British actor Richard Briers, star of BBC sitcom ‘The Good Life,’ is dead

British actor Richard Briers, best known for his role in the 1970s BBC sitcom "The Good Life," has died. He was 79.

Briers, who had battled emphysema for five years, died peacefully at his London home on Sunday, his agent, Christopher Farrar, said, according to The Guardian.

"I used to love smoking. It's totally my fault," Briers was quoted by the BBC as saying recently.

"So, I get very breathless, which is a pain in the backside. Trying to get upstairs… oh God, it's ridiculous. Of course, when you're bloody nearly 80 it's depressing, because you've had it anyway."

Briers appeared in sitcoms, films and stage productions.

His most famous role was in "The Good Life," which was about a married suburban couple trying to live a self-sufficient lifestyle.

Penelope Keith, who played Briers’ wife in the sitcom, paid tribute to her co-star.

"You will hear a lot of people saying a lot of marvellous things about Richard, and let me assure you, they are all true,” Keith told Sky News.

"He was a gentleman, he was a wonderful actor, very, very generous and one of the charming things about Richard was he was so self-deprecating.”

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