Peter Vaughan was an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has also worked extensively on the stage.

He was best known for his role as Grouty in the sitcom Porridge (despite appearing in only three episodes and the 1979 movie) and also had a recurring role alongside Robert Lindsay in Citizen Smith, written by John Sullivan. He also had major[citation needed] parts as Tom Franklin in Chancer (1990–1991) which ran for 20 episodes, and as Maester Aemon in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011-2015).

Early life

He was born Peter Ohm on 4 April 1923, in Wem, Shropshire, the son of a bank clerk and a nurse. The family later moved to Wellington in the same county, where he began schooling; he later said it was while reciting a poem at infant school in Wellington that he experienced the applause and admiration coming from a good performance. He was brought up from the age of seven in Staffordshire where he attended Uttoxeter Grammar School.

After leaving school he joined Wolverhampton Repertory theatre and gained experience in other repertory theatres before army service in the Second World War, where he served in Normandy, Belgium and the Far East. At the end of the war, he was in Singapore and present during the liberation of Changi Prison.

Career

In film, he made his debut in 1959 in an uncredited role as a police officer in The 39 Steps.[5] He continued to play small roles for several years, before gaining his first starring role in 1964 in a minor picture called Smokescreen, in which he playd an insurance investigator. In 1967, he received second billing opposite Frank Sinatra in the film The Naked Runner. However, his performance was not well received by critics who accused him of overacting in his role as a British agent. He played Mr. Freeman in Karel Reisz's 1980 The French Lieutenant's Woman, the first star billing for Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

Possibly his highest-profile film performance was as the father of Anthony Hopkins's character in The Remains of the Day (1993). He was also cast in Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, but had not shot any material before that project was abandoned. He had previously appeared for Gilliam in Time Bandits and Brazil. He also appeared as a menacing character in Straw Dogs (1971), and with Bill Murray in a film of W. Somerset Maugham's novel The Razor's Edge in 1984. In 1996, he appeared as Giles Corey in The Crucible, and in 1997 he appeared alongside Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone in Face. In 1998, he appeared as Bishop Myriel in Les Misérables alongside Liam Neeson. His most unusual role may have been as SS Obergruppenführer Arthur Nebe in the 1994 film of Robert Harris's novel Fatherland.

He became known for his performances on television, including supporting roles in Porridge (as "Genial" Harry Grout) and Citizen Smith as Charles Johnson, (although his role in the latter series was taken over by Tony Steedman). Vaughan's role in Porridge brought him a great deal of public recognition, despite the fact that his character appeared in only three episodes and the 1979 film of the series.

In 1969, he appeared in Randall and Hopkirk in the episode "Never Trust a Ghost". The same year he starred in the thirteen-part LWT TV series The Gold Robbers. In December 1972, he appeared as Mr. Paxton in the BBC television adaptation of the M.R. James ghost story A Warning to the Curious, shown as part of their annual series A Ghost Story for Christmas.

Vaughan starred as Billy Fox in the Thames Television series Fox (1980). The saga was written by Trevor Preston, directed by Jim Godard, and produced by Verity Lambert. As other Fox family members it also starred Elizabeth Spriggs, Ray Winstone, Larry Lamb and Bernard Hill. Historical roles Vaughan played include the role of Russian ambassador Alexander Izvolsky in the serial Fall of Eagles (1974), British politician Thomas Inskip in the mini-series Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), the title role in A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter (1981), and German Nazi figures Kurt Zeitzler in the miniseries War and Remembrance (1988) and Hermann Göring in the docu-drama Countdown to War (1989). He also appeared in many literary adaptations, such as Bleak House (BBC, 1985), in which he played the sinister lawyer, Mr Tulkinghorn and Our Mutual Friend (BBC Two, 1998). Other television work includes the espionage thriller Codename: Kyril (1988), in a lead role as the head of the KGB.

In 1986, he appeared in the promotional video for Kate Bush's "Experiment IV" single. In 1991, he played John Turner in an episode of the Granada Television's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes titled 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery', with a convincing Australian accent.

Vaughan later attained particular acclaim for his supporting role as the eventual Alzheimer's sufferer Felix Hutchinson across thirty years of his life in Our Friends in the North (BBC Two, 1996), a role which gained him a Best Actor nomination at the 1997 British Academy Television Awards.

In 2007, he starred in the television serial Mobile and as Uncle Alfie in the film Death at a Funeral. In 2011, Vaughan starred as Michael Dodd in the BBC courtroom drama Silk. He also played the role of Maester Aemon Targaryen in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

Vaughan was heard as Denethor in the 1981 BBC Radio production of The Lord of the Rings.

Vaughan's first breakout role was in 1964 as Ed in Joe Orton's work Entertaining Mr Sloane performed at Wyndham's Theatre.

Personal life and death

Vaughan's first of two marriages was to Billie Whitelaw, whom he married in 1952 and divorced in 1966. His second wife was actress Lillias Walker, with whom he lived in the village of Mannings Heath, in West Sussex until his death, having previously lived in Crawley. His stepdaughter Victoria Burton (actress and producer) is married to Gregor Fisher.

Vaughan was partially blind. He died on 6 December 2016 at the age of 93. A statement from Sally Long-Innes, his agent, said: "This is to confirm that very sadly Peter Vaughan passed away at approximately 10.30 this morning. He died peacefully with his family around him."

Filmography

• The 39 Steps (1959)
• Sapphire (1959)
• Village of the Damned (1960)
• Make Mine Mink (1960)
• Two Living, One Dead (1961)
• The Court Martial of Major Keller (1961)
• I Thank a Fool (1962)
• The Devil's Agent (1962)
• The Punch and Judy Man (1963)
• The Victors (1963)
• Smokescreen (1964)
• Fanatic (1965)
• Rotten to the Core (1965)
• The Naked Runner (1967)
• The Man Outside (1967)
• The Bofors Gun (1968)
• Hammerhead (1968)
• A Twist of Sand (1968)
• Alfred the Great (1969)
• Eyewitness (1970)
• Taste of Excitement (1970)
• Straw Dogs (1971)
• The Pied Piper (1972)
• Savage Messiah (1972)
• A Warning to the Curious (1972)
• The Return (1973)
• The Blockhouse (1973)
• The MacKintosh Man (1973)
• Massacre in Rome (1973)
• Malachi's Cove (1973)
• Intimate Reflections (1974)
• Symptoms (1974)
• 11 Harrowhouse (1974)
• Valentino (1977)
• Zulu Dawn (1979)
• Porridge (1979)
• Time Bandits (1981)
• The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
• Coming Out of the Ice (1982)
• The Razor's Edge (1984)
• Forbidden (1984)
• Brazil (1985)
• Sins (1986) (TV miniseries)
• Monte Carlo (1986) (TV miniseries)
• Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
• Coast to Coast (1987)
• Countdown to War (1989)
• King of the Wind (1990)
• Mountains of the Moon (1990)
• Prisoner of Honor (1991)
• The Remains of the Day (1993)
• Fatherland (1994)
• The Secret Agent (1996)
• The Crucible (1996)
• Face (1997)
• Our Mutual Friend (1998)
• The Good Son (1998)
• Les misérables (1998)
• The Legend of 1900 (1998)
• An Ideal Husband (1999)
• Kiss Kiss (2000)
• Canone inverso – Making Love (2000)
• Hotel Splendide (2000)
• The 10th Kingdom (2000)
• The Mother (2003)
• The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
• The Queen of Sheba's Pearls (2004)
• Care (2006)
• Death at a Funeral (2007)
• Is Anybody There? (2008)
• Doc Martin (2011)
• Albatross (2011)
• Game of Thrones (2011–2015)