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Richard Briers
Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television.
Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines (1961–66), but it was a few years later, when he narrated Roobarb (1974–76) and Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk (1976–77) and played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life (1975–78), that he became a household name. He starred as Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89), and 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), and also appeared in Branagh’s Swan Song (1992), Peter's Friends (1992), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), and In the Bleak Midwinter (1995).
Briers was born on 14 January 1934 in Raynes Park, Surrey, at that time part of the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon which later became part of the London Borough of Merton. He was the son of Joseph Benjamin Briers (1901–1980) and his second wife Morna Phyllis (1909–1992), daughter of Frederick Richardson, of the Indian Civil Service. He was the first cousin once removed of actor Terry-Thomas (Terry-Thomas was his father's cousin). He spent his childhood at Raynes Park in a flat, Number 2 Pepys Court, behind the now demolished Rialto cinema, and later at Guildford. His father, Joseph Briers, was the son of a stockbroker, of a family of Middlesex tenant farmers; a gregarious and popular man, he contended with a nervous disposition, and drifted between jobs, spending most of his life as a bookmaker but also working as, amongst other things, an estate agent's clerk and a factory worker for an air filter manufacturer, as well as being a gifted amateur singer who attended classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His mother, Morna Briers, was a concert pianist and a drama and music teacher, and a member of Equity, who wished for a showbusiness career, having acted in her youth. The couple had met when Joseph Briers asked Morna to stand in for his regular pianist for a performance; by this time his first marriage had collapsed and six months later they had entered a relationship. The family occasionally received money from a wealthy relation, and Briers's maternal grandparents paid for his education, despite not being particularly well-off, and having lived in slightly reduced circumstances in India before returning to England and coming to live at Wimbledon.
Briers attended Rokeby School, which at the time was in The Downs, Wimbledon, a short distance from his home and having failed the examination for King's College School, the Ridgeway School in Wimbledon, which he left at the age of 16 without any formal qualifications.
Briers's first job was a clerical post with a London cable manufacturer, and for a short time he went to evening classes to qualify in electrical engineering, but soon left and became a filing clerk.
Aged 18, Briers was called up for two years' national service in the Royal Air Force (RAF), during which he was a filing clerk at RAF Northwood, where he met future George and Mildred actor Brian Murphy. Murphy introduced Briers, who had been interested in acting since the age of 14, to the Dramatic Society at the Borough Polytechnic Institute, now London South Bank University, where he performed in several productions.
When he left the RAF, Briers studied at RADA, which he attended from 1954 to 1956. Placed in a class with both Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney, Briers later credited academy director John Fernald with nurturing his talent. Graduating from RADA with a silver medal, he won a scholarship with the Liverpool Repertory Company, and after 15 months moved to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry for six months. He made his West End debut in the Duke of York's Theatre 1959 production of Gilt And Gingerbread by Lionel Hale.
In 1961, Briers was cast in the leading role in Marriage Lines (1961–66), with Prunella Scales playing the role of his wife. For Marriage Lines, Simon and Laura, Points of View, Present Laughter - Excerpt, Charley's Aunt and To You at Home Today, Briers was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1966. In between the pilot and the series itself, Briers appeared in Brothers in Law (from the book by Henry Cecil) as callow barrister Roger Thursby in 1962. He was cast in this role by adaptors Frank Muir and Denis Norden, who had seen him in the West End.
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Richard Briers
Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television.
Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in Marriage Lines (1961–66), but it was a few years later, when he narrated Roobarb (1974–76) and Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk (1976–77) and played Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life (1975–78), that he became a household name. He starred as Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89), and 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), and also appeared in Branagh’s Swan Song (1992), Peter's Friends (1992), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), and In the Bleak Midwinter (1995).
Briers was born on 14 January 1934 in Raynes Park, Surrey, at that time part of the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon which later became part of the London Borough of Merton. He was the son of Joseph Benjamin Briers (1901–1980) and his second wife Morna Phyllis (1909–1992), daughter of Frederick Richardson, of the Indian Civil Service. He was the first cousin once removed of actor Terry-Thomas (Terry-Thomas was his father's cousin). He spent his childhood at Raynes Park in a flat, Number 2 Pepys Court, behind the now demolished Rialto cinema, and later at Guildford. His father, Joseph Briers, was the son of a stockbroker, of a family of Middlesex tenant farmers; a gregarious and popular man, he contended with a nervous disposition, and drifted between jobs, spending most of his life as a bookmaker but also working as, amongst other things, an estate agent's clerk and a factory worker for an air filter manufacturer, as well as being a gifted amateur singer who attended classes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His mother, Morna Briers, was a concert pianist and a drama and music teacher, and a member of Equity, who wished for a showbusiness career, having acted in her youth. The couple had met when Joseph Briers asked Morna to stand in for his regular pianist for a performance; by this time his first marriage had collapsed and six months later they had entered a relationship. The family occasionally received money from a wealthy relation, and Briers's maternal grandparents paid for his education, despite not being particularly well-off, and having lived in slightly reduced circumstances in India before returning to England and coming to live at Wimbledon.
Briers attended Rokeby School, which at the time was in The Downs, Wimbledon, a short distance from his home and having failed the examination for King's College School, the Ridgeway School in Wimbledon, which he left at the age of 16 without any formal qualifications.
Briers's first job was a clerical post with a London cable manufacturer, and for a short time he went to evening classes to qualify in electrical engineering, but soon left and became a filing clerk.
Aged 18, Briers was called up for two years' national service in the Royal Air Force (RAF), during which he was a filing clerk at RAF Northwood, where he met future George and Mildred actor Brian Murphy. Murphy introduced Briers, who had been interested in acting since the age of 14, to the Dramatic Society at the Borough Polytechnic Institute, now London South Bank University, where he performed in several productions.
When he left the RAF, Briers studied at RADA, which he attended from 1954 to 1956. Placed in a class with both Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney, Briers later credited academy director John Fernald with nurturing his talent. Graduating from RADA with a silver medal, he won a scholarship with the Liverpool Repertory Company, and after 15 months moved to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry for six months. He made his West End debut in the Duke of York's Theatre 1959 production of Gilt And Gingerbread by Lionel Hale.
In 1961, Briers was cast in the leading role in Marriage Lines (1961–66), with Prunella Scales playing the role of his wife. For Marriage Lines, Simon and Laura, Points of View, Present Laughter - Excerpt, Charley's Aunt and To You at Home Today, Briers was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1966. In between the pilot and the series itself, Briers appeared in Brothers in Law (from the book by Henry Cecil) as callow barrister Roger Thursby in 1962. He was cast in this role by adaptors Frank Muir and Denis Norden, who had seen him in the West End.