British actor Richard Griffiths, a stage legend and Harry Potter’s Uncle Vernon, dies at 65

LONDON – Richard Griffiths, the British actor who played the boy wizard’s unsympathetic Uncle Vernon in the “Harry Potter” movies, has died. He was 65.

Agent Simon Beresford says Griffiths died Thursday 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 including the charismatic teacher Hector in Alan Bennett’s “The History Boys.”

In 2007 he appeared onstage in “Equus” alongside his “Harry Potter” co-star Daniel Radcliffe.

Radcliffe said Friday that he was “proud to say I knew him.”

“Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career,” Radcliffe said, his first scene as the boy wizard and his stage debut.

Radcliffe said Griffiths’ “encouragement, tutelage and humour made it a joy.”