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{{short description|British actor}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Ronald Lacey
| name = Ronald Lacey
| image = Ronald Lacey as Arnold Toht.jpg
| image = Ronald Lacey IJ.jpg
| caption = Lacey as [[List of Indiana Jones characters#Arnold Ernst Toht|Arnold Toht]] in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' (1981)
| caption = Lacey as [[List of Indiana Jones characters#Arnold Ernst Toht|Arnold Toht]] in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' (1981)
| birth_name = Ronald William Lacey
| birth_name = Ronald William Lacey
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1935|09|28}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1935|09|28}}
| birth_place = [[Harrow, London|Harrow]], [[Middlesex]], England
| birth_place = [[Harrow, London|Harrow]], [[Middlesex|Middlesex]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1991|05|15|1935|09|28}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1991|05|15|1935|09|28}}
| death_place = [[London]], England
| death_place = [[London|London]], England
| education = [[Harrow College|Harrow Weald Grammar School]]
| education = [[Harrow College|Harrow Weald Grammar School]]
| alma_mater = [[London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art]]
| alma_mater = [[London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art|London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art]]
| occupation = Actor
| occupation = Actor
| yearsactive = 1959–1991
| yearsactive = 1959–1991
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| children = 3, including [[Rebecca Lacey|Rebecca]]
| children = 3, including [[Rebecca Lacey|Rebecca]]
}}
}}
'''Ronald William Lacey''' (28 September 1935&nbsp;– 15 May 1991) was an English actor.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|title=Ronald Lacey|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/39908/Ronald-Lacey/biography|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311042408/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/39908/Ronald-Lacey/biography|url-status=dead|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Baseline (database)|Baseline]] & [[All Movie Guide]]|author=Rose of Sharon Winter|date=2014|archive-date=11 March 2014}}</ref> He made numerous television and film appearances over a 30-year period. His roles included [[Harris (Porridge)|Harris]] in ''[[Porridge (1974 TV series)|Porridge]]'' (1977), Frankie in the [[Bud Spencer]] comedy ''[[Charleston (1977 film)|Charleston]]'' (1978), [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] agent [[Sturmbannführer]] [[List of Indiana Jones characters#Arnold Ernst Toht|Arnold Ernst Toht]] in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' (1981) and the [[List of Blackadder characters#Bishop of Bath and Wells|Bishop of Bath and Wells]] in ''[[Blackadder II]]'' (1986).<ref name=NYT/>
'''Ronald William Lacey''' (28 September 1935&nbsp;– 15 May 1991) was an English actor.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|title=Ronald Lacey|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/39908/Ronald-Lacey/biography|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140311042408/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/39908/Ronald-Lacey/biography|url-status=dead|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|publisher=[[Baseline (database)|Baseline]] & [[All Movie Guide]]|author=Rose of Sharon Winter|date=2014|archive-date=11 March 2014}}</ref> He made numerous television and film appearances over a 30-year period. His roles included [[Harris (Porridge)|Harris]] in ''[[Porridge (1974 TV series)|Porridge]]'' (1977), Frankie in the [[Bud Spencer|Bud Spencer]] comedy ''[[Charleston (1977 film)|Charleston]]'' (1978), [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] agent [[Sturmbannführer|Sturmbannführer]] [[List of Indiana Jones characters#Arnold Ernst Toht|Arnold Ernst Toht]] in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' (1981) and the [[List of Blackadder characters#Bishop of Bath and Wells|Bishop of Bath and Wells]] in ''[[Blackadder II]]'' (1986).<ref name=NYT/>


==Early life==
==Early life==
Lacey was born and raised in [[Harrow, Middlesex]]. He received his formal education at [[Harrow College|Harrow Weald Grammar School]]. After a brief period of [[national service]] in the British Armed Forces, he enrolled at the [[London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art]] to train as an actor.
Lacey was born and raised in [[Harrow, Middlesex|Harrow]]. He received his formal education at [[Harrow College|Harrow Weald Grammar School]]. After a brief period of [[national service|national service]] in the British Armed Forces, he enrolled at the [[London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art|London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art]] to train as an actor.


==Career==
==Career==
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==Personal life==
==Personal life==


Lacey married twice, first to the actress Mela White in 1962 (she married him under the name Brompton as this was her second marriage). They had two children, actors [[Rebecca Lacey]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Lynda Bellingham|title=Lost and Found: My Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WagQBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA256|date=28 October 2014|publisher=Ebury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4464-0795-0|pages=256}}</ref> and Jonathan Lacey. Following their divorce, he married Joanna Baker in 1972, with whom he had a son.
Lacey married twice, first to the actress Mela White in 1962 (she married him under the name Brompton as this was her second marriage). They had two children, actors [[Rebecca Lacey|Rebecca Lacey]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Lynda Bellingham|title=Lost and Found: My Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WagQBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA256|date=28 October 2014|publisher=Ebury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4464-0795-0|pages=256}}</ref> and Jonathan Lacey. Following their divorce, he married Joanna Baker in 1972, with whom he had a son.


==Death==
==Death==
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==Filmography==
==Filmography==
[[File:Ronald Lacey.jpg|thumb|right]]
===Films===
===Films===
* 1962 ''[[The Boys (1962 British film)|The Boys]]'' as Billy Herne
* 1962 ''[[The Boys (1962 British film)|The Boys]]'' as Billy Herne
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* 1970 ''[[Tintin and the Temple of the Sun]]'' as Thompson (English version, voice, uncredited)
* 1970 ''[[Tintin and the Temple of the Sun]]'' as Thompson (English version, voice, uncredited)
* 1971 ''[[Say Hello to Yesterday]]'' as Car Park Attendant (uncredited)
* 1971 ''[[Say Hello to Yesterday]]'' as Car Park Attendant (uncredited)
* 1971 ''[[Macbeth (1971 film)|Macbeth]]'' as Macbeths Man, Killed Banquo (uncredited)
* 1971 ''[[Macbeth (1971 film)|Macbeth]]'' as Macbeth's Man, Killed Banquo (uncredited)
* 1971 ''[[Crucible of Terror]]'' as Michael Clare
* 1971 ''[[Crucible of Terror]]'' as Michael Clare
* 1972 ''[[Disciple of Death]]'' as Parson
* 1972 ''[[Disciple of Death]]'' as Parson
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* {{IMDb name|0479951}}
* {{IMDb name|0479951}}
* {{Find a Grave|12811}}
* {{Find a Grave|12811}}
{{Portalbar|Biography}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacey, Ronald}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacey, Ronald}}
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[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:Deaths from liver cancer]]
[[Category:English male film actors]]
[[Category:English male film actors]]
[[Category:English male television actors]]
[[Category:English male television actors]]
[[Category:English people of Welsh descent]]
[[Category:English people of Welsh descent]]
[[Category:People from Harrow, London]]
[[Category:People from Harrow, London]]

Latest revision as of 19:11, 15 February 2023

Ronald Lacey
Ronald Lacey IJ.jpg
Lacey as Arnold Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Born
Ronald William Lacey

(1935-09-28)28 September 1935
Harrow, Middlesex, England
Died15 May 1991(1991-05-15) (aged 55)
London, England
EducationHarrow Weald Grammar School
Alma materLondon Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
OccupationActor
Years active1959–1991
Spouse(s)
Mela White
​
​
(m. 1962; div. 1969)​

Joanna Baker
​
​
(m. 1972; div. 1989)​
Children3, including Rebecca

Ronald William Lacey (28 September 1935 – 15 May 1991) was an English actor.[1] He made numerous television and film appearances over a 30-year period. His roles included Harris in Porridge (1977), Frankie in the Bud Spencer comedy Charleston (1978), SD agent Sturmbannführer Arnold Ernst Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and the Bishop of Bath and Wells in Blackadder II (1986).[1]

Early life

Lacey was born and raised in Harrow. He received his formal education at Harrow Weald Grammar School. After a brief period of national service in the British Armed Forces, he enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art to train as an actor.

Career

Lacey began his acting career in 1959 in a television play, The Secret Agent. His first significant performance was at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962's Chips with Everything. Lacey had an unusual 'pug' look, with beady eyes, an upturned nose, liver lips, an overbite, receding chin and no brows. He could scream at a very high pitch. This unique combination of features landed him repeatedly in bizarre roles on both stage and screen, often as seedy, creepy villains. Together with his Welsh background, it helped qualify him for the role of Dylan Thomas, which he played on BBC2 in what critic Clive James described as a "bravura performance".[2]

Lacey performed on British television throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with roles spanning from a part in Kenneth Clark's Civilisation television series, as the gravedigger, in a re-enactment of the gravedigger scene from Hamlet, with Ian Richardson as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Horatio, to a guest shot as the "Strange Young Man" in The Avengers episode "The Joker", and as Harris in the sitcom Porridge, with the latter finally landing him in the role for which his unusual physical characteristics could be repeatedly used to full advantage.[3] Disappointed with his acting career by the late 1970s, he began to consider starting a talent agency. Spielberg then cast him as the Nazi agent Arnold Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He followed this with a series of various villain roles for the next five to six years: Sahara with Brooke Shields, and 1985's Red Sonja with Arnold Schwarzenegger, in addition to 1982's Firefox with Clint Eastwood, in which he played a Russian scientist helping the West behind the Iron Curtain. He then made two movies for Ice International Films: Assassinator starring alongside John Ryan and George Murcell, and Into the Darkness, starring with Donald Pleasence, John Ryan, and Brett Paul. He performed comic monologues on The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog, which was recorded 1982, and broadcast by Channel 4 in 1983.[4]

Lacey played a number of villainous roles and was known for his trademark smile, which would turn into a gleaming malicious leer. He also had a rather large mole on his left cheek, which he chose not to have removed, as well as a highly distinctive voice. In 1983's Trenchcoat, he used the mole as a beauty mark in his role as Princess Aida, a mysterious and sleazy drag queen on the island of Malta. His other drag role was in Invitation to the Wedding from 1985, in which he played a husband/wife couple.

Personal life

Lacey married twice, first to the actress Mela White in 1962 (she married him under the name Brompton as this was her second marriage). They had two children, actors Rebecca Lacey[5] and Jonathan Lacey. Following their divorce, he married Joanna Baker in 1972, with whom he had a son.

Death

Lacey was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer on 25 April 1991. He died less than one month later, on 15 May 1991, at the age of 55.

Filmography

Ronald Lacey.jpg

Films

TV

Haggard TV Series 1990

References

  1. ^ a b Rose of Sharon Winter (2014). "Ronald Lacey". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014.
  2. ^ Clive James (6 April 2017). Clive James On Television. Pan Macmillan. p. 236. ISBN 978-1-5098-3243-9.
  3. ^ Kenneth Clark (1969). Civilisation (Television production). London, UK: BBC.
  4. ^ [1] The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog production website
  5. ^ Lynda Bellingham (28 October 2014). Lost and Found: My Story. Ebury Publishing. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-4464-0795-0.

External links

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