Patricia Roc
Encyclopedia
Patricia Roc born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold, was a British film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas
such as Madonna of the Seven Moons
(1945) and The Wicked Lady
(1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage
(1946). She also appeared in Jassy
(1945), The Brothers
(1947) and When the Bough Breaks
(1947).
who cast her in a leading role as a Polish princess in The Rebel Son
.
She was employed by the studio of J. Arthur Rank
, who called her "the archetypal British beauty" She achieved her greatest level of popularity in British films during the Second World War in escapist melodramas for Gainsborough Studios
. She played prominent roles in some patriotic films of the period, such as Let the People Sing (1941) with Alastair Sim
and We'll Meet Again
(1943) with Vera Lynn
. She co-starred with Phyllis Calvert
, Jean Kent
and Flora Robson
as an internment camp inmate in Two Thousand Women
(1944).
Love Story
(1944) allowed her to play the jealous rival of Margaret Lockwood. She later commented that although they were required to slap each other's faces, she and Lockwood were always the best of friends. They played rivals in two subsequent films, The Wicked Lady
(1944) and Jassy
(1945). Roc's more overt sexuality in such films as The Wicked Lady was downplayed for the American market; her décolletage
led US censors to call for retakes to de-emphasise it) and "the Goddess of Odeons", whilst Noël Coward
said she was "a phenomenon" and "an unspoiled movie star who can act". She played the central role in Millions Like Us
, a powerful World War Two film, made by Launder and Gilliat, which portrayed the changes that wartime wrought on the 'home front', starring alongside Gordon Jackson
.
Her brief move to Hollywood to film Canyon Passage
(1946) 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 André Thomas. She produced only 3 more films and made a few television appearances (including the first episode of The Saint
).
), Thomas agreed to raise him as his own. Thomas died in 1954.
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.
Gainsborough melodramas
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures during the 1940s which conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes and frequently recurring actors...
such as Madonna of the Seven Moons
Madonna of the Seven Moons
Madonna of the Seven Moons is a 1945 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. The film was one of the Gainsborough melodramas. It was based on a novel by Margery Lawrence.-Plot:...
(1945) and The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...
(1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage
Canyon Passage
Canyon Passage is a 1946 Western film directed by Jacques Tourneur and set in frontier Oregon. Featuring love triangles and a Native American uprising, it was adapted from the Saturday Evening Post novel Canyon Passage by Ernest Haycox...
(1946). She also appeared in Jassy
Jassy (film)
Jassy was a 1947 British film melodrama, based on a novel by Norah Lofts. It was a Gainsborough melodrama, the only one to be made in technicolour.-Plot:...
(1945), The Brothers
The Brothers (1947 film)
The Brothers is a British film melodrama of 1947, starring Patricia Roc and John Laurie, from a novel of the same name by L.A.G. Strong. It is set in the Western Isles of Scotland, and the long and murderous grudge between two clans there, the Macraes and McFarishes...
(1947) and When the Bough Breaks
When the Bough Breaks (1947 film)
When the Bough Breaks is a 1947 film by Gainsborough Pictures, J. Arthur Rank and Sydney Box Productions. It is an adaptation of an original story-line by Herbert Victor on adoption and the competing ties of one child's birth and foster family.-Cast:...
(1947).
Early life
The adoptive daughter of a Dutch-Belgian father, André Riese, a wealthy stockbroker, and a half-French mother, she was educated at private schools in London and Paris, before joining RADA in 1937. 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 seen by Alexander KordaAlexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British producer and film director. He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.-Life and career:The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent...
who cast her in a leading role as a Polish princess in The Rebel Son
The Rebel Son
The Rebel Son, The Barbarian and the Lady or The Rebel Son of Taras Bulba was a 1938 British film, notable as the first film appearance of Patricia Roc. It is a re-working by Alexander Korda of Granowski's 1935 French film adaptation of the Russian novel Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol, set in the...
.
She was employed by the studio of J. Arthur Rank
J. Arthur Rank
Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank was a British industrialist and film producer, and founder of the Rank Organisation, now known as The Rank Group Plc.- Family business :...
, who called her "the archetypal British beauty" She achieved her greatest level of popularity in British films during the Second World War in escapist melodramas for Gainsborough Studios
Gainsborough Pictures
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, London. Gainsborough Studios were active between 1924 and 1951. Built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway it...
. She played prominent roles in some patriotic films of the period, such as Let the People Sing (1941) with Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...
and We'll Meet Again
We'll Meet Again (film)
We'll Meet Again is a 1943 British musical film directed by Philip Brandon and starring Vera Lynn.-Plot summary:The film is about a young dancer trying to make it in London during World War II and then discovers that people like her singing voice. Although she's reluctant at first to sing, she...
(1943) with Vera Lynn
Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Lynn, DBE is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II. During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops...
. She co-starred with Phyllis Calvert
Phyllis Calvert
Phyllis Calvert was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s....
, Jean Kent
Jean Kent
Jean Kent is a British film actress who appeared in a number of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s.-Biography:Jean Kent was born in Brixton, London as Joan Mildred Summerfield. She started her theatrical career as a dancer in 1931. Initially, she used the stage name of Jean Carr when she...
and Flora Robson
Flora Robson
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:...
as an internment camp inmate in Two Thousand Women
Two Thousand Women
Two Thousand Women is a 1944 British comedy-drama war film about a camp of interned British women in Occupied France. Three RAF aircrewmen whose bomber had been shot down enter the camp and are hidden by the women from the Germans...
(1944).
Love Story
Love Story (1944 film)
Love Story is a 1944 British romance film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. It is based on a short story by J.W. Drawbell.-Synopsis:...
(1944) allowed her to play the jealous rival of Margaret Lockwood. She later commented that although they were required to slap each other's faces, she and Lockwood were always the best of friends. They played rivals in two subsequent films, The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady
The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement...
(1944) and Jassy
Jassy (film)
Jassy was a 1947 British film melodrama, based on a novel by Norah Lofts. It was a Gainsborough melodrama, the only one to be made in technicolour.-Plot:...
(1945). Roc's more overt sexuality in such films as The Wicked Lady was downplayed for the American market; her décolletage
Décolletage
Décolletage is the upper part of a woman's torso, between her waist and neck, comprising her neck, shoulders, back and chest, that is exposed by the style of her clothing. However, the term is most commonly applied to a neckline which reveals or emphasizes cleavage...
led US censors to call for retakes to de-emphasise it) and "the Goddess of Odeons", whilst Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
said she was "a phenomenon" and "an unspoiled movie star who can act". She played the central role in Millions Like Us
Millions Like Us
Millions Like Us is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It stars Patricia Roc, Eric Portman, Megs Jenkins, and Anne Crawford, was written by Sidney Gilliat, and directed by Gilliat and Frank Launder...
, a powerful World War Two film, made by Launder and Gilliat, which portrayed the changes that wartime wrought on the 'home front', starring alongside Gordon Jackson
Gordon Jackson (actor)
Gordon Cameron Jackson, OBE was a Scottish Emmy Award-winning actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals....
.
Her brief move to Hollywood to film Canyon Passage
Canyon Passage
Canyon Passage is a 1946 Western film directed by Jacques Tourneur and set in frontier Oregon. Featuring love triangles and a Native American uprising, it was adapted from the Saturday Evening Post novel Canyon Passage by Ernest Haycox...
(1946) 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
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, while her US co-star Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...
stated "that Limey glamour girl is a helluva dame."
Roc returned to England later in the decade following the death of husband André Thomas. She produced only 3 more films and made a few television appearances (including the first episode of The Saint
The Saint (TV series)
The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...
).
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 BuySomething Money Can't Buy
Something Money Can't Buy is a 1952 British film starring Patricia Roc and Anthony Steel.-Cast:* Patricia Roc as Anne Wilding* Anthony Steel as Captain Harry Wilding* Moira Lister as Diana Haverstock* A.E...
), Thomas agreed to raise him as his own. Thomas died in 1954.
She married a third and final time, to Walter Reif, in 1962, and a year later retired. During her retirement, she moved to Locarno
Locarno
Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000...
, where she later died of kidney failure.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 | The Divorce of Lady X The Divorce of Lady X The Divorce of Lady X is a 1938 British romantic comedy film made by London Films and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Tim Whelan and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Ian Dalrymple and Arthur Wimperis, adapted by Lajos Biró from the play Counsel's Opinion by Gilbert... |
Minor role | (uncredited) |
| The Barbarian and the Lady | Marina | ||
| The Gaunt Stranger The Gaunt Stranger The Gaunt Stranger is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Sonnie Hale, Wilfrid Lawson, Louise Henry, Alexander Knox and Patrick Barr.... |
Mary Lenley | ||
| 1939 | The Mysterious Mr. Reeder | ||
| 1940 | The Missing People | Doris Bevan | |
| Pack Up Your Troubles | Sally Brown | ||
| Lady in Distress | Pat | ||
| Dr. O'Dowd Dr. O'Dowd Dr. O'Dowd is a 1940 British drama film directed by Herbert Mason and starring Shaun Glenville, Peggy Cummins, Felix Aylmer and Irene Handl. The film is currently missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.-Cast:* Shaun... |
Rosemary | ||
| Three Silent Men Three Silent Men Three Silent Men is a 1940 British crime film directed by Daniel Birt and starring Sebastian Shaw, Derrick De Marney, Patricia Roc and Arthur Hambling... |
Pat Quentin | ||
| It Happened to One Man | Betty Quair | ||
| 1941 | The Farmer's Wife | Sibley | |
| My Wife's Family My Wife's Family (1941 film) My Wife's Family is a 1941 British comedy film directed by Walter C. Mycroft and starring Charles Clapham, John Warwick and David Thomlinson.It was based on the 1933 Finnish film Voi meitä! Anoppi tulee. A remake was made in 1956.... |
Peggy Gay | ||
| 1942 | Suspected Person | Joan Raynor | |
| Let the People Sing Let the People Sing (film) Let the People Sing is a 1942 British comedy film directed by John Baxter and starring Alastair Sim, Fred Emney and Edward Rigby. A small town bands together to try to save their music hall from closure. It was based on the novel Let the People Sing by J.B... |
Hope Ollerton | ||
| 1943 | We'll Meet Again We'll Meet Again (film) We'll Meet Again is a 1943 British musical film directed by Philip Brandon and starring Vera Lynn.-Plot summary:The film is about a young dancer trying to make it in London during World War II and then discovers that people like her singing voice. Although she's reluctant at first to sing, she... |
Ruth | |
| Millions Like Us Millions Like Us Millions Like Us is a 1943 British propaganda film, showing life in a wartime aircraft factory in documentary detail. It stars Patricia Roc, Eric Portman, Megs Jenkins, and Anne Crawford, was written by Sidney Gilliat, and directed by Gilliat and Frank Launder... |
Celia Crowson | ||
| 1944 | Two Thousand Women Two Thousand Women Two Thousand Women is a 1944 British comedy-drama war film about a camp of interned British women in Occupied France. Three RAF aircrewmen whose bomber had been shot down enter the camp and are hidden by the women from the Germans... |
Rosemary Brown / Mary Maugham | |
| Love Story Love Story (1944 film) Love Story is a 1944 British romance film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. It is based on a short story by J.W. Drawbell.-Synopsis:... |
Judy | ||
| 1945 | Madonna of the Seven Moons Madonna of the Seven Moons Madonna of the Seven Moons is a 1945 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. The film was one of the Gainsborough melodramas. It was based on a novel by Margery Lawrence.-Plot:... |
Angela Labardi | |
| The Wicked Lady The Wicked Lady The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a nobleman's wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement... |
Caroline | ||
| Johnny Frenchman Johnny Frenchman Johnny Frenchman is a 1945 British film produced by Ealing Studios and directed by Charles Frend. The film was produced by Michael Balcon from a screenplay by T.E.B... |
Sue Pomeroy | ||
| 1946 | Canyon Passage Canyon Passage Canyon Passage is a 1946 Western film directed by Jacques Tourneur and set in frontier Oregon. Featuring love triangles and a Native American uprising, it was adapted from the Saturday Evening Post novel Canyon Passage by Ernest Haycox... |
Caroline Marsh | |
| 1947 | The Brothers The Brothers (1947 film) The Brothers is a British film melodrama of 1947, starring Patricia Roc and John Laurie, from a novel of the same name by L.A.G. Strong. It is set in the Western Isles of Scotland, and the long and murderous grudge between two clans there, the Macraes and McFarishes... |
Mary | |
| So Well Remembered So Well Remembered So Well Remembered is a 1947 British film starring John Mills, Martha Scott, and Trevor Howard. The film was based on the James Hilton novel of the same name and tells the story of a reformer and the woman he marries in a fictional Lancashire mill town. Hilton also narrated... |
Julie Morgan | ||
| Jassy Jassy (film) Jassy was a 1947 British film melodrama, based on a novel by Norah Lofts. It was a Gainsborough melodrama, the only one to be made in technicolour.-Plot:... |
Dilys Helmar | ||
| When the Bough Breaks When the Bough Breaks (1947 film) When the Bough Breaks is a 1947 film by Gainsborough Pictures, J. Arthur Rank and Sydney Box Productions. It is an adaptation of an original story-line by Herbert Victor on adoption and the competing ties of one child's birth and foster family.-Cast:... |
Lily Bates | ||
| Holiday Camp Holiday Camp Holiday Camp is a 1947 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Jack Warner, Jimmy Hanley, Kathleen Harrison and Dennis Price.-Synopsis:... |
Herself | ||
| 1948 | One Night with You One Night with You (film) One Night with You is a 1948 British musical comedy film directed by Terence Young and starring Nino Martini, Patricia Roc and Bonar Colleano... |
Mary Santell | |
| 1949 | The Perfect Woman The Perfect Woman The Perfect Woman is a comedy, 1949 British film directed by Bernard Knowles and written by George Black, Jr and J. B. Boothroyd, based upon a play by Wallace Geoffrey and Basil Mitchell. A scientist creates what he considers the perfect woman in his lab... |
Penelope Belman | |
| Return to Life Return to Life Return to Life is a 1949 French drama film directed by Georges Lampin, André Cayatte, Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jean Dréville. It was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Paul Azaïs – Le capitaine... |
Lieutenant Evelyne | ||
| The Man on the Eiffel Tower The Man on the Eiffel Tower The Man on the Eiffel Tower is a 1949 American mystery film directed by Burgess Meredith, Charles Laughton, Irving Allen and starring Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone, Meredith, and Robert Hutton. It is based on the 1931 novel La Tête d'un homme by Belgian writer Georges Simenon featuring his... |
Helen Kirby | ||
| 1950 | Black Jack Black Jack (film) Black Jack is a 1950 adventure film written and directed by Julien Duvivier and starring George Sanders, Herbert Marshall, Patricia Roc and Dennis Wyndham. It tells the story of a man who uses his yacht to smuggle drugs tries to go straight, but finds it harder than he had anticipated... |
Ingrid Dekker | |
| Fugitive from Montreal Fugitive from Montreal Fugitive from Montreal Fugitive from Montreal Fugitive from Montreal (French title:L'inconnue de Montréal is a 1950 French-Canadian drama film directed by Jean Devaivre and starring René Dary, Patricia Roc and Paul Dupuis... |
Helen Bering | ||
| 1951 | Circle of Danger Circle of Danger Circle of Danger is a 1951 British thriller film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Ray Milland, Patricia Roc and Naunton Wayne. An American travels to England to discover the truth behind his brother's death during the Second World War... |
Elspeth Graham | |
| 1952 | Something Money Can't Buy Something Money Can't Buy Something Money Can't Buy is a 1952 British film starring Patricia Roc and Anthony Steel.-Cast:* Patricia Roc as Anne Wilding* Anthony Steel as Captain Harry Wilding* Moira Lister as Diana Haverstock* A.E... |
Anne Wilding | |
| 1953 | La mia vita è tua | ||
| 1954 | Cartouche | Donna Violante | |
| 1956 | The Errol Flynn Theatre | Episode: "Farewell Performance" | |
| 1957 | Scotland Yard Dragnet | Mary Foster | |
| The House in the Woods | Carol Carter | ||
| 1958 | White Hunter | Marge Wilson | Episodes: "Pegasus" |
| 1959 | The Widow | Diana | |
| No Hiding Place No Hiding Place No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967.... |
Mrs. Ottlone | Episode: "Who Is Gustav Varnia?" | |
| 1960 | Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons is a 1960 British thriller directed by W. Lee Wilder and starring George Sanders, Corinne Calvet and Jean Kent.-Cast:* George Sanders - Henri Landru* Corinne Calvet - Odette* Jean Kent - Guillin* Patricia Roc - Dueaux... |
Mme. Dueaux | |
| Skyport | Iris West | 1 episode | |
| 1961 | Dixon of Dock Green Dixon of Dock Green Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:... |
Brenda | Episode: "A Kiss for the Constable" |
| 1962 | The Saint The Saint (TV series) The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the... |
Madge Clarron | Episode: "The Talented Husband" |
External links
- Photographs of Patricia Roc film.virtual-history.com