Peter Vaughn has passed away

Peter Vaughan has sadly passed away at the age of 93. He was known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also worked extensively on the stage.

He was best known for his role as Grouty in the sitcom Porridge and also had a recurring role alongside Robert Lindsay in Citizen Smith, written by John Sullivan. However, many of you will know him as Maester Aemon in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

His agent Sally Long-Innes 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.”

He made his film debut in 1959 and continued to play small roles for several years, before gaining his first starring role in 1964’s Smokescreen.

In 1967, he received second billing opposite Frank Sinatra in the film The Naked Runner. He played Mr. Freeman in Karel Reisz’s 1980 The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the first star billing for Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.

He played 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.