OHMYGOSSIP — Matt Smith has been left “devastated” following the death of his father. The 38-year-old actor was given compassionate leave from filming ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ to mourn his beloved dad David after he passed away last month aged 73. A source told MailOnline: “Matt and his family are all devastated. David was a rock to them and will be sorely missed. “They all wanted to be together to mourn as they are a real tight-knit family.” Matt is believed to have now resumed filming on the HBO show, in which he will play Prince Daemon Targaryen. The former ‘Doctor Who’ actor previously described his father as the “greatest influence” on his life and admitted his dad was a huge inspiration for many of his performances. He said in 2018: “My old man, he’s a legend. He’s the greatest influence on my life, bar none. I often think all of my truest moments as an actor are somehow impersonations of him. ‘Because when I impersonate him, emotionally or even his voice – he’s from Blackburn – as a kid I would impersonate him a lot and if I can be half the dad – it sounds sentimental, but he’s put his family first. “My sister… he remortgaged the house to put her through dance school and he never missed anything.” And when the pressures of fame from starring in ‘Doctor Who’ started to get to him so much, he wanted to quit, it was his father who urged Matt to stick with the job. He said: “When I got ‘Doctor Who’, I rang him like two months in and I said “I can’t do this” and he said, ‘You can, the hardest thing in life is to adapt and you will adapt and you’ve got to adapt’ and I did, I adapted. “He always said it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you enjoy it.”