William Lucking, Piney from Sons of Anarchy, dead at 80

Some very sad news has emerged this afternoon from within the Sons of Anarchy world; veteran actor William Lucking has died at the age of 80.

While the majority of the FX show’s fans will best remember Lucking for playing Piermont ‘Piney’ Winston across dozens of episodes, he was a veteran character actor with around a hundred different film and TV credits to his name. He most recently appeared in Murder in the First and Switched at Birth; prior to his Sons of Anarchy part, some of his credits included Cold Case, JAG, The West Wing, and ER. He was one of those incredible performers who you always knew from their face, and often wish you had their name memorized from when you saw them. To call him often underrated is not doing him justice.

Per a report from Deadline, Lucking passed away on October 18 in Las Vegas; no official cause of death has been revealed. In an obituary, here is some of what his wife Sigrid had to say:

“Although William often played toughs and strongmen, in his actual life he was an elegant man with a brilliant intellect who loved to argue about politics and current affairs, discuss philosophy and physics, and assert fine-pointed opinions about art and poetry.”

Meanwhile, you can also read a pretty powerful tribute below from former Sons of Anarchy star Kim Coates, who played Tig over the course of the series. Lucking was one of those veteran actors other cast members could be around and mine tremendous wisdom and experience — and also share some laughs with at the same time. Because Sons of Anarchy was about a tight-knit group of people within SAMCRO, it caused much of the cast and crew to be just as close for much of its run. This is one of the reasons why there are still some actors from the original who have turned up here and there in Mayans MC, which is now three seasons into its run.

Our thoughts and condolences go out to Lucking’s family, and everyone else who knew him in this difficult time.