Tough guy actor of stage and screen, Peter Vaughan, age 93

A veteran tough guy of screen and stage, Peter Vaughan, pictured, who has died at the age of 93, was a giant both physically and as an actor.

He was a performer with immense “presence”.

Tall and large-framed, he was unmissable.

But it was his facial features that were unforgettable – his stock-in-trade barely requiring the embellishment of make-up.

Peter Vaughan’s was a look carved like stark granite with a forceful chin and nose and deep-set eyes that would flash with glints of menace or devilment and a slit of a mouth that split into a mirthless laugh.

His career was filled with a succession of tough guy characters but so skilled an actor was he that each part was marked with its own individuality and his performances were cast against a vast range.

Among his most notable roles was Felix Hutchinson in the BBC’s epic Our Friends In The North. He played a character who aged from 47 to 77, disillusioned with the Labour Party, at odds with the younger generation and finally a victim of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Most recently he starred in four series of HBO’s Game Of Thrones as Maester Aemon, the blind, scholarly mentor and guide to Jon Snow.

To many older television viewers he was best known for his 1970s sitcom roles as Wolfie’s chief opponent in Citizen Smith and Groutie, the gangland boss who ran Slade Prison in Ronnie Barker’s Porridge.

He was born Peter Ewart Ohm on April 4 1923, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire and the family moved to Uttoxeter, in the Potteries, when he was young.

He was married to actress Billie Whitelaw for 12 years after which he married another actress Lillas Walker, whom he had first met in his repertory days.

After his lonely childhood he enjoyed the family life he had with Lillas, their son David and his twin step-daughters.