William Lucking – Sons of Anarchy star – dies, aged 80

His wife Sigrid Insull Lucking shared the sad news in an obituary, which was posted on Facebook by William's long-time friend Stephen Macht.

Sigrid wrote: “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.”

As well as playing ailing Sons of Anarchy member Piney for four seasons, William had more than 100 acting credits to his name at the time of his passing, including roles in The A-Team, The X-Files and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.

As well as his versatile work on TV, the actor was also part of several high-profile big-screen projects. He appeared alongside Faye Dunaway in 1973 comedy western Oklahoma Crude, played Bob Linwood in 2000's Erin Brockovich and Billy Walker in the Dwayne Johnson-starring The Rundown.

Following the news of William's passing, his Sons of Anarchy co-stars took to Twitter to pay tribute.

Theo Rossi, who played Juan Carlos 'Juice' Ortiz on the series, shared his memories of working together and posted a picture of the actor on set.

"WE were all on a boat. It’s was in the AM and it was chaos," Rossi posted. "BUT it didn’t matter, because like many times before, I was fortunate to listen and learn from this knowledgeable steadfast oak of a Human. One of one, none before and none to come Give ‘em hell BILL!"

Kristen Renton, who played adult film star Ima Tite on the show, also posted: "RIP sir….. it was such an honor to work with you on ⁦@SonsofAnarchy. You had a presence unlike any other. You will truly be missed."

William starred in the hit FX show in the first four seasons, until his character Piney died at the hands of Sons of Anarchy's failing leader Clay (Ron Perlman).

The actor is survived by his wife and two daughters, Marjet Lucking and Juliana Ryan.