Patricia Roc

Infobox actor
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name = Patricia Roc


imagesize = 200 px
birthname = Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold
birthdate = birth date|1915|06|07|mf=y
location = London, England
deathdate = death date and age|2003|12|30|1915|06|07
deathplace = Locarno, Switzerland
othername = Felicia Riese
occupation = Actress
yearsactive = 1938-1962
spouse = 1) Dr. Murray Laing (1939)
2) André Thomas (1949-54)
3) Walter Reif (1962-86)
domesticpartner =
website = http://www.wickedlady.com/films/ladies/RocPatricia/
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Patricia Roc (7 June 1915, London - 30 December 2003, Locarno, Switzerland), born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold, was a British film actress, popular in the "Gainsborough melodramas" such as "Madonna of the Seven Moons" (1944) and "The Wicked Lady" (1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, "Canyon Passage" (1946). She also appeared in "Jassy" (1947), "The Brothers" (1947) and "When the Bough Breaks" (1947).

Early life

The adoptive daughter of a Dutch-Belgian father (Andre Riese, a wealthy stockbroker) and a half-French mother, she was educated at private schools in London and Paris (such as the Francis Holland School) as well as RADA. She did not learn that she was adopted until 1949.

Movie career

Roc began as a stage actress, debuting in the 1938 London production of "Nuts in May", in which she was talent-spotted by Alexander Korda. She made her first film appearance that same year, in "The Rebel Son", and went on to make 40 films, remaining in the UK's top-ten box-office stars list for 10 consecutive years.

She was employed by the studio of J. Arthur Rank, who called her "the archetypal British beauty"cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/30/uroc.xml|title=Actress Patricia Roc dies, aged 88|publisher=Daily Telegraph|date=31 December 2003|accessdate=2008-03-09] (indeed, her decolletage in the period-costume of films like "The Wicked Lady" led US censors to call for retakes to de-emphasise itcite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/31/db3101.xml|title=Obituary|publisher=Daily Telegraph|date=30 December 2003|accessdate=2008-03-08] ) and "the Goddess of Odeons", whilst Noel Coward said she was "a phenomenon" and "an unspoiled movie star who can act". She was a success playing the beautiful, good counterpart to the beautiful but evil, seductive and/or ambiguous roles played by her contemporary Margaret Lockwood, often even in the same film (eg "The Wicked Lady"). As Roc herself put it:

Nevertheless, by her own choice and by that of Rank, she remained confined to these second-lead roles and did not broaden her scope. Her brief move to Hollywood to film "Canyon Passage" was a lend lease agreement between Rank Pictures and Universal Studios of British in return for American film actors. During filming, Roc was romantically linked with Ronald Reagan, while her US co-star Susan Hayward stated "that Limey glamour girl is a helluva dame."

Roc returned to England later in the decade following the death of husband Anthony Steel. She produced only 3 more films and made a few television appearances (including the first episode of "The Saint").

Personal life

Roc married for the first time at 24 in 1939, to the 44-year-old Canadian osteopath Dr. Murray Laing - they divorced only a few years later. She married again in 1949 to André Thomas, and moved to Paris, starting to work more and more in French and Italian cinema (along with a French-Canadian feature in Quebec). Thomas was unable to have children and so, when Patricia gave birth to Michael as a result of an affair with Anthony Steel in 1952 (while they were co-starring in "Something Money Can't Buy"), Thomas agreed to raise him as his own. Thomas died in 1954., and

She married a third and final time, to Walter Reif, in 1962, and a year later retired. During her retirement, she moved to Locarno, where she later died of kidney failure.

References

External links

*imdb name|0733540
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=2886 Photographs of Patricia Roc] film.virtual-history.com

Persondata
NAME= Roc, Patricia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Herold, Felicia Miriam Ursula
SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH= Michael Thomas (born 1952)
PLACE OF BIRTH= London
DATE OF DEATH= 2003-12-30
PLACE OF DEATH= Locarno, Switzerland