Peter Vaughan

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Peter Vaughan bigraphy, stories - British actor

Peter Vaughan : biography

4 April 1923 –

Peter Vaughan (born 4 April 1923) is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts. He is 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. He also had a major part as Tom Franklin in Chancer (1990-1991) which ran for 20 episodes

Personal life

He was born Peter Olm in Wem, Shropshire, the son of a bank clerk and a nurse, and was brought up in Staffordshire where he attended Uttoxeter Grammar School. After leaving school he joined Wolverhampton Repertory theatre and gained experience in other repertory theatres before army service in WWII, where he served in Normandy, Belgium and the Far East.

Vaughan has been married twice, on the first occasion to Billie Whitelaw. His second wife is actress Lillias Walker, with whom he lives in the village of Mannings Heath, in West Sussex, having previously lived in Crawley, West Sussex. He is partially blind.

Filmography

  • The 39 Steps (1959)
  • Sapphire (1959)
  • Village of the Damned (1960)
  • Make Mine Mink (1960)
  • Two Living, One Dead (1961)
  • The Court Martial of Major Keller (1961)
  • I Thank a Fool (1962)
  • The Devil’s Agent (1962)
  • The Punch and Judy Man (1963)
  • The Victors (1963)
  • Smokescreen (1964)
  • Fanatic (1965)
  • Rotten to the Core (1965)
  • The Naked Runner (1967)
  • The Man Outside (1967)
  • The Bofors Gun (1968)
  • Hammerhead (1968)
  • A Twist of Sand (1968)
  • Alfred the Great (1969)
  • Eyewitness (1970)
  • A Taste of Excitement (1970)
  • Straw Dogs (1971)
  • The Pied Piper (1972)
  • Savage Messiah (1972)
  • A Warning to the Curious (1972)
  • The Return (1973)
  • The Blockhouse (1973)
  • The MacKintosh Man (1973)
  • Massacre in Rome (1973)
  • Intimate Reflections (1974)
  • Symptoms (1974)
  • 11 Harrowhouse (1974)
  • Malachi’s Cove (1974)
  • Valentino (1977)
  • Zulu Dawn (1979)
  • Porridge (1979)
  • Time Bandits (1981)
  • The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
  • The Razor’s Edge (1984)
  • Forbidden (1984)
  • Brazil (1985)
  • Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
  • Coast to Coast (1987)
  • King of the Wind (1989)
  • Mountains of the Moon (1990)
  • The Remains of the Day (1993)
  • Fatherland (1994)
  • The Secret Agent (1996)
  • The Crucible (1996)
  • Our Friends in the North (1996)
  • Face (1997)
  • The Good Son (1998)
  • Les misérables (1998)
  • The Legend of 1900 (1998)
  • An Ideal Husband (1999)
  • Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) (2000)
  • Canone inverso – making love (2000)
  • Hotel Splendide (2000)
  • The 10th Kingdom (2000)
  • The Mother (2003)
  • The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
  • The Queen of Sheba’s Pearls (2004)
  • Care (2006)
  • Death at a Funeral (2007)
  • Is Anybody There? (2008)
  • Albatross (2010)
  • Silk (2011)
  • Game of Thrones (2011,2013)
  • Doc Martin (2011)

Career

In film, he made his debut in 1959 and continued to play small roles for several years, before gaining his first starring role in a minor picture called Smokescreen (1964). He became known for his performances on television, including supporting roles in Porridge (as "Genial" Harry Grout) and Citizen Smith (although his role in the latter series was taken over by Tony Steedman). Vaughan’s role in Porridge brought him a great deal of public recognition, despite the fact that his character appeared in only three episodes and the film of the series.