OT- Richard Briers RIP

Rest in peace mate- one of my favourite TV actors.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21498077

Actor Richard Briers, best known for his role in TV's The Good Life, has died at the age of 79, his agent has said.

The star, who was also an accomplished stage actor, had been battling a serious lung condition for several years.

Briers died "peacefully" at his London home on Sunday, his agent said.

Briers recently said years of smoking had been to blame for his emphysema.

Famed for his role as the hapless Tom Good in the 1970s BBC sitcom The Good Life, Briers also starred in shows such as Ever Decreasing Circles, Monarch Of The Glen and Doctor Who.

He also appeared in many films, most recently in British comedy film Cockneys versus Zombies, plus a cameo role in Run For Your Wife, based on Ray Cooney's 1980s stage farce.

Briers also provided the voice for the character of Fiver in the animated feature Watership Down (1978).


Briers had a long and successful TV and theatre career
After a long career in popular television, Briers joined Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987, and his career moved on to major classical roles.

He said at the time: "Ken offered me Malvolio in his production of Twelfth Night at the very time I had decided to expand my career when I realised I had gone as far as I could doing sitcoms. As soon as I worked with him, I thought he was truly exceptional."

After playing Malvolio, Briers took on the acting challenge of King Lear, followed by the title role in Uncle Vanya and Menenius in Coriolanus.

On film Branagh cast him as Bardolph in Henry V (1989), as Stephen Fry's father in the comedy Peter's Friends (1992), Don Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), the blind grandfather in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994).

Briers was born in London on 14 January, 1934 and was inspired to be an actor by his mother, a music and drama teacher.

He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and won a scholarship to Liverpool Playhouse in 1956. Two years later he made his first West End appearance in Gilt And Gingerbread.

His big screen career began with the British features Bottoms Up (1960), Murder She Said (1961), The Girl On The Boat and A Matter of Who (both 1962) and the multi-national The VIPs (1963), followed by Raquel Welch's spy spoof Fathom (1967).

He was awarded the OBE in 1989 for services to the arts. Briers married the actress Anne Davies in 1956. They had two daughters.

 

sad news but he had a good life

 

You rotter

 

Aye, very sad indeed.

I'd read an interview with him recently where he said he knew his lungs were shot, and he knew it was down to the ***s. But what impressed me was that he had no regrets: "I loved a good smoke". Respect.

 

Wasn't Barry Humphries supposed to like a good puff too?

 

correct young man, Rhubarb was a wussy but custard and the birds were funny

 

At least this is one 'celebrity' from my childhood who isn't tainted with an allegation of sexual misconduct!

Mind you, a few of us would've had the book thrown at us if we'd been with Felicity Kendall!

A FABULOUS SERIOUS ACTOR TOO.

 

Saw Richard Briers with his young son many years ago standing looking at the Christmas Display in a department Store in Queensway London.

Same nice guy off the screen that he was on it. Pleasant, polite and no airs or graces.