The Movies > Sorcerer's Stone Cast > Part 4, Harry's Family, Friends & Acquaintances

HARRY'S FAMILY, FRIENDS & ACQUAINTANCES

FIONA SHAW (Aunt Petunia Dursley)

Fiona Shaw plays Harry's aunt, a gossipy, hysterical woman. Shaw was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1959. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and is a stage veteran and regular of the Royal Shakespeare Company and London National Theatre. Her theater work includes The Taming of the Shrew, Electra and a 1996 production of Richard III, which stirred up controversy for her decision to appear in the traditionally male title role.

Shaw also appeared with her Sorcerer’s Stone “husband,” Richard Griffiths, and Zoe Wanamaker (Madam Hooch), in the 1999 British miniseries Gormenghast (2000), based on Mervyn Peake’s fantasy novel. Shaw has appeared in other literary adaptations, such as Jane Eyre (1996), Anna Karenina, and The Butcher Boy (1997). Her U.S. film appearances include the forgotten video game film Super Mario Brothers, as well as The Avengers (1998), as “Father,” and RKO 281, as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Her best-known role was in Three Men and a Little Lady, costarring Ted Danson and Tom Selleck.

RICHARD GRIFFITHS (Uncle Vernon Dursley)

Griffiths plays Uncle Vernon Dursley, the narrow-minded drill company owner and cruel uncle to Harry Potter. The last time American audiences may have seen Richard Griffiths, they would have seen his head cut off, a fate some HP fans may wish on Uncle Vernon. Griffiths was a terrified town magistrate in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999).

Griffiths was born on 31 July 1947 in Stockton-on-Tees, England. He appeared in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions, including Once in a Lifetime and Henry VIII, and productions at the Old Vic and Almeida Theatre in the UK.

He has done movie work on both sides of the Atlantic, with numerous U.S.-produced films in his resume, including The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Superman II, Gandhi, Ragtime, Gorky Park, Shanghai Surprise, Naked Gun 2 ½ and Guarding Tess. He appeared with Sorcerer’s Stone colleagues Leslie Phillips (Sorting Hat) and John Hurt (Mr. Ollivander) in the John Goodman comedy King Ralph (1991). He also appeared in Gormenghast with Sorcerer’s Stone actresses Zoe Wanamaker and Fiona Shaw. His British TV credits include Nobody’s Perfect and Pie in the Sky.

HARRY MELLING (Dudley Dursley)

Melling makes his acting debut as Dudley Dursley, Harry Potter's plump, pampered cousin and all-around bully boy. He was born in 1989.

Melling's parents knew he had an interest in showbiz when he started putting on shows as a preschooler. At 5, his parents enrolled him in the Sue Nieto Theatre School, and four years later Melling was a member of the Millfield Theatre Youth Drama Group. He appeared in two musicals by David Hyman, Y3K and House.

Melling comes from an an arts family. His grandfather, Patrick Troughton, was the second version of the title character of Dr. Who, the cult British sci-fi series. An uncle, David Troughton, was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Another uncle, Michael Troughton, appeared in The New Statesman, a British TV satire about Parliament, with Rik Mayall (voice of Peeves) as a corrupt politician.

Melling is the son of illustrators -- mother Joanna draws for kids' books -- and his dad worked on animated films.

JULIE WALTERS (Molly Weasley)

Walters is Mrs. Weasley, the cheerful but firm mother witch who must control and guide her large family, including Harry’s friend, Ron.

Julie Walters entered American movie-goers’ consciences in 1983 in Educating Rita, as a Cockney hairdresser who decides to go to college and falls in love with a professor (Michael Caine). She also performed the role on the stage. That movie, and Billy Elliott (2000), where she is the chain-smoking teacher of an aspiring young male ballet dancer, have earned her Academy Award nominations.

Walters was born 22 February 1950 in Birmingham, England, and originally trained as a nurse. Her stage work includes an Olivier Awards for Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, and Howard Davies' production of All My Sons. Other drama credits are Jumpers, Having a Ball, Frankie & Johnny and Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo.

Walters has worked steadily in British TV and movies, as diverse as Buster (with Phil Collins as a famous thief); Oliver Twist (TV miniseries); and Jack and the Beanstalk, (as the narrator). Other credits include Sister, My Sister, Titanic Town, Prick Up Your Ears and She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas. She also became famous in the UK for her work with Victoria Wood, a comedian.

JOHN HURT (Mr. Ollivander)

Hurt plays the owner of Ollivander's, "maker of fine wands since 382 B.C."

John Vincent Hurt was born 22 January 1940 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. Hurt had an interest in acting since childhood, but his parents urged him to enroll in art school instead because they thought the thespian's life was insecure. Hurt was studying painting at the St. Martin’s School for Art, but his attraction to the stage prompted him to switch to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

At age 22, Hurt made his stage debut in Infanticide at the House of Fred Ginger. Good reviews for the play led to theater and a long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Hurt also made his movie debut in 1962, and received acclaim for his work in A Man for All Seasons (1966), an multiple Oscar winner. Three back-to-back roles in U.S. movies showed his great range. For Midnight Express (1978), he received an Oscar nomination for a role as a trouble drug addict. In the first Alien (1979), he played one of the astronauts stalked by the now-famous killer creature on a spaceship. And he was the sensitive, talented but terribly deformed John Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980). This part earned him another Academy Award nomination, and he won the British Academy Award for Best Actor.

On TV, Hurt appeared in the acclaimed miniseries I, Claudius and earned a U.S. Emmy Award for his role in The Naked Civil Servant. Other TV programs include Six Characters in Search of an Author, Red Fox, King Lear, Crime and Punishment and The Playboy of the Western World.

In 1991, Hurt appeared with his Sorcerer’s Stone co-stars Leslie Phillips and Richard Griffiths in the John Goodman comedy, King Ralph. He also did voice work along with Stone co-star Rik Mayall in the animated Watership Down (1999). More recently, American audiences saw him as the Marquis of Montrose in Rob Roy (1995) and in 2001 opposite Nicolas Cage in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

Other films are Mel Brooks' Spaceballs, The Field, Rob Roy, 1984, Dead Man and Heaven's Gate.

GERALDINE SOMERVILLE (right) appears as Lily Evans Potter, Harry's mother, in the Mirror of Erised sequence, magic photographs and the Voldemort attack flashback scene.

Somerville co-starred with Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) in the British TV series Cracker, as Detective Sgt. Jane Penhaligon, and on the BBC-TV miniseries Aristocrats (1999). Other films are Gosford Park (with Maggie Smith), Jilting Joe, True Blue, Haunted, Bathing Elizabeth and The Black Velvet Crown, for which she won a U.S. Emmy for Best Foreign Drama. Somerville also is a veteran of the British stage, appearing at the Young Vic and National Theatre.

ADRIAN RAWLINS (left) will be James Potter in the Mirror of Erised. Rawlins' movie and TV career spans nearly 25 years. His most recent role that may be best-known was as a doctor in Breaking the Waves with Emily Watson. Other roles include Different for Girls, the ghost story The Woman in Black and Blood.

OOK THE OWL (Hedwig)

Ook the snowy owl is one of the birds who played Harry's faithful but temperamental pet owl. Ook was born in captivity in 1984, and at 6 weeks began visting British elementary school classrooms with trainer Roger Pearson of the Natural History Lecture Service. Unlike Hedwig, Ook is male, not female. His name is from an Inuit (Eskimo) word for "white snowy owl." Ook is one of a number of real owls that were used in the 2000-2001 filming of The Sorcerer's Stone. Other owls playing Hedwig were Gizmo (lead bird), Kasper, Oops, Swoops, Oh Oh, Elmo and Bandit.

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