Ian Richardson, British actor noted for role in political satire

LONDON -- Ian Richardson, who brought Shakespearean depth to his portrayal of a thoroughly immoral politician in the hugely popular satirical television drama "House of Cards," died Friday at age 72, his agent said.

In addition to his many stage, screen and television roles, Mr. Richardson also appeared in one of the mustard commercials as the man in the Rolls-Royce who asked, "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?"

He died in his sleep at his London home, said the agent, Jean Diamond.

Mr. Richardson played the silkily evil Francis Urquhart in three miniseries, "House of Cards" in 1990, "To Play the King" in 1993, and "The Final Cut" in 1995.

Urquhart's smooth riposte to any slur against another character -- "You may think that; I couldn't possibly comment" -- was picked up by British politicians and heard again and again in the House of Commons.

His other television roles included Bill Haydon in John Le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," Sir Godber Evans in "Porterhouse Blue," and Sherlock Holmes in "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

In 2001 he starred in "Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes," playing Dr. Joseph Bell, the mentor of Arthur Conan Doyle, in a miniseries that was broadcast in the United States on the PBS "Mystery" series.

On Broadway, he played Jean-Paul Marat in "Marat/Sade" in 1965, reprising the role in the United Artists film the following year, and Henry Higgins in a 1976 revival of "My Fair Lady," for which he was nominated for a Tony Award as best actor in a musical.

Other movie credits included "Brazil" in 1985, "The Fourth Protocol" in 1987, "B. A. P. S" in 1997, and "102 Dalmatians" in 2000.

But it was his role in "House of Cards" that turned him "from a jobbing actor that the cognoscenti were aware of into a star that the country's entire viewing population knew," Mr. Richardson said in an interview last year with the Daily Mail newspaper.

"House of Cards" was brilliantly, if accidentally, timed. It appeared in Britain in the same year that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was brought down by feuding in her Conservative Party.

The miniseries was shown in the United States as part of the PBS series "Masterpiece Theatre."

"Urquhart was a wicked character, but Richardson portrayed him in such a way that everybody loved it," said Michael Dobbs, who wrote the book on which it was based. "In anybody else's hands, that role could have fallen flat on his face."