Actor; born September 10, 1948; Died March 27, 2008 Ronnie Letham, who has died aged 58 from complications after breaking his hip, was a director and actor who became a regular on TV screens and the stage during a career which wound down in recent years to allow him to look after his father.

His television roles were rich and varied, from The Sweeney, The Bill and Ultraviolet to Rumpole of the Bailey and, more recently, New Tricks, with Dennis Waterman, Amanda Redman, James Bolam and Alun Armstrong. In films, Letham had a small role in a major movie, The Saint, starring Val Kilmer, which was a box office failure on its release in 1997.

Closer to home, he was also Rab C Nesbitt's father, Peter the Fireman in Hamish Macbeth, and Harry Drennan, the wayward husband of Isa in Still Game.

Letham was born in Falkirk and went to Bantaskine Primary, then Falkirk High School, where he staged school plays. He studied teaching at Jordanhill Training College, Glasgow, before enrolling at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Letham acted and directed in productions at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre but he spent most of his career in London, appearing on stage in the National Theatre on the South Bank and at the Lyric, Hammersmith, including a part in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

He directed two plays at the Odeon Theatre in Glasgow and gave a much-praised performance at the city's Tron Theatre as Maurice in Good, a play about the rise of Nazism in Germany.

Letham, who was an ardent fan of East Stirlingshire FC, is survived by his father and his sister, Maggie.