← Back to explore

Richard Briers

Acting

Born January 14, 1934 · Raynes Park, Surrey, England, UK

Died February 17, 2013

Biography

Richard David Briers, CBE (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor. His fifty-year career encompassed television, stage, film and radio. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines (1961–66), but it was a decade later, when he narrated Roobarb and Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk (1974–76) and when he played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life (1975–78), that he became a household name. Later, he starred as Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89), and he had a leading role as Hector in Monarch of the Glen (2000–05). From the late 1980s, with Kenneth Branagh as director, he performed Shakespearean roles in Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), and As You Like It (2006).

Awards & recognition

  • Commander of the Order of the British Empire
  • Tony AwardBest Actor in a Play · 1998 · nominated

Filmography31 titles

Mr. Bean

1990as Mr. Sprout

Doctor Who

1963as Chief Caretaker

Extras

2005as Richard Briers

Agatha Christie's Marple

2004as Wilson

The Good Life

as Tom Good

Victoria & Albert

2001as Joseph Paxton

Midsomer Murders

1997as Stephen Wentworth

Lovejoy

1986as Raymond Doncaster

Natural World

1983

Torchwood

2006as Parker

New Tricks

2004as James Farlow

Monarch of the Glen

2000as Hector MacDonald

Hamlet

1996as Polonius

Murder She Said

1961as 'Mrs Binster'

Watership Down

1978as Fiver (voice)

Kingdom

2007as Jim Wright

Peter Pan

2003as Sam "Smee" Smiegel

A Midwinter's Tale

1995as Henry

Henry V

1989as Lieutenant Bardolph

Much Ado About Nothing

1993as Signor Leonato

Bob the Builder: The Knights of Can-A-Lot

2003as Robert (voice)

Tales of the Unexpected

1979as Albert Dobson

The Three Musketeers

1973as Louis XIII (voice)

Peter's Friends

1992as Lord Morton

The Four Musketeers

1974as Louis XIII (voice) (uncredited)

Frankenstein

1994as Grandfather

Unconditional Love

2002as Barry Moore

As You Like It

2006as Adam

Cockneys vs Zombies

2012as Hamish

Love's Labour's Lost

2000as Sir Nathaniel

Rentadick

1972as Miles Gannet