Peter Vaughan(1923-2016)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
A true character actor in the best sense of the word, offbeat British
thespian Peter Vaughan's hefty frame could appear intimidating or
benevolent; his
mere presence menacing or avuncular. Adept at playing both sides of the
law, his characters usually possessed a strange, somewhat wary
countenance that seemed to keep his audience slightly off balance. This veteran actor has been a stalwart presence for nearly
fifty years. Born Peter Ohm in 1923, he began on the stage and didn't
enter films until 1959, well into his thirties.
Married in 1952 to rising actress
Billie Whitelaw, Peter was primarily in
the background at first, offering a cheapjack gallery of thugs,
unsmiling cops, and foreign agents in movies. An easily unsympathetic
bloke, he played unbilled policemen in his first two films, then slowly
gravitated up the credits list. He appeared as the chief of police in
the spy drama
The Devil's Agent (1962), which
also featured his wife, and then gained a bit more attention in a prime
part as an offbeat insurance investigator in the B movie
Smokescreen (1964), a role that
propelled him into the higher ranks. Noticeably shady roles came with
playing Tallulah Bankhead's seedy
handyman who meets a fatal end in the Gothic horror
Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) [aka Die! Die! My
Darling!]; his villainous roles in the spy thrillers
The Naked Runner (1967) opposite
Frank Sinatra and
The Man Outside (1967); a German
thug in A Twist of Sand (1968);
and Sgt. Walker in
The Bofors Gun (1968).
Divorced from Whitelaw in 1966, he later married actress
Lillias Walker, who had roles in a couple
of his pictures:
Malachi's Cove (1973) and
Intimate Reflections (1975).
TV became a large source of income for Vaughan in the 1970s,
particularly in his role of Grouty in
Porridge (1974) on both the large
and small screen, and his quirky demeanor fitted like a glove for
bizarre director Terry Gilliam, who cast
him as the Ogre in
Time Bandits (1981) and then as Mr.
Helpman in Brazil (1985). For the past few
decades he has maintained a healthy balance between film (including
standout roles in Zulu Dawn (1979),
The Remains of the Day (1993)
and
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004))
and TV mini-movies, both contemporary and period. He was still performing into his 90s: his final role was Maester Aemon Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011).
He died at age 93 on December 6, 2016, in Sussex, England.
thespian Peter Vaughan's hefty frame could appear intimidating or
benevolent; his
mere presence menacing or avuncular. Adept at playing both sides of the
law, his characters usually possessed a strange, somewhat wary
countenance that seemed to keep his audience slightly off balance. This veteran actor has been a stalwart presence for nearly
fifty years. Born Peter Ohm in 1923, he began on the stage and didn't
enter films until 1959, well into his thirties.
Married in 1952 to rising actress
Billie Whitelaw, Peter was primarily in
the background at first, offering a cheapjack gallery of thugs,
unsmiling cops, and foreign agents in movies. An easily unsympathetic
bloke, he played unbilled policemen in his first two films, then slowly
gravitated up the credits list. He appeared as the chief of police in
the spy drama
The Devil's Agent (1962), which
also featured his wife, and then gained a bit more attention in a prime
part as an offbeat insurance investigator in the B movie
Smokescreen (1964), a role that
propelled him into the higher ranks. Noticeably shady roles came with
playing Tallulah Bankhead's seedy
handyman who meets a fatal end in the Gothic horror
Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) [aka Die! Die! My
Darling!]; his villainous roles in the spy thrillers
The Naked Runner (1967) opposite
Frank Sinatra and
The Man Outside (1967); a German
thug in A Twist of Sand (1968);
and Sgt. Walker in
The Bofors Gun (1968).
Divorced from Whitelaw in 1966, he later married actress
Lillias Walker, who had roles in a couple
of his pictures:
Malachi's Cove (1973) and
Intimate Reflections (1975).
TV became a large source of income for Vaughan in the 1970s,
particularly in his role of Grouty in
Porridge (1974) on both the large
and small screen, and his quirky demeanor fitted like a glove for
bizarre director Terry Gilliam, who cast
him as the Ogre in
Time Bandits (1981) and then as Mr.
Helpman in Brazil (1985). For the past few
decades he has maintained a healthy balance between film (including
standout roles in Zulu Dawn (1979),
The Remains of the Day (1993)
and
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004))
and TV mini-movies, both contemporary and period. He was still performing into his 90s: his final role was Maester Aemon Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011).
He died at age 93 on December 6, 2016, in Sussex, England.