Kenneth Griffith

Kenneth Griffith (sometimes credited as Kenneth Griffiths) is a character actor born on October 12, 1921 in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Related Topics:
Character actor - October 12 - 1921

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He can be spotted in many British films between the 1940s and '80s, especially the comedies of the Boulting brothers, including Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right Jack (1959). His work on sixties TV programme The Prisoner is much appreciated by its fans, due to his appearances in the episodes The Girl Who Was Death and Fall Out. He has appeared in episodes of Minder. More recent cinemagoers may have seen him as a "mad old man" in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), as "Reverend Jones" in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995), and as the "Minister" in Very Annie Mary (2001).

Related Topics:
The Boulting brothers - Private's Progress - 1956 - I'm All Right Jack - 1959 - The Prisoner - Minder - Four Weddings and a Funeral - The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain

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Although a thrice-married Protestant and a WWII veteran, he became a supporter of Irish republicanism and named his home in Islington, London Michael Collins House where he proudly displays on his wall a death threat from Northern Irish loyalists, and he also has a bust of Collins on display in the living room. Interestingly, though he supports Irish nationalism, he does not appear to care much about Welsh nationalism or the Welsh language (Cymraeg).

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In 1973 Griffith made a documentary film about the Irish military and political leader Michael Collins called Hang out your Brightest Colours (which is a line taken from a letter from George Bernard Shaw to one of Collins' sisters after Collins' death) for ATV. Griffith's very sympathetic portrayal caused some concern given the state of tension in Northern Ireland and ATV boss Sir Lew Grade decided to withdraw the film, which was not released publicly until 1994.

Related Topics:
Irish - Michael Collins - George Bernard Shaw - ATV - Northern Ireland - Lew Grade

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Griffith has made other documentaries which have been shown in which his anti-imperialist stance has been prominent.

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