Griffiths

London, March 29 (AP): Richard Griffiths, the British actor who played the boy wizard’s unsympathetic Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter movies, has died. He was 65.

Griffiths died yesterday of complications following heart surgery.

Griffiths appeared in dozens of films and TV shows and was one of Britain’s leading stage actors, creating roles. In 2007 he appeared onstage in Equus alongside his Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe.

Radcliffe said today that he was “proud to say I knew him”. Radcliffe said Griffiths’ “encouragement, tutelage and humour made it a joy”.