Pat Roach

Francis Patrick "Pat" Roach (19 May 1937 – 17 July 2004) was an English actor, wrestler and author, known for various roles, including West Country bricklayer Brian "Bomber" Busbridge in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, General Kael in Willow, and his numerous supporting roles in the Indiana Jones films. Though he plays four roles in the course of the first three films, his most notable role was as the shaven-headed German mechanic who fights the titular hero beneath a Nazi fighter plane in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Early life

Francis Patrick "Pat" Roach was born and brought up in Birmingham, West Midlands.

Career

Before Roach broke into acting, he was a well-known wrestler who attracted unwarranted abuse from the crowds who wrongly assumed him to be a typical wrestling heel in a similar mould to the likes of Mick McManus. After his acting career had taken off, he continued to wrestle under the name of "Bomber" Pat Roach, having previously been billed as "Big" Pat Roach, but now receiving affectionate cheering from the spectators. He was trained by Alf Kent and his first official wrestling match was against George Selko in 1960. Roach held both the British and European Heavyweight Wrestling Championships.

He made his acting debut as the red-bearded bouncer in the Korova Milkbar in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange in 1971. Roach and Kubrick reunited for Barry Lyndon; Pat portrayed a hand-to-hand brawler named Toole, who engages Ryan O'Neal (as the title character) in bare-knuckle combat. Roach enjoyed considerable success via being typecast as muscle-bound supporting characters; these included the non-speaking role of Hephaestus in Clash of the Titans (coincidentally, he later appeared as Atlas on "Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths" in the story of Perseus and the Gorgon, on which Clash of the Titans was based), a SPECTRE-backed assassin in Never Say Never Again, and as bandit-warlord Lord Brytag in the sword-and-sorcery yarn Red Sonja. (The last two films pitted him against Sean Connery and Brigitte Nielsen, respectively, in mortal combat; Roach's character was defeated in both encounters). Perhaps most notable were his roles as the skull-helmeted General Kael in Willow, and as the Celtic chieftain in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. More sympathetically, in 1985 he played Petty Officer Edgar Evans in the Central TV mini-series The Last Place on Earth about Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole.

Roach appeared as several burly villains in the Indiana Jones series in the 1980s. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Roach played two roles. He first played the Giant Sherpa who fights Jones in the bar in Nepal, and later played the shaven-headed German mechanic who eagerly boxes with Indiana Jones before being killed by propeller blades on the airstrip in Egypt. Thus, he is killed twice in the film. In the next film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Roach plays the gigantic Thuggee overseer who fights with Jones before being pulled in to a rock crusher. His final appearance in the series was as a Gestapo officer in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; however, he appears only briefly, because his main fight scene with Jones was cut. The physically imposing Colonel Dovchenko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) was a character very much in the tradition of Roach's Indiana Jones characters from the original three films.

Roach is best known to TV audiences as Brian "Bomber" Busbridge in the ITV/BBC comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, the West Country bricklayer who appeared in all four series but died before the final special was completed.

Later life and death

Roach and his wife, Doreen, married in 1957, they had one son and one daughter.

In the late 1980s, Roach played American Football for the Birmingham Bulls (American football).

During the 1990s, Roach had a scrapyard in Black Patch, Handsworth Birmingham.

Roach died on 17 July, 2004 of throat cancer. Harrison Ford telephoned his widow, Doreen, prior to the funeral service, which was held in Bromsgrove, Worcs.  He is buried in Bromsgrove Cemetery, Worcestershire.

Selected filmography

His film roles have included:

• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• Barry Lyndon (1975)
• Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979)
• Rising Damp (1980)
• Clash of the Titans (1981)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Never Say Never Again (1983)
• Conan the Destroyer (1984)
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
• The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984)
• Red Sonja (1985)
• Willow (1988)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• The Return of the Musketeers (1989)
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
• The Big Man (1991)
• Kull the Conqueror (1997)

Championships and accomplishments

• Joint Promotions

• British Heavyweight Championship (once)
• European Heavyweight Championship (twice)

• Premier Wrestling Federation

• Ken Joyce Trophy (1992)