
Richard Griffiths, seated, met aspiring actor/director/writer Brian DiMaio, right, on the set of the second Naked Gun film. DiMaio, a bit too focused on the camera as he performed his bit part pushing a samovar of coffee across the room, ran the cart into Griffith. The coffee landed in Griffith’s lap setting off a chain of events so hilarious that it made the final cut of the movie.
His agent, Simon Beresford, confirmed Griffiths died Thursday from complications following heart surgery earlier in the week.
Griffiths, best known as Harry Potter’s mean, materialistic Uncle Vernon, got his start on BBC Radio and in small theatres in England.
Besides appearing in five of the “Harry Potter” films, he also appeared in “The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “RECOiL” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
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