Richard Briers Cause Of Death
Richard Briers died as a result of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
According to his daughter Lucy Briers, he quit smoking in 2001 when a routine chest X-ray revealed that he would otherwise be in a wheelchair.
In 2007, he was diagnosed with emphysema. On February 17, 2013, he died of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease at his home in Bedford Park, London.
Who was Richard Briers?
Briers, Richard David CBE, was an English actor. Film, radio, theatre, and television were all part of his fifty-year career.
Briers rose to fame as George Starling in Marriage Lines (1961–66), but it wasn’t until a decade later that he became a household figure, narrating Roobarb and Noah and Nelly in… SkylArk (1974–76) and playing Tom Good in the BBC sitcom The Good Life (1975–78).
Later in his career, he played Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles (1984–89) and Hector in Monarch of the Glen (2000–05).
He starred in Shakespearean roles in Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), and As You Like It (1996), all directed by Kenneth Branagh (2006).
Briers’ first employment was a clerical position at a London cable factory, where he took evening studies to become qualified in electrical engineering for a brief period before leaving to work as a filing clerk.
At the age of 18, he was drafted into the Royal Air Force for two years of national service, serving as a filing clerk at RAF Northwood, where he met future George and Mildred actor Brian Murphy.
Briers, who had been interested in acting since he was 14, was introduced to the Dramatic Society at Borough Polytechnic Institute, now London South Bank University, where he appeared in many shows.
Briers was cast as the lead in Marriage Lines (1961–66) in 1961, with Prunella Scales as his wife.
Between the pilot and the series, Briers starred as callow barrister Roger Thursby in Brothers in Law (based on Henry Cecil’s novel) in 1962. Adaptors Frank Muir and Denis Norden saw him in the West End and cast him in this role.
Other early roles included Jimmy Edwards in The Seven Faces of Jim (1961), Dixon of Dock Green (1962), Nol Coward in Hay Fever (1968), and the storyteller in several episodes of Jackanory (1969).
Richard Briers’s Wife Ann Davies
While both were in Liverpool, Briers met Ann Davies. Rep. Davies worked as a stage manager and began acting in films and on television in the mid-1950s.
He borrowed £5 from his mother soon after meeting her, bought an engagement ring, and they were married six months later.
They have two daughters: Lucy, who is also an actor, and Kate (or Katie), who has worked in stage management and is now a primary school teacher.
