Not only was he a pilot, he was also in British Special Forces.
When filming Saruman’s Death in The Return of the King (not in the theatre version, only on the DVD), Peter Jackson tried to tell him how to sound when he was stabbed by Wormtounge. He told Jackson that he knew too well how a man sounds when he is stabbed in the back.
I wouldn’t mess with him even in his 80s.
You never know who is a tough guy in real life. Ted Knight, (”Ted Baxter” on the Mary Tyler Moore show) was decorated five times for clearing mines on Normandy.