Eugene Roche
Encyclopedia
Eugene Harrison Roche was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 (Foul Play
Foul Play
Foul Play is a 1978 American comic mystery/thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins. In it, a recently divorced librarian is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping....

, Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...

) . He was the original "Ajax Man" in 1970s television commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...

.

Personal life

Roche was born and raised in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, the son of Mary M. (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Finnegan) and Robert F. Roche, who was at the time serving in the U.S. Navy. He was the father of nine children including actors Eamonn Roche
Eamonn Roche
Eamonn Roche is an American film and television actor.One of nine siblings, his father was the late actor Eugene Roche. One of his brothers, Brogan Roche, is an actor; another, Sean Roche, is a director....

, Brogan Roche, and Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

-winning writer/producer Sean Roche. Roche died in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

, aged 75.

Career

Roche made his Broadway debut in 1961 as a bit player in the play Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole with Darren McGavin
Darren McGavin
Darren McGavin was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears...

 and went on to act in Mother Courage
Mother Courage
Mother Courage is a character from a Grimmelshausen novel Lebensbeschreibung der Ertzbetrügerin und Landstörtzerin Courasche dating from around 1670...

with Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg....

 in 1963 and The White House with Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...

 in 1964. In Hollywood, Roche would go on to appear in myriad supporting character roles, both dramatic and comedic, that would define his acting career.

Television comedy would became his forte on with recurring roles on Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...

as Jessica Tate's lovelorn attorney, Night Court
Night Court
Night Court is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 20, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone...

as Christine Sullivan's overbearing father, and Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...

as Larry Appleton's boss. He also had choice support parts came his way on film, including The Late Show
The Late Show (film)
The Late Show is a 1977 comedy, neo-noir, romance, mystery film written and directed by Robert Benton and produced by Robert Altman. It stars Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, and Joanna Cassidy...

(1977) starring Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...

 and Art Carney
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....

 and Foul Play
Foul Play
Foul Play is a 1978 American comic mystery/thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins. In it, a recently divorced librarian is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping....

(1978) starring Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...

 and Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...

.

Roche was also known on Airwolf
Airwolf
Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....

as United States Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 William Dietz in the pilot episode "Shadow of the Hawke" in season 1 and as a drunken friend of Dominic Santini
Dominic Santini
Dominic Santini is a fictional character on the U.S. television series Airwolf, which ran from 1984 to 1987. Veteran actor Ernest Borgnine portrayed the character during the series' first three seasons....

's named Eddie in the episode "Firestorm" in season 2.

All in the Family episode (as Pinky Peterson)

Roche, who was born in Boston, attended Emerson College there and began his acting career on stage and in radio. Roche also appeared as practical jokester "Pinky Peterson", one of Archie Bunker
Archie Bunker
Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional New Yorker in the 1970s top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative, blue-collar worker, and...

's buddies, on the hit CBS-TV
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 series All in the Family. In a memorable Christmas Day episode called "The Draft Dodger" (Episode 146, 1976), Pinky, whose son was killed in the Vietnam War, has Christmas dinner with the Bunkers, and an acquaintance of Gloria and Mike (David Brewster, portrayed by actor Renny Temple), who was a draft evader living in Canada, at the time. Archie angrily confronted David over this and treated him harshly. Pinky calmly and respectfully disagreed with Archie's opinion, and defended David and said he would be honored to have dinner with him, as would his son. Roche reprised the role in a few more All in the Family episodes during the next couple of seasons.

Magnum.P.I.

Roche, also played the curmudgeonly “old school” private investigator Luther Gillis on Magnum P.I., who often referred to series character Jonathan Quayle Higgins III as the butler. Luther H. Gillis — mock-film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 private eye
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...

 from St. Louis, and narrator of the five episodes in which he appeared in Seasons 4 through 8.

Other TV roles

Plump and jovial with glinting eyes, Roche costarred on TV’s Webster
Webster (TV series)
Webster is an American situation comedy that premiered on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989...

as a lovable landlord named Bill Parker.

Roche also sly attorney E. Ronald Mallu on the sitcom Soap
Soap (TV series)
Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...

and the newspaper editor Harry Burns on Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...

. He also played Jor Brel in the Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...

episode "Remember".

Film

One of his most memorable movie roles was in 1971s Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five (film)
Slaughterhouse-Five is a 1972 film based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same name. The screenplay is by Stephen Geller and the film was directed by George Roy Hill. It stars Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, and Valerie Perrine, and features Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, Holly Near, and Perry King. The...

, based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Roche played a likable POW named Edgar Derby, who amid the scorched remains of a firebombed Dresden picks up an intact porcelain figurine as a souvenir — and is promptly executed for looting by his German captors.

Filmography

  • Dancing at the Harvest Moon
    Dancing at the Harvest Moon
    Dancing at the Harvest Moon is a 2002 CBS television film directed by Bobby Roth. It is based on K.C. McKinnon's novel-of-the-same-name. It stars Jacqueline Bisset and Eric Mabius as unlikely lovers and aired on 22 October 2002.-Plot:...

    (2002) ... as Gil Finnigan
  • Executive Decision
    Executive Decision
    Executive Decision is a 1996 action film, directed by Stuart Baird and starring Kurt Russell, Halle Berry and Steven Seagal. The original music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith...

    (1996) ... as Admiral Lewis
  • When a Man Loves a Woman
    When a Man Loves a Woman (film)
    When a Man Loves a Woman is a 1994 American romantic drama film written by Al Franken and Ronald Bass, starring Andy García, Meg Ryan, Tina Majorino, Mae Whitman, Ellen Burstyn, Lauren Tom and Philip Seymour Hoffman....

    (1994) ... as Walter
  • Julie (1992) ... as Wooley
  • The Last Holloween
    The Last Holloween
    The Last Halloween is a 1991 live action/animated Halloween television special produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The program received an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects...

    (1991)
  • Lenny (1990) ... as Pat
  • Perfect Strangers
    Perfect Strangers (TV series)
    Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...

    (1987–1988) ... as Harry Burns
  • Night Court
    Night Court
    Night Court is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 20, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone...

    (1984–1988) ... as Jack Sullivan
  • Airwolf
    Airwolf
    Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....

    (1984) ... as Senator William Dietz (Shadow of the Hawke), Eddie (Firestorm)
  • Webster
    Webster (TV series)
    Webster is an American situation comedy that premiered on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989...

    (1984–1986) ... as Bill Parker
  • Oh, God! You Devil
    Oh, God! You Devil
    Oh, God! You Devil is a black comedy/fantasy film starring George Burns, Ted Wass, Ron Silver and Roxanne Hart.Directed by Paul Bogart and produced by Robert M. Sherman...

    (1984) ... as Charlie Gray
  • Magnum, P.I.
    Magnum, P.I.
    Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....

    , "Luther Gillis: File #521" (1983) ... as Luther Gillis
  • Miracle on Ice
    Miracle on Ice
    The "Miracle on Ice" is the name in American popular culture for a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, on Friday, February 22...

    (1981) (TV movie) ... as Don Craig
  • Good Time Harry (1980) ... as Jimmy Hughes
  • Corvette Summer
    Corvette Summer
    Corvette Summer is an American film, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1978 starring Mark Hamill and Annie Potts. It tells the story of a lonely, car-obsessed California teenager and the theft of his beloved customized Corvette Stingray.-Plot summary:...

    (1978) ... as Ed McGrath
  • The New Maverick
    The New Maverick
    The New Maverick is a 1978 made-for-TV movie based on the 1957 television series Maverick, with James Garner as Bret Maverick, Charles Frank as newcomer cousin Ben Maverick , Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, and Susan Sullivan as "Poker Alice" Ivers. The TV-movie was a pilot for the series Young...

    (1978) ... as Austin Crupper
  • Foul Play
    Foul Play
    Foul Play is a 1978 American comic mystery/thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins. In it, a recently divorced librarian is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping....

    (1978) ... as Archbishop Thorncrest
  • Soap
    Soap (TV series)
    Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...

    (1977–1981) ... as E. Ronald Mallu, Esq.
  • All in the Family
    All in the Family
    All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

    (1976–1978) ... as Pinky Petersen
  • Slaughterhouse-Five
    Slaughterhouse-Five (film)
    Slaughterhouse-Five is a 1972 film based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same name. The screenplay is by Stephen Geller and the film was directed by George Roy Hill. It stars Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, and Valerie Perrine, and features Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, Holly Near, and Perry King. The...

    (1972) ... as Edgar Derby
  • Kojak
    Kojak
    Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...

    (1975) "Acts of Desperate Men" ... as Seymour Haywood
  • Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) ... as Anderson

Further reading

  • Eugene Roche, Actor, 75, In TV and Film - obituary in the New York Times (2004-7-31)
  • Tom Vallance: Eugene Rocke - obituary in the Independent
    The Independent
    The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

     (2004-8-4)
  • Myrna Oliver: Eugene Roche, 75; Character Actor in Films, Television - obituary in the Los Angeles Times
    Los Angeles Times
    The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

     (2004-8-2)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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