It is Cult Faction’s sad duty to report that Peter Vaughan has passed away at the age of 93 years old. The news was broken by his agent Sally Long-Innes, who 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.”
“I have always approached every part I have done as if it will be my last, and that it’s the one I will be judged by.”
Vaughan was born on 4th April 1923 in Wem, Shropshire; 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.
“Obviously one’s experiences inform one’s acting. I think the more experience you have of life, the better it is for an actor. In terms of the parts I played, I think my face had more to do with it. Clearly I wasn’t ever going to play romantic leads.”
In 1954, Vaughan made his first TV appearance in Stage by Stage, roles followed in Tales from Soho, Potts and the Phantom Piper, The Adventures of Ben Gunn, The Adventures of Ben Gunn, and Played Upon a Stage.
In 1959 a small roles in The 39 Steps and Sapphire on the big screen led to even more success on the small screen including roles in Interpol Calling, Probation Officer, Probation Officer, and Man from Interpol.
1960’s cult movie The Village of the Damned featured Vaughan as P.C. Gobby, this was followed up on the big screen with many appearances over his 62 year career, including: Make Mine Mink, Two Living-One Dead, The Court Martial of Major Keller, A Book with Chapters in It, I Thank a Fool, The Devil’s Agent, Still Life, The Punch and Judy Man, The Victors, Smokescreen, Die! Die! My Darling!, Rotten to the Core, The Naked Runner, Hammerhead, Straw Dogs, A Twist of Sand, Alfred the Great, Malachi’s Cove, Massacre in Rome, Intimate Reflections, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Razor’s Edge, Brazil, Time Bandits, Haunted Honeymoon, The Remains of the Day, The Crucible, Les Misérables , An Ideal Husband, Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang), Death at a Funeral, and Albatross (in 2011).
“You never know who’s going to have their head chopped off next! As far as anything as complex as that goes, if you’re playing a part in it, the best thing to do is to concentrate on your own aspect of it, which for me was as Custodian of the Wall. So I really concentrated on all that and kept away from some of the other storylines – if you tried to keep abreast of everything that’s going on, you’d drive yourself mad and not be quite so effective in your own performance. In my case, anyway, that’s the way I’ve always worked.” (Speaking on 2011 about Game of Thrones).
Through all that time though, Vaughan still remained busy on the small screen up until his death, including his role in Maester Aemon in Game of Thrones. He also appeared in Doc Martin, Holby Blue, Lark Rise to Candleford, Heartbeat, The Jury, The 10th Kingdom, Horatio Hornblower: The Wrong War, Our Mutual Friend, Our Friends in the North, Birds of a Feather, Rab C. Nesbitt, Boon, Chancer, War and Remembrance, Codename: Kyril, C.A.T.S. Eyes, Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, Citizen Smith, The Danedyke Mystery, The Doombolt Chase, The Sweeney, The Protectors, The Persuaders!, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island, The Avengers, Man in a Suitcase, Great Expectations, The Informer, Adam Adamant Lives!, Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint and as Harry Grout in Porridge.
“I still get people saying ‘Let you out, have they, Grouty?”
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Founded Cult Faction in 2014. Some would describe him as a teacher, writer, dream weaver, and visionary... some would not...
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