement of the obvious. We laughed at that certainty, because he makes the peculiar behaviour seem entirely reasonable to the man doing it. His resonant voice and precise delivery give the comedy weight without requiring him to press every line for a laugh. It is a performance worth returning to for the care beneath the flamboyance.
His comic authority had been put to use in Shakespeare roles, including Bottom and Pompey at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1970s. Monty was the film breakthrough; Pie in the Sky (1994–1997) then gave him a television lead as Henry Crabbe, a disillusioned detective and chef. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) introduced his short-tempered Vernon Dursley, a part he played across five films through 2010. The recurring uncles and authority figures can make it easy to overlook his sympathy for outsiders.
In Robinson's film, Griffiths also solves a practical problem: how to add another emphatic character to a comedy already full of drinking and discontent. Richard E. Grant supplies the fury and Paul McGann the watchfulness, while Griffiths gives the company a different comic rhythm. Bruce Robinson allows him room to register without turning the film into competing solo turns. The slight story occasionally drifts, a weakness even this cast cannot quite hide. Yet the acting varies enough to keep the complaints funny, and Griffiths deserves a substantial share of the credit.
The later turn towards Hector in The History Boys—a role he originated on stage in 2004 and reprised on film in 2006—gave more room to his sympathy for flawed outsiders. Here the vulnerability matters as much as the comic delivery. Griffiths can make us care about a character without requiring us to approve of him. For a second evening after Withnail & I, choose The History Boys.
Biography
Richard Griffiths (31 July 1947 – 28 March 2013) was an English actor of film, television and stage. He trained at Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama and began his career in the 1970s.
Griffiths was known for his role as Uncle Monty in Withnail & I (1987) and as Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2010). On television he played Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994–1997). For his performance as Hector in the stage play The History Boys he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award; the 2006 film adaptation earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2008.
