Paul Ritter, the English screen and stage star whose list of credits includes Harry Potter and James Bond films and Channel 4’s highly successful comedy show Friday Night Dinner, has died. His agent confirmed the news, saying that he died of a brain tumor at his home on Sunday, with his family by his side.
The agent said: “It is with great sadness that we can confirm that Paul Ritter has passed away. He died peacefully at home with his wife Polly and sons Frank and Noah by his side. He had been suffering from a brain tumour.”
The agent went on: “Paul was an exceptionally talented actor playing an enormous variety of roles on stage and screen with extraordinary skill. He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny. We will miss him greatly.”
Ritter was best known in recent years for playing the family patriarch in long-running Channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner, but was a recognizable face across numerous films, TV shows and stage plays, landing both Olivier and Tony nominations.
After his debut performance on famed police procedural drama The Bill in 1992, Ritter starred in films such as Son of Rambow, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Quantum of Solace. Ritter was recently seen in the Sky/HBO mini-series Chernobyl portraying Anatoly Dyatlov, the supervisor who was blamed for not following safety protocols leading to the nuclear disaster, and is set to appear in upcoming WWII drama Operation Mincemeat.
He was 54.
