Actor Richard Griffiths died 29 March 2013 following complications after heart surgery. Born 31 July 1947 in Yorkshire, England, he was most recently and best known as Harry’s Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter series of movies. Beyond that part, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in 2006, for his role in The History Boys. In 2008, was awarded the O.B.E. in the Queen’s New Years Honours List, for his services to drama.

He started his acting career on radio and on the stage, including playing Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first television roles came in 1974, and he moved to the big screen a few years later.

In addition to the Harry Potter movies (his character appeared in five of them), his other genre appearances include: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Jackboots on Whitehall (2010), Bedtime Stories (2008), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), two episodes of Gormenghast (2000), Sleepy Hollow (1999), and Superman II (1980).

In 2004, he replaced the late Richard Vernon as Slartibartfast in the “Tertiary Phase” episodes of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on BBC4 Radio. In 2008 and 2009, he shared the stage with Harry Potter portrayer Daniel Radcliffe in a revival of Equus, which ran at the Gielgud Theatre in London and the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway.

He is survived by his wife of 32 years, Heather Gibson.