Roger Lloyd Pack, the Only Fools and Horses and Harry Potter actor, has died aged 69, it was confirmed on Thursday.

His agent, Maureen Vincent, said he had pancreatic cancer and had died at home surrounded by his family.

Best known for his TV work, including his popular character Trigger in the late John Sullivan's long-running BBC1 sitcom and Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley, Lloyd Pack also featured in films including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as Barty Crouch Sr. Other film work in recent years included Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy and Made in Dagenham.

He was also an accomplished stage actor, playing the Duke of Buckingham in a production of Richard III at the Globe theatre in 2012 and taking on Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night in the same year.

His Only Fools and Horses co-star Sir David Jason was among those paying tribute, saying he was a "very quiet, kind and unassuming actor who was a pleasure to work with".

Jason added: "Although he played the simple soul of Trigger in Only Fools and Horses, he was a very intelligent man and a very fine actor capable of many roles."Father Ted creator Graham Linehan was among those paying tribute online.

He said: "Very sad news about Roger Lloyd Pack. Trigger was an ancestor to Father Dougal and I'm glad I once had a chance to tell him so."

Roger Lloyd Pack as Trigger in Only Fools and Horses. Photograph: BBC/PA

He made his acting debut in a Northampton production of The Shoemaker's Holiday by the Elizabethan playwright Thomas Dekker.

Lloyd Pack's first television appearance was in an episode of The Avengers in 1965. In 1981 he landed the part of dopey road-sweeper Trigger in Only Fools and Horses, going on to appear in nearly every episode of the series, which ended in 1991, and subsequent Christmas specials, which continued intermittently until 2003.

In a 2012 interview with the Guardian, he said: "People will never stop shouting 'Trigger!' at me in the street. The other day I jumped some lights on my bike because someone was hollering at me. A police van pulled me over, and when I stopped they also shouted 'Trigger!'. It can be very annoying."

Lloyd Pack lived in Kentish Town, north London, with his second wife Jehane Markham, the daughter of the stage and film actor David Markham, with whom he had three sons.

A supporter of the Labour party, Lloyd Pack campaigned for Ken Livingstone in the 2012 London mayoral election.

However, in August last year he publicly withdrew his support for the party, as one of the signatories to a letter to the Guardian, accusing Ed Miliband of turning his back on union members who won him the leadership.

Talking about his decision to follow his father into acting, he once said: "I thought, this is magic and what I want to do."