# Vale Richard Griffiths



## Guest (Apr 2, 2013)

It is with sadness that I note the death this week of Richard Griffiths, at age 65. He was a superb actor and his best role was as an English teacher in the ENT production of "The History Boys", later put onto film and directed by Nicholas Hytner. This is an excellent film and there's a powerful scene where Griffiths Mr. Hector discusses Thomas Hardy's Poem, "Drummer Hodge". (I used to make my drama students at school watch this scene - it glows in the dark!). Griffiths here uses exceptional subtlety and poignancy to describe the poem and the experience of reading itself ("it's as if a hand has come out and taken yours"). Griffiths' parents were both deaf and mute.






I thoroughly recommend this film (especially for all teachers or ex-teachers) but there's a spoiler alert: lots of explicit homosexual references which some people I know found very confronting and tasteless. A friend who is an English head teacher (female) returned the DVD and said, "it was just disgusting". For some reason it didn't affect me this way in the slightest. The film is a joy, particularly the ending.


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## Ryan (Dec 29, 2012)

I liked him in Sleepy Hollow, he really held his own considering the company he was in. In my humble but professional opinion he owned Johnny Depp, he literally put Johnny Depp on a lead and walked him around the room for a few minutes and then told him to sit. Marvellous actor, Bravo Richard Griffiths, he would have been great in Edward scissor hands or pirates of the Caribbean.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

And who can forget him having one of his buttocks belt-sanded by Leslie Nielsen in the 2nd Naked Gun film? I also liked his portrayal as the evil cook Swelter in the TV adaptation of Gormenghast.


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