Eric Richard (born Eric Smith, 27 June 1940) is an English actor and presenter. His theatre work includes plays at the Royal Court Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, as well as seasons with the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Sheffield Crucible Theatre and Paines Plough. In 2001, he appeared as Ebeneezer Scrooge in a production of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' '' A Christmas Carol'' at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre, London. He is best known for his role as Desk Sergeant

Bob Cryer George Robert Cryer (3 December 1934 – 12 April 1994) was an English Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician from Yorkshire. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parlia ...

in the long-running

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

drama ''

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'', which he portrayed for twenty years from the show's inception in 1984; his television work has also included ''

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamak ...

'', ''

Victoria Wood As Seen on TV ''Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV'' is a British comedy sketch series written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood, with appearances from Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake and Patricia Routledge. The show was televised on B ...

'', '' Play for Today'', ''

Juliet Bravo ''Juliet Bravo'' is a British television police procedural drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on BBC1. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over con ...

'', ''

Made in Britain ''Made in Britain'' is a 1983 British television play written by David Leland and directed by Alan Clarke. It follows a 16-year-old racist skinhead and his constant confrontations with authority figures. It was broadcast on ITV on 10 July 198 ...

'', ''

Open All Hours ''Open All Hours'' is a British television sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. It ran for 26 episodes in four series, which aired in 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1985. The programme developed from a television pilot broadcast in Ronn ...

'', ''Games Without Frontiers'', ''

P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang ''P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang'', also released as ''Kipperbang'', is a British television film first shown on Channel 4 on its second night, 3 November 1982. Written by Jack Rosenthal as part of the ''First Love'' series, it is a coming-of-age fil ...

'', '' Shoestring'', ''

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'' and '' Holby City''. In 1991, he reviewed motorcycles for

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

. In 2010, it was announced that Richard was to appear in the stage version of ''

Lark Rise to Candleford ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' is a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Flora Thompson about the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England, at the end of the 19th century. The stories were previously published s ...

'' which was on a nationwide tour at the time. His two month-old grandson, Charlie Smith, was the youngest known British victim of the

2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. He died in the arms of his father Richard after the wave hit them in Sri Lanka. They had sat down to eat when the water swept up into the restaurant. In 2016, he starred in the short film '' Stutterer''. The short film won the

Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under various names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, "Best Short Subject, One- ...

at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

. It was written and directed by

Benjamin Cleary Benjamin Cleary is an Irish writer, director and producer from Dublin. He is best known for his short-film ''Stutterer (film), Stutterer'' that earned him an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards with producers ...

and produced by

Serena Armitage Serena Armitage is a director and producer from North Yorkshire, UK. She is best known for producing the short film '' Stutterer'' that earned her an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awa ...

and Shan Christopher Ogilvie. He also starred in Ben Rider's indie drama Forever Tomorrow. He appears in the 2017 war film '' Dunkirk'', under the credit Man at Railway Window. In 2018, Richard appeared as

Maurice Maurice may refer to: People * Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr * Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and ...

in '' EastEnders''.

References

External links

* English male television actors English male stage actors 1940 births Living people People from Margate Male actors from Kent {{England-actor-stub