Star of Friday Night Dinner dies of brain tumour at just 54 Leading man: Paul Ritter with, from left, Tom Rosenthal, Simon Bird and Tamsin Greig in the C4 hit comedy
ACTOR Paul Ritter, best known for his role in Friday Night Dinner, has died aged 54 after suffering from a brain tumour.
Yesterday tributes poured in from screen and stage stars for the ‘very finest of actors’.
Ritter played family patriarch Martin Goodman in Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner, alongside Tamsin Greig and Simon Bird. The comedy focuses on the middle-class Jewish family’s weekly evening meal.
He also portrayed engineer Anatoly Dyatlov in the acclaimed HBO drama Chernobyl, Eldred Worple in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as well as special adviser Guy Haines in James Bond film Quantum of Solace.
Ritter passed away at home on Monday with his wife Polly and sons Frank and Noah by his side. Tom Rosenthal, who played his son Jonny in Friday Night Dinner, wrote on Twitter: ‘I’ll be for ever thankful for working with someone who was so supportive and who taught me so much about professionalism and humility in acting.’
The show’s writer Robert Popper said: ‘Paul was a lovely, wonderful human being. Kind, funny, super caring and the greatest actor I ever worked with.’
Comedian Stephen Mangan said of Ritter: ‘My friend since we were students together. So much talent and it shone from him even as a teenager.’
Actor Russell Tovey, who starred alongside Ritter in the National Theatre’s Howard Katz, wrote: ‘I had the absolute pleasure of a first play at 19 with him, he called me a plonker when I left him hanging on stage once at a missed entrance cue... I’ve never forgotten it and never did it again – RIP mate x.’
Actress Brenda Blethyn said he was ‘the very finest of actors’.
Ritter was born in Kent and made his TV debut in The Bill in 1992. He later became an acclaimed stage actor, working with the National Theatre on plays including Coram Boy and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
He was nominated for a Tony Award and an Olivier for his role
as Reg in the Old Vic’s revival of The Norman Conquests. He also portrayed former premier John Major in The Audience opposite Dame Helen Mirren as the Queen. Ritter’s agent said in a statement: ‘He was fiercely intelligent, kind and very funny.’