1. Kenneth Griffith's parents separated and left Tenby six months after his birth, leaving him with his paternal grandparents, Emily and Ernest, who adopted him.
19 Facts About Kenneth Griffith
1. 2.
Kenneth Griffith's grandparents were staunch Wesleyan Methodists who taught him to question everything; he attended the local Wesleyan Methodist chapel three times every Sunday, and became a lively rugby union scrum-half.
3.
Kenneth Griffith left school and moved to Cambridge in 1937, taking a job at an ironmonger's weighing nails.
4.
Kenneth Griffith became a regular jobbing repertory actor, making his West End theatre debut in 1938 with a small part in Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday.
5.
Kenneth Griffith was conscripted into the Royal Air Force during World War II.
6.
Kenneth Griffith caught scarlet fever while on his training and was invalided out of the service in 1942, which resulted in his taking up stamp collecting.
7.
Kenneth Griffith joined the Liverpool, Lancashire-relocated Old Vic, and in repertory.
8.
Kenneth Griffith appeared in many British films between the 1940s and 1980s, notably as Archie Fellows in The Shop at Sly Corner, Jenkins in Only Two Can Play, the wireless operator Jack Phillips on board the Titanic in A Night to Remember, in the crime caper Track the Man Down and especially in the comedies of the Boulting brothers, including Private's Progress and I'm All Right Jack.
9.
Kenneth Griffith was expelled from Iran by the country's Foreign Minister while making the documentary.
10.
In 1973, Kenneth Griffith made a documentary film about the life and death of Irish military and political leader Michael Collins titled Hang Up Your Brightest Colours for ATV, but the Independent Broadcasting Authority did not permit it to be screened.
11.
Kenneth Griffith was allowed to buy this last film back, as long as he did not mention who had commissioned it.
12.
At one point in his career, Kenneth Griffith accused the anti-censorship group Index of censoring him by delaying the publication of two book reviews he had written for its magazine.
13.
BBC Wales presented a retrospective season of five of his documentaries in 1993, including the suppressed Michael Collins work, opening the season with a biographical study of Kenneth Griffith called The Tenby Poisoner in which Peter O'Toole, Martin McGuinness and Jeremy Isaacs paid tribute.
14.
In 1994, Kenneth Griffith was given a Cymru lifetime achievement award by BAFTA.
15.
Kenneth Griffith made a BBC2 documentary on runner Zola Budd, which purported to reveal injustices done to her by left-wing demonstrators and organisations during a tour of England in 1988.
16.
Kenneth Griffith named his home as Michael Collins' House.
17.
Kenneth Griffith was married and divorced three times, and had five children:.
18.
Kenneth Griffith's coffin was decorated with the flags of Wales, Israel and the Irish tricolour.
19.
Kenneth Griffith was interred beside his grandparents, Emily and Ernest in the churchyard adjoining St Nicholas and St Teilo Church in Penally.