Biography

Patricia Roc

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One of Britain's biggest female stars of the post-war years, she appeared at various positions (3rd being the highest) in the British and Motion Picture Herald popularity polls, between 1945-50. She was pretty, vivacious and charming, which was all most of her early roles called for. She appeared in a number of the hugely popular wartime Gainsborough costume dramas, including Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945). She also made one film in Hollywood, the Technicolor Canyon Passage (1946). Her best acting opportunities were in The Brothers (1947), as a sexy orphan wreaking havoc on a remote Scottish Island, and When the Bough Breaks (1947), a stark unwed mother drama.

She moved to Paris upon her second marriage in 1949 and began to work increasingly in European cinema, filming in France and Italy (and a French-Canadian feature in Quebec). She returned to England in the late fifties, making three more films (her last) and a few TV appearances before retiring in 1963. She lived in Locarno, Switzerland for many years and died there in December 2003.
- IMDb mini biography by: jims@crusaid.org.uk

She was one of Britian's 10 box-office stars for 10 consecutive years.
She was adopted as a baby by Andre Riese, a wealthy Dutch-Belgian stockbroker, who gave her his last name. She didn't learn of the adoption until she was 34 years old.
One son, Michael (born in Paris), from an affair with Something Money Can't Buy (1952) co-star, Anthony Steel. Michael was raised as the son of her second husband, André Thomas.
Patricia Roc was the first homegrown British star to go to Hollywood under a "lend-lease" deal between Rank Pictures and Universal Studios. She costarred in the western, Canyon Passage (1946) in 1946, alongside Susan Hayward, who said after filming that "that Limey glamour girl is a helluva dame". A then-struggling actor by the name of Ronald Reagan was also romantically involved with Roc while she was filming "Canyon Passage".
Andre Thomas was unable to have children. After Patricia's affair with Anthony Steel in 1952 resulted in the birth of a son, Thomas accepted paternity.

"I was the bouncy, sexy girl next door that mothers would like their sons to marry and the sons wouldn't have minded either." (see Daily Telegraph obituary)

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