# Paul Ritter

Simon Paul Adams (20 December 1966 – 5 April 2021), known professionally as Paul Ritter, was an English actor. He had roles in films including Son of Rambow (2007), Quantum of Solace (2008), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), The Eagle (2011), and Operation Mincemeat (2021), as well as television programmes including Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020), Vera (2011–2013), The Hollow Crown (2012), The Last Kingdom (2015), Chernobyl (2019), Belgravia (2020) and Resistance.

## Early life

Ritter was born Simon Paul Adams on 20 December 1966 in Gravesend, Kent. His father Ken Adams, a turner and fitter, worked at various CEGB power stations; his mother Joan (née Mooney) was a school secretary. His family were Catholic and he had four older sisters. Adams attended Gravesend Grammar School and went on to study German and French at St John's College, Cambridge.
After graduating, he went to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning to the UK, he took the stage name Ritter, of German origin. He took this name because another Simon Adams was registered with the acting trade union, Equity, and he admired a German actor with the surname Ritter.
Ritter studied alongside the actor Stephen Mangan and they later acted together in a 2009 revival of the play The Norman Conquests.

## Career

Ritter's screen work included roles in Nowhere Boy, the 2007 television serial Instinct, the comedy drama Pulling and the role of Pistol in Henry IV, Part II and Henry V in BBC Two's cycle of William Shakespeare's history plays, The Hollow Crown; The Daily Telegraph described Ritter as "an actor who is surely destined for greatness very soon. His Pistol conveyed perfectly the shock of a man who reluctantly had left behind the rowdy cheer of Eastcheap, and found himself in middle age contemplating the melancholy of a medieval autumn." Ritter also played comic actor Eric Sykes in Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This and took a lead role in BBC One's 2014 serialised Cold War spy drama, The Game.
From 2005 to 2006, Ritter played Otis Gardiner in the original Royal National Theatre production of Helen Edmundson's Coram Boy, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 for his role in The Norman Conquests. In 2012, he appeared as the protagonist's father in the stage version of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the National Theatre and in 2013 as John Major in the premiere of Peter Morgan's The Audience.
He appeared in the first three series (2011-13) of British crime drama Vera, as pathologist Dr. Billy Cartwright. He also appeared in a main role as Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief engineer, in the HBO and Sky Max miniseries Chernobyl. Ritter's performance in the latter was critically acclaimed.
From 2011 to 2020, Ritter starred as Martin Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy series, Friday Night Dinner. For this role, he received a posthumous nomination at the 2021 British Academy Television Awards for the Best Male Comedy Performance.
Ritter's final performance was in the movie Operation Mincemeat as Bentley Purchase. The film was released posthumously and was dedicated to his memory.

## Personal life and death

In 1996, Ritter married Polly Radcliffe, a research fellow at King's College London. He lived in Faversham, Kent. He had two sons named Frank and Noah.
Ritter died of a brain tumour on 5 April 2021, aged 54, in his home, surrounded by his family. Long-time friend Stephen Mangan tweeted: "Trying to find a way to talk about Paul Ritter and struggling. My friend since we were students together. So much talent and it shone from him even as a teenager. I was so lucky to know him and lucky too to work with him many times over the years. Wonderful man." Fellow Friday Night Dinner cast members also paid tribute. A tenth anniversary retrospective of Friday Night Dinner aired on 28 May 2021.

## Acting credits

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1992,1996 | The Bill – Overdue, Accidents Will Happen | Tony Walgrave, Terry Webster | |
| 1995 | National Achievement Day 1995 | Beach | |
| 1999 | G:MT Greenwich Mean Time | Drug Buyer | |
| 2000 | The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz | Dave | |
| 2002 | Esther Kahn | Alman, the photographer | |
| 2004 | The Libertine | Chiffinch | |
| 2005 | On a Clear Day | Mad Bob | |
| 2007 | Son of Rambow | Geography Teacher | |
| 2007 | Hannibal Rising | Prisoner Louis | |
| 2007 | Waking the Dead | Alan Pierce | TV series (Series 6, episode 7: "Mask of Sanity") |
| 2008 | The Other Man | Guy | |
| 2008 | Quantum of Solace | Guy Haines | |
| 2008 | Love You More | Record Shop Owner | Short Film |
| 2009 | Pulling | Martin | |
| 2009 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Eldred Worple | |
| 2009 | Nowhere Boy | Popjoy | |
| 2011–2020 | Friday Night Dinner | Martin Goodman | Series regular, all 37 episodes |
| 2011 | Great Expectations | John Wemmick | |
| 2011 | Land Girls | Frank Tucker | |
| 2011 | The Eagle | Galba | |
| 2011–2013 | Vera | Dr Billy Cartwright | |
| 2011 | Eliminate: Archie Cookson | Ennis Miller | |
| 2012 | Midsomer Murders “The Dark Rider” S15E1 | Harry Fleetwood | |
| 2012 | Comedy Showcase | Jim Costello | |
| 2012 | Dirk Gently | Oliver Reynolds | |
| 2012 | Henry IV, Part II | Ancient Pistol | |
| 2012 | Henry V | Ancient Pistol | |
| 2014 | The Bletchley Circle | Professor Masters | TV series (episode: "Blood on their hands – Part 2") |
| 2014 | Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This | Eric Sykes | |
| 2014 | Chasing Shadows | Leonard Vance | |
| 2014 | The Game | Bobby Waterhouse | |
| 2014 | Mapp & Lucia | Reverend Kenneth Bartlett | |
| 2014 | Suite Française | Monsieur Dubois | |
| 2014 | Plebs | Angelo | TV series (Series 2, episode: "The Baby") |
| 2015–2018 | No Offence | Randolph Miller | Series regular, all 21 episodes |
| 2015 | Top Coppers | Harry McCrane | |
| 2015 | The Last Kingdom | King Peredur | Season 1, episode 6 |
| 2015 | We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story | Jimmy Perry | |
| 2016 | Their Finest | Raymond Parfitt | |
| 2016 | Neil Gaiman's Likely Stories | Dr. Benham/Martyn/Mr. Alman | |
| 2016 | Inferno | CRC Tech Arbogast | |
| 2016 | Houdini & Doyle | Bram Stoker | Episode 8, "Strigoi" |
| 2017 | Urban Myths | Dave | Episode: "Bob Dylan: Knockin' on Dave's Door" |
| 2017 | Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams | Franklyn | |
| 2017–2020 | Cold Feet | Benjamin Stevens | |
| 2018 | Lovesick | Peter | |
| 2018 | Hang Ups | Werner Lienhard | |
| 2019 | Resistance | General Ormonde Winter | Released as Rebellion Season 2 on Netflix |
| 2019 | Chernobyl | Anatoly Dyatlov | Mini-series |
| 2019 | The Capture | Marcus Levy | |
| 2019 | Catherine the Great | Alexander Suvorov | |
| 2019–2020 | The Trial of Christine Keeler | Jeremy Hutchinson | |
| 2020 | Belgravia | Turton | TV series |
| 2021 | Friday Night Dinner: Ten Years And A Lovely Bit of Squirrel | Himself | Posthumous release |
| 2022 | Operation Mincemeat | Bentley Purchase | Posthumous release |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 2006 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Performance in a Supporting Role | Coram Boy | Nominated |
| 2009 | Tony Award | Best Featured Actor in a Play | The Norman Conquests | Nominated |
| 2009 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Performance in a Supporting Role | The Norman Conquests | Nominated |
| 2009 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Ensemble Performance | The Norman Conquests | Honouree |
| 2009 | Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding Ensemble Performance | The Norman Conquests | Honouree |
| 2009 | Theatre World Award | Special Award | The Norman Conquests | Honouree |
| 2019 | Online Film & Television Association | Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture or Limited Series | Chernobyl | Nominated |
| 2021 | British Academy Television Award | Male Performance in a Comedy Programme | Friday Night Dinner | Nominated |