Winter Has Come For Peter Vaughan, Dead At 93

British actor Peter Vaughan passed away peacefully on December 6 surrounded by his family. He was 93 years old.

He is best known for his roles as Grouty on the TV sitcom Porridge and more recently, Maester Aemon on the HBO series, Game of Thrones.

Vaughan specialized in characters with a tough edge, such as police officers, secret agents, and authoritarian elders. He described himself as a character actor since he lacked the looks for romantic leads.

If you’re a character actor, you don’t need to wait for the next leading role. But if you are a leading man you have to wait for the next part. Sometimes that means long periods without work.

Fellow actors took to social media to pay tribute to Vaughan:

https://twitter.com/b_cogman/status/806136621783465985

I went on my first CND march with Peter Vaughan in 1959. An amazing actor. I'll never forget his performance in Our Friends in the North

— Tony Robinson (@Tony_Robinson) December 6, 2016

 

https://twitter.com/northernluke/status/806127961082564608

 

https://twitter.com/northernluke/status/806128151432720384

 

💖 Beautiful Peter Vaughan pic.twitter.com/xPnXil6V25

— Kath 💙🙀🇪🇺✊🏾 (@KathyBurke) December 6, 2016

Peter Ohm was born in Shropshire, UK in 1923, joining the army during World War II serving as an office in Normandy and Belgium before transferred to the Far East. When he returned home, he began acting on stage, television, radio, and film. Vaughan’s film debut was in the 1959 The 39 Steps however, his breakthrough role was in 1964 as an insurance investigator in Jim O’Connolly’s Smokescreen. In 1981, he took the role of Denethor in the BBC radio adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings.