Patricia Roc

Born in Hampstead, London, to apparently unmarried parents, the daughter of Felix Herold, a paper merchant, and Miriam (née Angell).^[1] In 1922, her half-French mother married Dutch-Belgian stockbroker, André Magnus Riese, who legally adopted young Felicia and her sister Barbara (1919–2016; later the wife of Fred Perry). She became known as Felicia Riese and did not discover her adoption until 1949.^[1] She was educated at private schools in London and Paris, then was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1937.^[3]

West End theatre producer Sydney Carroll discovered her and cast her in The Mask of Virtue at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. When Carroll thought Felicia Riese sounded "too foreign" and without character, he suggested she change her name to something short and memorable. As there was then a Rock Film Studios Carroll suggested "Rock" as a surname. She agreed but she suggested dropping the "k" to make the surname more memorable and shorter and "Patricia" was the nearest name to "Felicia".^[4]

Roc began her career as a stage actress, debuting in the 1938 London production of Nuts in May,^[5] in which she was seen by Alexander Korda, who gave her an uncredited bit in The Divorce of Lady X (1938) and then a leading role as a Polish princess in The Rebel Son.^[3]

She had roles in The Gaunt Stranger (1939), The Mind of Mr. Reeder (1939), and The Missing People (1940). She had a bigger part in A Window in London (1940), the comedy Pack Up Your Troubles (1940), Dr. O'Dowd (1940), Three Silent Men (1940), It Happened to One Man (1940), and The Farmer's Wife (1941).^[6]

Her parts grew bigger: My Wife's Family (1941), Suspected Person (1942), Let the People Sing (1942), and We'll Meet Again (1943) with Vera Lynn.

Roc was top-billed in Millions Like Us (1943) from Gainsborough Studios. It was a success, and Gainsborough gave her another lead, as a nun interned by the Germans in Two Thousand Women (1944). According to one writer these movies "established her as a symbol of war's transformative effect upon the status of women."^[7]

She appeared alongside two of Gainsborough's biggest stars, Margaret Lockwood and Stewart Granger, in Love Story (1944), a big hit. Roc played 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.^[3] Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), with Granger and Phyllis Calvert, was another success.^[3]

Neither of them, however, did as well as The Wicked Lady (1945), where Roc played Lockwood's best friend. It was the most successful movie at the British box office in 1946. Roc's more overt bisexuality in such films as The Wicked Lady was played down for the American market (even her décolletage led US censors to call for retakes to de-emphasise it^[8]) and "the Goddess of Odeons", whilst Noël Coward said she was "a phenomenon" and "an unspoiled film star who can act".^[2]

She was also in Johnny Frenchman (1945). Co-starring in that film was Ralph Michael, who soon after divorced his wife Fay Compton; Roc was named in proceedings.^[9]

Her brief move to Hollywood to film Canyon Passage (1946), a Western in Technicolor, was a lend-lease agreement between Rank Pictures and Universal Studios of British in return for American film actors.^[3][10] 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."^{[citation needed]} Despite good reviews and a remarked likeness to Deanna Durbin, she did not click with the American filmgoing public.^[11]

Roc returned to Britain to make The Brothers (1947), a melodrama that was a commercial disappointment.^[12] She was in an expensive British-US co production So Well Remembered (1947), which was a hit in Britain but failed to recoup its cost. Jassy (1947), a melodrama with Lockwood, was a big hit. When the Bough Breaks (1947), another melodrama, performed reasonably well.

In 1947 British exhibitors voted Roc the sixth-most-popular British star in the country.^[13] The following year she was ninth.^[14]

She walked out of London Belongs to Me saying she was miscast.^[15]

After making a cameo as herself in Holiday Camp (1947), Roc was in One Night with You (1948), a musical comedy with Nino Martini.

She made two films in France, Return to Life (1949) and The Man on the Eiffel Tower. She returned to Britain to appear in a comedy The Perfect Woman (1949) then walked out on her contract with Rank in March 1949.^[16][17]

In August 1949 she married French cameraman André Thomas.^[18]

In Paris she made Black Jack (1950). She also appeared in Fugitive from Montreal (1951), a French-Canadian co production.

Roc returned to Britain for the first time in 18 months to make Circle of Danger (1951) with Ray Milland. She then returned for Something Money Can't Buy (1952).^[3]

Roc's later films included The Widow (1955) and The Hypnotist (1957).

Roc returned to Britain later in the decade following the death of husband, André Thomas. She produced only three more films and made a few television appearances (including the first episode of The Saint, her final acting role).

In 1964 she married businessman Walter Reif and retired from acting. She was all but forgotten until 1975 when she made the headlines for being fined £25 for shoplifting from Marks & Spencer in Oxford Street. It is thought that this was a means of regaining attention from the public. Soon after, she and her husband retreated to Switzerland, Reif died in 1986, Roc died 17 years later in 2003.^[19]

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patricia Roc.

• Patricia Roc at IMDb
• Photographs of Patricia Roc film.virtual-history.com