Sometimes his true warmth peeked through, as in that one neat scene in the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone where he is talking about Sundays being a ‘fine day’ and asks why that is; Harry Melling’s Dudley shrugs his shoulders. Daniel’s Harry asks him if the reason was because there was no post on Sundays, and Richard momentarily dropped the Vernon persona and beamed warmly at him, replying with “Right you are, Harry” before going on in a far jollier fashion than his character Vernon usually portrayed — that is, until the hundreds of Hogwarts letters began to pour into the house.
I bet that deep down, unlike Vernon, Richard liked imagination and magic. Plus, from my perspective, if Vernon was real, Richard would’ve also taken the time to give Vernon a lecture on how an uncle should treat a nephew — especially if the nephew, like Harry, happened to be a wizard. :)
Rest in peace, Richard. As you go on, be sure to take our love with you when you head off into, as Albus Dumbledore put it, ‘the next great adventure’. :’)
From my perspective, he will always be Uncle Vernon Dursley to us Harry Potter fans. He really brought Vernon to life, and, when the cameras stopped rolling, he was also said to have given Daniel advice and humor when it came to pretending to be someone different from you on the big screen.
