that big fellow from the raiders of the lost ark, the one that is fighting indiana near the plane! that film has a lot of characters for the nazi-evil-hero!
Played by:
Pat Roach
Born Francis Patrick Roach
May 19, 1937(1937-05-19)
Birmingham, West Midlands
Died July 17, 2004 (aged 67)
Other name(s) "Bomber"
Occupation Actor, Wrestler
Years active 1971–2004
Francis Patrick "Pat" Roach (May 19, 1937 — July 17, 2004) was an English actor and wrestler from Birmingham. His most famous role is that of West Country bricklayer Brian "Bomber" Busbridge in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. He was also the only actor besides Harrison Ford to appear in all of the first three films in the Indiana Jones franchise (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Wrestling 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.[citation needed] 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. Roach held both the British and European Heavyweight Wrestling Championships.[citation needed]
Acting career
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 and loses, of course. 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, a SPECTRE-backed assassin in Never Say Never Again, and a bandit-warlord in the sword-and-sorcery yarn Red Sonja. (The latter two pitted him against Sean Connery and Brigitte Nielsen, respectively, in mortal combat; Roach lost on both counts.) Perhaps most notable were his roles as the skull-helmeted General Kael in Willow, and the Celtic chieftain in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
In the Indiana Jones series Roach appeared as several characters. In Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Roach played a burly Sherpa who fights Jones in a bar in Nepal, and a brutal German mechanic who meets his demise via propeller blade on the airstrip in Egypt. He thus had the rare opportunity to be killed twice in one film. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Roach played a cruel Thuggee overseer. Roach appeared only briefly in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) as a Gestapo officer who runs alongside Colonel Vogel towards the zeppelin. The scene where he fights Jones in this film was cut. The role of Colonel Dovchenko in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was a stand-in for Roach, who died in 2004.
Roach is best known to British audiences as Bomber — in the ITV/BBC comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet — a bricklayer who joined the main cast in Dusseldorf and appeared in all four series, but died before the final special was completed.
Personal life and death
Roach was born in Birmingham, West Midlands on May 19, 1937. He and his wife Doreen had two children and three grandchildren.
Roach died in July 2004 after a long fight against throat cancer. He is buried in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.[1]
Film roles
His film roles have included:
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Rising Damp (1980)
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Never Say Never Again (1983)
Superman III (1983)
Conan the Destroyer (1984)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Red Sonja (1985)
Willow (1988)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Championships and accomplishments
Joint Promotions
British Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
European Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Premier Wrestling Federation
Ken Joyce Trophy (1992)
03 November 2012, 12:28:53 PM
