Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan was an English character actor known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also acted extensively on the stage.
He was best known for his role as Grouty in the sitcom Porridge, and had a recurring role alongside Robert Lindsay in Citizen Smith, written by John Sullivan. He played Tom Franklin in Chancer, the father of Anthony Hopkins's character in The Remains of the Day, and Maester Aemon in HBO's Game of Thrones, his final role.
Early life
Vaughn was born Peter Ewart Ohm on 4 April 1923 in Wem, Shropshire, the son of a bank clerk, Max Ohm, who was an Austrian immigrant, and Eva Wright, a nurse. The family later moved to Wellington, in the same county, where he began his schooling. Vaughan said that while reciting a poem at infant school in Wellington he first experienced the applause and admiration coming from a good performance. From the age of seven he lived in Staffordshire, where he attended Uttoxeter Grammar School.After leaving school, Vaughan joined the Wolverhampton Repertory Theatre, and gained experience in other repertory theatres as well, before army service during the Second World War. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Corps of Signals on 9 June 1943, and served in Normandy, Belgium, and the Far East. At the end of the war, Vaughan was in Singapore during the liberation of Changi Prison.
Career
Vaughan made his film debut in 1959 in an uncredited role as a police officer in The 39 Steps. He continued for several years to play small parts, including more cameos as policemen in Village of the Damned and The Victors, before gaining his first starring role, in a minor picture called Smokescreen, where he played an insurance assessor investigating a businessman’s disappearance in one of the last, and best, of the old-style British B-movies. In 1967, he received second billing opposite Frank Sinatra in the film The Naked Runner. 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, alongside Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.Possibly Vaughan’s highest-profile film performance was as the father of Anthony Hopkins's character in The Remains of the Day. 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. Vaughan appeared as a menacing character in Straw Dogs, 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, Vaughan played 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 appeared in the music video for Kate Bush's song Experiment IV.
Television
Vaughan became known for his performances on television, including supporting roles in Porridge and Citizen Smith as Charles Johnson. Vaughan's role in Porridge brought him a great deal of public recognition despite his character appearing in only three episodes and in the 1979 film of the series.In 1975, he appeared as Tony Kirby in an episode of the hard hitting police drama The Sweeney entitled Stay Lucky, Eh?
In 1969, Vaughan appeared in Randall and Hopkirk in the episode "Never Trust a Ghost". In the same year, he starred in the thirteen-part London Weekend Television 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. The saga was written by Trevor Preston, directed by Jim Goddard, and produced by Verity Lambert. Other Fox family members were played by Elizabeth Spriggs, Ray Winstone, Larry Lamb, and Bernard Hill. Historical roles Vaughan played include those of Russian foreign minister Alexander Izvolsky in the serial Fall of Eagles, British politician Thomas Inskip in the mini-series ', the title role in A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter, and German Nazi figures Kurt Zeitzler in the miniseries War and Remembrance and Hermann Göring in the Granada Television-PBS docu-drama Countdown to War. He also appeared in many literary adaptations, such as Bleak House, in which he played the sinister lawyer Mr. Tulkinghorn, and Our Mutual Friend. Other television work includes the espionage thriller ', in a lead role as the head of the KGB.
In 1986, Vaughan appeared in the promotional video for Kate Bush's "Experiment IV" single. In 1991, he played John Turner with a convincing Australian accent in an episode of Granada Television's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes titled '"The Boscombe Valley Mystery".
Vaughan later attained particular acclaim for his supporting role as the Alzheimer's sufferer Felix Hutchinson in Our Friends in the North, a role that garnered a Best Actor nomination at the 1997 British Academy Television Awards.. He played the clockmaker George Graham in Longitude, the TV drama adaptation of Dava Sobel's eponymous non-fiction novel about the quest for a means to determine longitude at sea.
In 2007, Vaughan starred in the television series 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. His final role, between 2011 and 2015, was Maester Aemon in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Radio
Vaughan was heard as Superintendent Kirk in the BBC dramatisation of Dorothy L. Sayers' Peter Wimsey novel Busman's Honeymoon, and as Denethor in the 1981 BBC Radio production of The Lord of the Rings.Stage
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
The first of Vaughan's 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 is married to Gregor Fisher.Vaughan was partially blind in his old age. On 6 December 2016, Vaughan died peacefully of natural causes at the age of 93.
Filmography
Vaughan appeared in the following films and television series:- The 39 Steps as 2nd Police Constable on Train
- Sapphire as Detective Whitehead
- Village of the Damned as P.C. Gobby
- Make Mine Mink as Policeman in Car
- Two Living, One Dead as John Kester
- The Court Martial of Major Keller as Purvey
- I Thank a Fool as Police Inspector
- The Devil's Agent as Chief of Hungarian Police
- The Punch and Judy Man as Committee Man
- The Victors as Policeman
- Smokescreen as Roper
- Fanatic as Harry
- Rotten to the Core as Sir Henry Capell
- The Naked Runner as Martin Slattery
- The Man Outside as Nikolai Volkov
- Great Expectations as Mr. Jaggers
- The Bofors Gun as Sgt. Walker
- Hammerhead as Hammerhead
- A Twist of Sand as Johann
- Alfred the Great as Burrud
- Taste of Excitement as Inspector Malling
- Eyewitness as Paul Grazzini
- Straw Dogs as Tom Hedden
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes as Horace Dorrington
- The Pied Piper as Bishop
- Savage Messiah as Museum Attendant
- A Warning to the Curious as Mr Paxton
- The Return as Steven Royds
- The Blockhouse as Aufret
- The MacKintosh Man as Brunskill
- Malachi's Cove as Mr. Gunliffe
- Massacre in Rome as Gen. Albert Kesselring
- Symptoms as Brady
- 11 Harrowhouse as Coglin
- Intimate Reflections as Saleman
- Valentino as Rory O'Neil
- Zulu Dawn as Q.S.M. Bloomfield
- Porridge as Harry Grout
- Fox
- Time Bandits as Winston the Ogre
- The French Lieutenant's Woman as Mr. Freeman
- Coming Out of the Ice as Belov
- The Razor's Edge as Mackenzie
- Forbidden as Major Stauffel
- Brazil as Mr. Helpmann
- Sins as Chief Prosecutor
- Monte Carlo as Pabst
- Haunted Honeymoon as Francis Abbot Sr.
- Coast to Coast as The Chiropodist
- Countdown to War as Hermann Göring
- Mountains of the Moon as Lord Houghton
- King of the Wind as Captain
- Prisoner of Honor as Gen. Mercier
- Lovejoy “The Prague Sun” as Marek
- Nightingales as William Stevens
- The Remains of the Day as William Stevens
- Fatherland as Nebe
- The Secret Agent as The Driver
- The Crucible as Giles Corey
- Our Friends in the North as Felix Hutchinson
- The Moonstone as Gabriel Betterege
- Face as Sonny
- Our Mutual Friend as Mr. Boffin
- Les misérables as the Bishop
- The Legend of 1900 as 'Pops', the Shopkeeper
- The Good Son as Mick Doyle
- An Ideal Husband as Phipps
- as Admiral Lord Hood
- Canone inverso – Making Love as Old Baron Blau
- Longitude as George Graham
- The 10th Kingdom as Wilfred Peep
- Hotel Splendide as Morton Blanche
- Second Sight as Harold King
- Kiss Kiss as Daddy Zoo
- The Jury as Michael Colchester
- The Mother as Toots
- Thursday the 12th as Edgar Bannister
- The Life and Death of Peter Sellers as Bill Sellers
- The Queen of Sheba's Pearls as Edward Pretty
- Heartbeat 2005 as Mr. Andrews
- Care as Archie
- Death at a Funeral as Uncle Alfie
- Lark Rise to Candleford as Reverend Ellison
- Is Anybody There? as Bob
- Doc Martin as William Newcross
- Silk as Michael Dodd
- Albatross as Grandpa
- Game of Thrones'' as Maester Aemon