Pugh was born in
Tyntetown,
Mountain Ash and attended Ynysboeth school down the road and grew up with his grandmother in Tynte, near Pontypridd. He decided to become an actor after watching
From Russia with Love at a cinema in Treforest with a cousin. A few years later he took night courses at
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in North London, before being accepted at
Rose Bruford College, where he graduated in 1976. He appeared in the 1979 production of
Danger UXB as Sapper Powell, a young Royal Engineer in a Bomb Disposal Company during the
Second World War. He later appeared as
Harold Wilson in the 2005
Channel 4 drama
Longford and as
Hermann Göring in the 2006
BBC drama-documentary
Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial. In 2007, he co-starred alongside
Genevieve O'Reilly and
Geraldine James in the
ITV1 drama
The Time of Your Life, in which he played a father whose 36-year-old daughter is recovering after an 18-year coma. In his early career, he frequently appeared in Welsh language productions, for example as
Edgar Evans in the 1984 TV film
Terra Nova, and as a soldier in
Karl Francis's
Milwr Bychan (1987). Even in more recent years, he has often portrayed Welsh characters, such as
Owain Glyndwr in the 2012 BBC adaptation of
Henry IV, Part I. In 2010, Pugh appeared as Tony in the two-part
Doctor Who story comprising the episodes "
The Hungry Earth" and "
Cold Blood". He had a supporting role in 2008 in an episode of
Torchwood, another BBC Wales production. In 2011 Pugh became Judge Patrick Coburn in
Justice. The following year he joined
HBO's
Game of Thrones in the recurring role of
Craster. In 2013 he portrayed Baron Rivers in
The White Queen. Pugh played Jack Reynolds in
Doctor Foster, and in 2016 joined the cast of
Mr Selfridge as Lord Wynstay, another Welsh character. In April 2023, Pugh returned to
Casualty having originally played paramedic Andrew Pointing in the show's first two series. He played Gethin West, the estranged ex-husband to series regular Jan Jenning, played by
Di Botcher. He departed the series again in September later that year, with the character choosing to end his life at a clinic in Switzerland. ==Filmography==