FILE - In this file image made from video footage recorded Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 and aired later in the day in "A Current Affair" program by Australia's Channel Nine, Australian radio DJs Michael Christian, left, and Mel Greig appear during an interview with the TV station. British prosecutors said Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, they will not press charges against two Australian DJs over the royal hoax call that preceded a nurse's suicide. Two Australian DJs impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and her son, Prince Charles, as they phoned London's King Edward VII hospital in December to ask about the condition of the Duchess of Cambridge, formerly Kate Middleton, who had been hospitalized for treatment of acute morning sickness stemming from her pregnancy. Nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who put the call through to a colleague who in turn described the details of Kate's condition, was found hanging in her room three days after the prank was broadcast across the world. (AP Photo/Channel Nine, File) AUSTRALIA OUT, TV OUT, NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY
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FILE - In this file image made from video footage recorded Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 and aired later in the day in "A Current Affair" program by Australia's Channel Nine, Australian radio DJs Michael Christian, left, and Mel Greig appear during an interview with the TV station. British prosecutors said Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, they will not press charges against two Australian DJs over the royal hoax call that preceded a nurse's suicide. Two Australian DJs impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and her son, Prince Charles, as they phoned London's King Edward VII hospital in December to ask about the condition of the Duchess of Cambridge, formerly Kate Middleton, who had been hospitalized for treatment of acute morning sickness stemming from her pregnancy. Nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who put the call through to a colleague who in turn described the details of Kate's condition, was found hanging in her room three days after the prank was broadcast across the world. (AP Photo/Channel Nine, File) AUSTRALIA OUT, TV OUT, NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY
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FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II looks up and waves to members of staff of The Foreign and Commonwealth Office as she ends an official visit which is part of her Jubilee celebrations in London. She has no formal political role, but Queen Elizabeth II has been named Britain's most powerful woman by a BBC radio program. The monarch topped the list of 100 female figures announced Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, on "Woman's Hour." (AP Photo/Alastair Grant Pool, file)
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In this image made off video footage recorded Monday, Dec. 10, 2012 and aired later in the day in "A Current Affair" program by Australia's Channel Nine, Australian radio DJs Michael Christian, left, and Mel Greig appear during an interview with the TV station. The two managed to impersonate Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles and received confidential information about the Duchess of Cambridge's medical condition, which was broadcast on-air. The controversial prank took a dark twist three days later with the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two, who was duped by the DJs despite their Australian accents. (AP Photo/Channel Nine) AUSTRALIA OUT, TV OUT, NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY
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This undated hand out photo provided by the Metropolitan Police shows Jacintha Saldanha. British police say that a nurse who was found dead days after she took a hoax call about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was originally from India. Scotland Yard said Saturday that 46-year-old Jacintha Saldanha, who was found dead on Friday, Dec. 7, 2012 had lived in Bristol in southwestern England for nine years. Saldanha worked at the London hospital where Prince William's wife, Kate, was being treated for acute morning sickness. The nurse was duped by a prank call performed by two Australian DJs, who pretended to be Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles to ask about Kate's condition. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Police
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FILE- In this Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 file photo, Britain's Prince William stand next to his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge as she leaves the King Edward VII hospital in central London. Prince William and his wife Kate are expecting their first child, and the Duchess of Cambridge was admitted to hospital suffering from a severe form of morning sickness in the early stages of her pregnancy. King Edward VII hospital says a nurse involved in a prank telephone call to elicit information about the Duchess of Cambridge has died. The hospital said Friday, Dec. 7, 2012 that Jacintha Saldanha had been a victim of the call made by two Australian radio disc jockeys. They did not immediately say what role she played in the call. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
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Members of the media opposite the entrance to the King Edward VII hospital in central London, Friday, Dec. 7, 2012. King Edward VII hospital says a nurse involved in a prank telephone call to elicit information about the Duchess of Cambridge has died. The hospital said Friday that Jacintha Saldanha had been a victim of the call made by two Australian radio disc jockeys. They did not immediately say what role she played in the call. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
British actor Richard Briers dies at 79
LONDON (AP) — British actor
Richard Briers, an avuncular comic presence on TV and movie screens for decades, has died at the age of 79.
Briers' agent, Christopher Farrar, said Monday that the actor died at his London home on Sunday. A former heavy smoker, he had suffered from emphysema.
Briers starred in the 1970s sitcom "The Good Life" as Tom Good, a man who decides to quit the urban rat race for a life of self-sufficiency in suburbia.
The show, which contrasted the back-to-the land Goods with their conventional neighbors the Leadbetters, made stars of its core cast — Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington — and is regularly voted one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time. Broadcast in Britain between 1975 and 1978, it aired in the U.S. as "Good Neighbors."
Briars also starred in the comedy-drama "Ever-Decreasing Circles," the Scottish Highlands drama "Monarch of the Glen" and a host of other shows.
In later life he became well-known for Shakespearean roles. He joined director Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987 after deciding, he said, that "I had gone as far as I could doing sitcoms."
For Branagh he took on roles including King Lear, Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" and the buffoon Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
He also appeared in several Branagh-directed films, including "Henry V," ''A Midsummer Night's Dream," ''Hamlet," ''Peter's Friends" and "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."
Branagh remembered Briers as "a national treasure, a great actor and a wonderful man. He was greatly loved and he will be deeply missed."
Briers also was the voice of rabbit Fiver in the much-loved animated animal feature "Watership Down," and narrator 1970s children's cartoon "Roobarb."
On stage, he was associated with the work of British comic playwright Alan Ayckbourn, playing leading roles in "Relatively Speaking," ''Absurd Person Singular" and "Absent Friends."
Born Jan. 14, 1934, Briers trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and worked consistently in theater, film and television for more than half a century.
His latest film credit is in the recently released "Cockneys Vs. Zombies."
He said he had no desire to retire, but complained in one of his final interviews that the chronic lung disease emphysema was slowing him down.
"The ciggies got me. I stopped 10 years ago, but too late," he told the Daily Mail newspaper last month.
"It's totally my fault. So, I get very breathless, which is a pain in the backside."
In 1989, Briers was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts.
Among his peers and fans, Briers was much appreciated for his humor and self-deprecating wit. He said of one run in the title role of "Hamlet": "I may not have been the best Hamlet of my generation but I was certainly the fastest."
"On the opening night I took 24 minutes off the running time, and I think it must have been the only 'Hamlet' in recent times where people were able to get out to the pub afterwards for a drink," he said.
Briers married the actress Anne Davies in 1956. They had two daughters.
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