Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Richard Griffiths: The link between Tarzan and Harry Potter.

Richard Griffiths: The link between Tarzan and Harry Potter.

Last updated on: June 29, 2016 at 3:32 pm by Peter T. Chattaway

Richard Griffiths: The link between Tarzan and Harry Potter. 2016-06-29T15:32:15-07:00 Peter T. Chattaway

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

British character actor Richard Griffiths has passed away at the age of 65.

To many people — including many of the headline writers out there — he is best-known as the actor who played Harry Potter’s awful Uncle Vernon. To others, he is famous for playing Uncle Monty in the cult hit Withnail & I (1989).

But he will always linger in my memory for a tiny part he had in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984).

In that film, he played Captain Billings, the only person apart from Tarzan’s parents who survived the shipwreck at the beginning of the film. The first time we see the character, he is sitting on the beach and staring at the wreckage. When Lady Clayton comes to and asks him where her husband is, he just sits there and repeats the words “It’s not my fault,” with an occasional “Don’t blame me…”

Shortly after this, the film jumps ahead ten months, to a point just after Tarzan’s birth, and Tarzan’s father writes in his journal that Captain Billings left to find help at the beginning of those ten months but “must have perished in the attempt.”

For years, I assumed that Tarzan’s father had been correct. But when the DVD came out in 2004, I listened to the director’s commentary and discovered that I had been wrong, and that Captain Billings actually appears in another scene roughly halfway through the film, when the adult Tarzan and his Belgian mentor, Philippe D’Arnot, make their way out of the jungle and into a colonial outpost.

There, as Tarzan dips his finger into what is probably the first glass of water he has ever seen, and as D’Arnot puts on the shirt that one of the local Brits has given him, a man steps into the background and removes his hat… and the film even cuts to a very brief close-up in which the man seems to look straight into the camera:

Tarzan and D’Arnot then make their way to a room upstairs, and all the men by the bar look up at them, including Captain Billings, who now stands on the far right:

Now, how did I miss this detail all these years? How did I miss the fact that Captain Billings appears more than once in this film?

Well, for one thing, the character looks very different. Perhaps the short close-up, in which the character almost seems to break the fourth wall, should have tipped me off… but then, I’m not even sure that that shot is in the original theatrical version of the film, which I bought on VHS back in 1985, and which was the only version of the film I was familiar with until the DVD came out nearly two decades later.

Certainly the DVD makes the connection explicit, because there is an extra scene that follows this, in which all the men in the bar tell D’Arnot their names, and one of them says, “Captain Billings you have met, yes? He’s been here longer than any of us.” But that scene wasn’t in the version of the film that I watched repeatedly in my teenaged years and beyond. (And it’s not a particularly strong scene, so I can understand why they deleted it in the first place. Frankly, I would still leave it out of the film.)

In any case, I remember being absolutely floored when I watched the DVD and made this connection. Just think: Captain Billings was supposed to find help for the son and daughter-in-law of the Earl of Greystoke — and apparently, he didn’t. More than anyone else, Captain Billings may be responsible for the fact that Tarzan’s parents died in Africa, and that Tarzan himself was raised by apes and has spent his whole life in the jungle — and here the two characters are, standing mere inches apart from one another, and presumably neither of them knows that they have this connection.

And as if that wasn’t enough, I was finally making this connection some 20 years after the film first came out — just as Billings re-enters the story some 20-odd years after Tarzan’s father gives him up for dead! That just added to the “Whoa!” factor.

Anyway. Griffiths was a busy actor, with 90 movie and TV credits going back to 1974, according to the IMDb, plus he did a lot of stage work as well; he won several awards, including a Tony, for playing a teacher in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys (2004), and he helped Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe transition into more mature roles by co-starring with him in the 2007 revival of Peter Shaffer’s Equus.

As Uncle Monty, in Withnail and I, Griffiths famously declared, “It is the most shattering experience of a young man’s life when one morning he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself: ‘I shall never play the Dane.'” I have no idea if Griffiths himself ever played the Dane — the name “Hamlet” does not turn up on his IMDb page, at any rate — but he did play some very memorable characters that are quoted and beloved to this day, and that’s more than can be said for many actors.

Rest in peace.

Blog

daniel radcliffe

equus

greystoke the legend of tarzan lord of the apes

Previous Post

March 27, 2013

Yet another mini-series about Jesus now in the works.

Next Post

March 30, 2013 Flashback: Over 75 years of movies based on Acts!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Planet Articles BC Christian News BC Report Bible Movies Bible Review Blog Books & Culture Campus Times CBC Radio Christianity Today ChristianWeek Essays Faith Today Festival Cinemas Guide Film Journals Georgia Straight Interviews MB Herald National Catholic Register Salvationist Today's Christian Two Chairs Ubyssey Uncategorized Vancouver Courier Vancouver Sun

Select a Month August 2025 April 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 May 2024 February 2024 December 2023 May 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 January 2012 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 March 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 January 2000 October 1999 August 1999 May 1999 April 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 April 1998 March 1998 January 1998 November 1997 September 1997 July 1997 June 1997 April 1997 March 1997 February 1997 January 1997 December 1996 October 1996 September 1996 June 1996 March 1996 February 1996 January 1996 April 1995 November 1994 September 1994 September 1991

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who prayed in the lions' den every day?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Daniel Solomon Paul