18 Feb 2013

Richard Briers, star of The Good Life, dies at 79

Actor Richard Briers, known to millions for his enduring role in TV sitcom The Good Life, has died at the age of 79, his agent announces.

(Video courtesy of the BBC)

The star, who was also known for his Shakespearean roles, had been battling emphysema for the last five years.

Briers will be best remembered for his performance as Tom Good, alongside Felicity Kendal, in the 1970s BBC1 sitcom The Good Life about a couple who drop out of the rat race in Surbiton, south west London, to enjoy a life of simple self-sufficiency.

He was also the lynchpin in two other notable sitcoms – Marriage Lines, alongside Prunella Scales and Ever Decreasing Circles.

Twitter tributes

Stars including Ricky Gervais and Stephen Fry paid tribute to the actor on Twitter. Fry said in a tweet: “Oh no, I’ve just heard that Richard Briers has died. How sad. He was the most adorable and funny man imaginable.”

After a long career in popular television, Briers joined Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987, and his already very successful professional life took a new turn as he moved on to major classical roles.

Briers was born on 14 January 1934 and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he won the silver medal and a scholarship to Liverpool Playhouse in 1956. Two years later he made his first West End appearance in Gilt And Gingerbread. He barely stopped working from that day onwards.

Star on big and small screen

His big screen career began with the British features Bottoms Up (1960), Murder She Said (1961), The Girl On The Boat and A Matter of Who (both 1962) and the multi-national The VIPs (1963), followed by Raquel Welch’s spy spoof Fathom (1967).

Over the next 36 years, he alternated his TV and film work with such plays as Present Laughter (1965), The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Butley (1972), Run For Your Wife (1983), Twelfth Night (1987-88) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Bottom, 1990).

Throughout these years, he was regularly and prominently on TV including such shows as Brothers In Law (1962), Bird On A Wing (1971), and starring with Michael Gambon in the series The Other One (1977).

Briers also provided the voice for the character of Fiver in the animated feature Watership Down (1978).

It was in 1987 that he joined Branagh’s company, saying at the time: “Ken offered me Malvolio in his production of Twelfth Night at the very time I had decided to expand my career when I realised I had gone as far as I could doing sitcoms. As soon as I worked with him, I thought he was truly exceptional.”

Health worsened in recent years

Briers also often appeared in the works of the prolific playwright Alan Ayckbourn, playing leading roles in Relatively Speaking, Absurd Person Singular and

Absent Friends on the stage and The Norman Conquests and Just Between Ourselves on television.

In recent years the actor saw his health deteriorate after being diagnosed with emphysema five years ago.

In an interview only a few weeks ago, he told how he blamed his years of smoking for the condition. “It’s totally my fault. So, I get very breathless, which is a pain in the backside. Trying to get upstairs… oh God, it’s ridiculous. Of course, when you’re bloody nearly 80 it’s depressing, because you’ve had it anyway.”

He was awarded the OBE in 1989 for services to the arts.

Briers married the actress Anne Davies in 1956. They had two daughters.