Kenneth Griffith

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Kenneth Ewen Griffith (born October 12, 1921 in Tenby , Pembrokeshire , † June 25, 2006 in London ) was a Welsh actor and director .

Life

Griffith, from Wales , signed up for the Royal Air Force after graduating from school . During the Second World War he made his stage debut as an actor at the Old Vic Theater . His first film role followed in 1941 in the drama The Farmer's Wife .

He was married three times and had three sons and two daughters. His closest friends included actors Peter O'Toole and Patrick McGoohan .

Movie and TV

In his 60-year acting career, Griffith has appeared in over 100 film and television productions. He often embodied snobbish and sinister characters. He played in numerous comedies, including Peter Sellers (The Bobo) , Frankie Howerd (The Night of the Laughing Corpses) , Richard Attenborough ( The Baby on the Battleship ) and Oliver Reed (in the black comedy Mörder GmbH) . His other films include the first film adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 , the historical drama The Lion in Winter (with Peter O'Toole), the disaster film The Last Night of the Titanic , the thriller Tiger Bay (with Horst Buchholz as the cold-blooded murderer), the mercenary Films The Wild Geese Are Coming and The Sea Wolves Are Coming, as well as the Hugh Grant films Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Englishman Who Climbed a Hill and Comed Down a Mountain .

In addition, he took on numerous roles in television series such as number six , the comedy series Clochemerle (with Hugh Griffith ), the history series Shaka Zulu about the eponymous chief. In 1965 Griffith played “Christian Buddenbrook” in a multi-part BBC adaptation of Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks , which is considered lost.

Documentation

In addition, Griffith was very interested in the history of South Africa , which eventually led to another artistic activity: In 1967 Griffith made his first documentary about the siege of Ladysmith during the Boer War . This was followed by various documentaries about the history of the British presence in South Africa, the wars with the Zulu and a film portrait of the South African athlete Zola Budd . In 1972, Griffith also made a film about IRA founder Michael Collins , Hang Up Your Brightest Colors: The Life and Death of Michael Collins , which was not shown until 1994 due to its positive portrayal of the IRA.

Griffith died on June 25, 2006 at his home in Islington, London, of complications from Parkinson's disease .

Filmography (selection)

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hans Wißkirchen (ed.): The world of Buddenbrooks . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 220 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Griffith, Kenneth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griffith, Kenneth Ewen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Tenby , Pembrokeshire , Wales , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 2006
Place of death Islington , London , England , United Kingdom