Patricia Roc

(1915–2003)

British actress (died aged 88) | Millions Like Us (1943), The Brothers (1947), A Window in London (1940)

British leading lady of the 1940s, signed for films after brief stage experience

Latest Patricia Roc Pictures

Who could refuse ‘the perfect woman'? Stanley Holloway smiles gallantly while offering the remaining cake on the plate to co-star Patricia Roc, who plays the title role in The Perfect Woman. An off-set shot from The Perfect Woman, the Two Cities film version of the successful comedy starring Patricia Roc with Stanley Holloway and Nigel Patrick, produced by George and Alfred Black, and directed by Bernard Knowles at Denham. — Stanley Holloway offers Patricia Roc tea and cake in The Perfect Woman

Photograph from Jassy (1947) (34) featuring Margaret Lockwood (as Jassy Woodroffe) and Patricia Roc (as Dilys) — Jassy (1947) photograph (34) | Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc

Anne Crawford (as Jennifer) and Patricia Roc (as Celia) in a photograph from Millions Like Us (1943) (1) — Millions Like Us (1943) photograph (1) | Anne Crawford, Patricia Roc

Patricia Roc (as Mary) and Finlay Currie (as Hector Macrae) in a screenshot from The Brothers (1947) (1) — The Brothers (1947) screenshot (1) | Patricia Roc, Finlay Currie

Patricia Roc Biography

Pretty, vivacious and charming, Patricia Roc appeared in a number of the hugely popular wartime Gainsborough costume dramas, including Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945).

Early Years

The adopted daughter of a Dutch-Belgian father (Andre Riese, a wealthy stockbroker) and a half-French mother, Patricia Roc 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.

She 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.

J Arthur Rank

She was employed by the studio of J Arthur Rank, who called her ‘the archetypal British beauty’ (indeed, her décolletage, along with Margaret Lockwood’s, in the period-costume of films such as The Wicked Lady led US censors to call for retakes to de-emphasise it) 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 rôles played by her contemporary Margaret Lockwood, often even in the same film (such as in The Wicked Lady). As Roc herself put it:

I was the bouncy, sexy girl next door that mothers would like their sons to marry, and the sons wouldn’t have minded either.

Nevertheless, by her own choice and by that of Rank, she remained confined to these second-lead rôles and did not broaden her scope.

Hollywood

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.’

Marriage and Children

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 Andre Thomas and moved to Paris, starting to work more and more in French and Italian cinema (along with a French-Canadian feature in Quebec, Fugitive from Montreal). 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.

The Saint

Patricia Roc returned to England later in the decade following the death of her husband, and produced only three more films and made a few television appearances (including the first episode of The Saint). She married a third and final time, to Walter Reif, in 1962, and a year later retired. During her retirement, she moved to Locarno, Switzerland, where she later died of kidney failure.

Patricia Roc Biographies

Patricia Roc – The Goddess of the Odeons book. A new biography by Michael Hodgson. — Patricia Roc – The Goddess of the Odeons by Michael Hodgson

Patricia Roc Filmography

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Personal Details

Born

Died

Died

Patricia Roc died in Locarno, Switzerland on 30^th December, 2003, aged 88.
Born

Patricia Roc was born (as Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold) in London on 7^th June, 1915.

Watch Patricia Roc on British television

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Patricia Roc News

- Patricia Roc biography to be released, written by Michael Hodgson
- 25^th September, 2010
- British actress Patricia Roc is the subject of a new biography called Goddess of the Odeons, by Michael Hodgson.

Patricia Roc Tweets

The Wicked Lady, soon at the @minacktheatre – where Love Story with Margaret Lockwood and Patricia Roc was filmed. https://t.co/BrooypDTpx
— Richard D Williams (@silversirens) July 20, 2017