Harry Potter Actor Richard Griffiths Dies at Age 65

 British actor Richard Griffiths, best known for her roles as Uncle Harry Potter and the cult film "Withnail and I," has died at age 65, his agent said Friday.

Portly star of stage and screen, one of the best British actors around the character, died Thursday of complications from heart surgery, said Simon Beresford.

Griffiths will always be remembered as Uncle Monty's cult film "Withnail & I", but it reached its largest audience that Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter series.

Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the boy wizard in the hit Potter gave tribute to the man, he said that he was offered a "promotion, care and humor."

The two men worked together in the Harry Potter films, and later in the game Equus.

"Any room he entered was made twice funny and twice as smart as his presence. I am proud to say that I know," Radcliffe said in a statement.

Griffiths was born on July 31, 1947 in Yorkshire in northern England, the son of steelworker. His parents were both deaf, and he had to learn sign language at an early age.

He left school at age 15, but later returned to education to study drama, before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Early film credits include "Chariots of Fire," "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "Gandhi", before he landed a starring role in the 1987 comedy "Withnail & I".

Griffiths played Uncle gay predators Withnail, outside of work, alcoholic actor played by Richard E. Grant in the film is now considered a classic British.

Grant said in a message on Twitter: "My beloved Uncle Monty Richard Griffiths died last night Chin-Chin dear friend.".

Nicholas Hytner, Director of the National Theatre in London, which led Griffith in one of his most successful scenes, "The History Boys", said that "the life of all parties."

He recalled the stories that "could last for hours, seemingly without purpose, always cheerful. Only way to stop them, to tell him that you are gone."

Griffiths received a Tony Award and Olivier Award for her role as teacher inspiration in The History Boys, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor for the film version.

"Her performance in The History Boys was quite impressive: a masterpiece of mind, weakness, evil and desolation, often at the same time," said Hytner.

As an actor, Griffiths demanded his full attention of his audience, after stopping twice to order the people of the theater after the show rings.

He also had a successful career as television, starring as the leader of a crime solving series "Pie In The Sky" in 1990, and he received an OBE for services to drama in 2007.

Griffiths last year, playing alongside Danny DeVito in the Sunshine Boys in London and will reprise the role of Los Angeles in September.

In a statement, Beresford said that his client had "brightened my day and enriched life with whom he came in contact with."

"Richard did a good deed name. It was a wonderful person and one of our greatest and most beloved actors. He will be sorely missed," the agent said.