Ronald Lacey

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spastic_jedi

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Anyone remember this guy?

If you do, it will either be for his portrayal of the German officer in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, or as the 'baby eating' Bishop of Bath and Wells in Blackadder 2.

One of those actors who did a lot of TV work in the sixties and seventies, and at one point looked like he was going to make the leap into movies, with roles in films like Zulu Dawn, Raiders, Firefox, Buckaroo Banzai etc...but then I don't really know what happened...he seemed to lapse back into occasional TV roles, and the odd low budget, obscure movie.

In the sixties and seventies, he seemed to be on a par with people like Tom Courtney and Albert Finney.

He had a rather cherubic, slightly podgy face, and always seemed to be getting cast as somewhat scruffy, downbeat and seedy, sinister sidekicks and minor villains for a lot of his career.

Which seemed a shame, because he always seemed capable of a lot more.

I was reminded of him because over the last few days, as I have seen him crop up in bit parts playing the aforementioned type of roles in episodes of The Sweeney and Randall and Hopkirk.
 
He also played the "Teddy Boy" character in an episode of Porridge (the one where he steals the pills from the doctor and they end up in Fletchers' tea mug.)
"Storm In A Teacup" I think the ep was called.
 
Yes, I remember that one...another one of his trademark seedy characters that he always seemed to play.

I guess he just had one of those faces that lent itself to that kind of role, and he got typecast.
 
Yes I was always intrigued by Ronald Lacey whenever he turned up in films over the years.

The first time I noticed him in a TV series was in the mid 60's. He was very sort of "memorable". I've just checked up on the IMDB website which the first one I can recall was. That one was Gideon's Way in an episode called "Gang War". ( though his acting career started well before that).
Ronald played a gang leader who arranged with a rival gang to have a punch up in a disused warehouse but it was all a decoy for some larger crime that was a about to take place.
I remember Ronald Lacey appearing in a scruffy over-large parka jacket ( mod gear at the time).

One of the lines I remember from all those years ago was,

"We're going to have a fake rumble."
 
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