'Sons of Anarchy' Actor William Lucking Dead at 80: 'An Elegant Man with a Brilliant Intellect'

William Lucking died on Oct. 18, his wife Sigrid revealed in his obituary

Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Actor William Lucking, best known for his role in Sons of Anarchy, died at age 80.

Lucking on died Oct. 18 at his home in Las Vegas, according to an obituary written by his wife Sigrid and circulated on social media by friend Stephen Macht.

"Bill truly was a 'lion,' and his memory will always be a blessing!" Macht wrote on Facebook Tuesday alongside the obituary.

Lucking was born in Michigan in 1941 before moving to California in the early 1950s with his family. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, and later he pursued a career in acting.

After making his on screen debut in the TV show Ironside in 1968, Lucking went on to star alongside Faye Dunaway and George C. Scott in Stanley Kramer's movie Oklahoma Crude in 1973.

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His movie credits include The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974), The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976), The River Wild (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), The Rundown (2003), The World's Fastest Indian (2005) and Contraband (2012).

On TV, Lucking had roles in NBC's 1980s action series The A-Team, CBS's Outlaws and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

More recently, he played Piermont "Piney" Winston — one of the founders of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club and the father of Ryan Hurst's Harry "Opie" Winston — on Sons of Anarchy.

Lucking appeared on the FX series from its start in 2008 through season 4 in 2011. The show concluded with the seventh season in 2014.

William Lucking in Sons of Anarchy. Everett

"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," his obituary stated.

"He was a giant of a man with the soul of a poet, one who 'contained…a tension of sorts within his being…like a boulder teetering on a hill…or a balloon expanding towards its extreme,' as one friend put it," the obituary continued.

In addition to Sigrid, a former costume designer, Lucking is survived by his sister Ellen Founier and daughters, Marjet Lucking and Juliana Ryan, as well as Juliana's husband and two daughters, Quinlan and Lilian.

Lucking's first wife and the mother of his children, Mimi, died of cancer in 1996.

"The family requests you toast his memory and celebrate his legacy," Sigrid's obituary concluded.