Robert Hardy, British actor who often played Churchill, dies

Robert Hardy, the veteran British character actor whose roles included Cornelius Fudge in four Harry Potter movies, an eccentric veterinary surgeon in “All Creatures Great and Small” and numerous incarnations of Winston Churchill, died Thursday in London.

Mr. Hardy first achieved fame when he played the outspoken and irascible Siegfried Farnon in the long-running British series “All Creatures Great and Small” (1978-90), based on James Herriot’s books.

[...] it was his portrayals of Churchill, Britain’s crusty and indomitable wartime prime minister, that defined him for many British audiences.

The Wilderness Years, a 1981 British miniseries, for which he won a BAFTA, Britain’s most prestigious film and television award.

American viewers saw him reprise the role in the acclaimed miniseries “War and Remembrance” (1988-89), but he also played Churchill in two 1980s television movies, “The Woman He Loved” and “Bomber Harris”; a London stage production, “Winnie” (which The Guardian pronounced a “feeble musical”); and a French play, “Celui Qui a Dit Non” (1999).

[...] his last screen appearance, other than a role in a film short, was as the star of “Churchill: 100 Days That Saved Britain,” a 2015 British television movie.

[...] he appeared in “The Shooting Party” (1985), a British drama about thoughtless pre-World War I aristocrats.

The movie almost wasn’t made after Mr. Hardy, Edward Fox and the film’s star, Paul Scofield, were injured while filming a scene.

Inspired by an early Shakespearean role, he became fascinated by archery, particularly one ancient British weapon, and wrote “Longbow: A Social and Military History” (first published in 1976).