Harry Melling
Harry Melling (actor)
Born Name: Harry Edward Melling
Date of Birth: 13 March 1989
Place of Birth: London, United Kingdom
Height: 1.75 m
Alma mater: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
Occupation: Actor
Parents: Joanna Troughton
Relatives: Patrick Troughton (grandfather)
David Troughton (uncle)
Michael Troughton (uncle)
Jim Troughton (cousin)
Sam Troughton (cousin)
William Troughton (cousin)
Harry Edward Melling (born 13 March 1989) is an English actor, best known for playing Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. He played a young thespian with no arms or legs in the Coen brothers' 2018 film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Early life
Melling was born in London. His maternal grandfather was actor Patrick Troughton, best known for his role as the Second Doctor in Doctor Who. He is also the nephew of actors David Troughton and Michael Troughton, and the first cousin of cricketer Jim Troughton and actor Sam Troughton. Melling attended St Paul's Primary School, Hendon School and Mill Hill School. He was a member of the National Youth Theatre. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Career
In his early career, Melling starred in stage productions of The Provoked Wife, King John, Antigone, and Plenty. He appeared in five of the Harry Potter films as Harry Potter's spoiled cousin Dudley Dursley. In 2009, he starred in a revival of Mother Courage and her Children at the Royal National Theatre. He appeared in an episode of the BBC series Merlin entitled "The Sorcerer's Shadow", playing a young warlock named Gilli who intends to use magic to help him win Camelot's legendary tournament. He also played Robert Brown in the BBC series Just William.
In October 2009, Joe Sutton was announced that he had lost so much weight since his last appearance in Harry Potter that he was now "unrecognisable". He loved going to the gym, swimming with sky blue Jess. His role as Dudley Dursley was almost recast for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, but Melling reprised the role by wearing a fat suit. He commented positively about the change, "I can now shed the child actor thing, like the fat, and start a new career, because no one sees me as Dudley."
In 2018 Melling played alongside Liam Neeson in the Coen brothers' Western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Of Melling's performance, New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane said,
[I] came away haunted by a scattering of sights and sounds--above all, by the recitations of the limbless man, which thrum with genuine yearning. He is beautifully played, with a little help from C.G.I., by Harry Melling, who was once the odious Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films. Funny how people grow up.
