# Ronald Lacey

Ronald William Lacey (28 September 1935 – 15 May 1991) was an English actor. 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).

## Early life

Lacey was born and grew up in Harrow, Middlesex. 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".
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. Disappointed with his acting career by the late 1970s, he began to consider starting a talent agency. Steven Spielberg then cast him as the Nazi agent Arnold Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He followed this with villain roles for the next five to six years: Sahara (1983) with Brooke Shields, Flesh and Blood (1985) with Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Red Sonja (1985) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen. In 1982's Firefox with Clint Eastwood, Lacey 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.
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 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, including Rebecca 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
### Films

* 1962 The Boys as Billy Herne
* 1963 Doctor in Distress as Café Customer (uncredited)
* 1964 Of Human Bondage as "Matty" Mathews
* 1964 The Comedy Man as First Assistant Director (uncredited)
* 1965 Catch Us If You Can as Yeano, Beatnik
* 1967 The White Bus
* 1967 The Fearless Vampire Killers as Village Idiot
* 1967 How I Won the War as Spool
* 1969 Take a Girl Like You as Graham
* 1969 Otley as Curtis
* 1971 Say Hello to Yesterday as Car Park Attendant (uncredited)
* 1971 Macbeth as Macbeth’s Man, Killed Banquo (uncredited)
* 1971 Crucible of Terror as Michael Clare
* 1972 Disciple of Death as Parson
* 1973 Gawain and the Green Knight as Oswald
* 1973 The Final Programme as "Shades"
* 1975 Mister Quilp as Harris
* 1976 The Likely Lads as Ernie
* 1977 Charleston as Frankie
* 1979 Zulu Dawn as Norris Newman
* 1980 Nijinsky as Léon Bakst
* 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark as Major Arnold Ernst Toht
* 1982 Firefox as Dr. Maxim Ilyich Semelovsky
* 1982 Tangiers as Wedderburn
* 1983 Invitation to the Wedding as Clara / Charles Eatwell
* 1983 Trenchcoat as Princess Aida
* 1983 Yellowbeard as Man With Parrot
* 1983 Sahara as "Beg"
* 1984 Making the Grade as Nicky
* 1984 Sword of the Valiant as Oswald
* 1984 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension as President Widmark
* 1984 The Bengal Lancers!
* 1985 Flesh + Blood as Cardinal
* 1985 Red Sonja as Ikol
* 1985 Minder on the Orient Express as Harry Ridler
* 1986 Aces Go Places 4 as Leader of the villains
* 1986 Sky Bandits as Fritz
* 1986 Lone Runner as Misha
* 1986 Into the Darkness as Stewart Andrew Golding
* 1988 Jailbird Rock as Warden Bauman
* 1988 Manifesto as The Conductor
* 1988 Dawn of an Evil Millennium
* 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as Heinrich Himmler (uncredited)
* 1989 Valmont as José
* 1989 Stalingrad as Winston Churchill
* 1992 The Assassinator as Stewart
* 1992 Landslide as Fred Donner
* 1993 Angely smerti (final film role)

### TV

* 1960 Deadline Midnight as Jensen
* 1961 A Chance of Thunder as Johnny Travers
* 1964 The Likely Lads as Ernie
* 1965 Day Out for Lucy
* 1965 Barnaby Spoot and the Exploding Whoopee Cushion as Justin Fribble
* 1965 Fable as Len
* 1965 Gideon's Way as Jerry Blake
* 1966 Who's a Good Boy Then? as Billy Oates
* 1966 Sergeant Cork (episode "The Case of Albert Watson V.C.") as Albert Watson
* 1967 Boa Constrictor as Frankie "Three"
* 1967 Great Expectations as Orlick
* 1967 The Avengers (episode "The Joker") as Strange Young Man
* 1968 The Avengers (episode "Legacy of Death") as Humbert - a parody of Peter Lorre
* 1965-68 Theatre 625 – "Mille Miglia", "The Burning Bush", "Firebrand", "The Nutter"
* 1968 Game, Set and Match
* 1968 Civilisation (episode "Protest and Communication" as Grave Digger from Shakespeare's Hamlet
* 1969 It Wasn't Me as George
* 1969 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
* 1969 Target Generation as Joe Manx
* 1969 These Men Are Dangerous
* 1970 The Adventures of Don Quick as Sergeant Sam Czopanser
* 1970 The Vessel of Wrath (1970) as Controleur
* 1970 Catweazle as Ted "Tearful Ted"
* 1971-1972 Jason King as Ryland
* 1972 The Protectors (episode King Con) as Cribbe
* 1973 Colditz (episode "Murder?") as Major Zibnek
* 1973 Last of the Summer Wine as Walter (episode "The New Mobile Trio")
* 1973 The Adventures of Don Quixote as Monk
* 1973 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? as Ernie
* 1975 The Fight Against Slavery as Charles James Fox
* 1975 The Sweeney (episode "Thou Shalt Not Kill!") as Barry Monk
* 1976 Thriller (episode "The Next Victim") as Bartlett
* 1976 Our Mutual Friend as Mr. Venus
* 1976 The New Avengers (episode "The Midas Touch") as Hong Kong Harry
* 1976 A Story to Frighten the Children as Lang
* 1976 The Duchess of Duke Street (Episode 9) as art dealer Mr. Shephard
* 1977 Porridge as Harris
* 1978 All Creatures Great and Small (episode "The Last Furlong") as Stewie Brannon
* 1978 Dylan (TV play) as Dylan Thomas
* 1978 The Mayor of Casterbridge (mini-series) as Jopp
* 1979 Blakes 7 (episode "Killer") as Tynus
* 1979 Tropic (TV series) as Geoffrey Turvey
* 1981 Tiny Revolutions
* 1982 P.O.S.H. as Mr. Vicarage
* 1983 Scarecrow and Mrs. King as Bobby Bouchard
* 1983 Hart to Hart (episode "Hostage Harts")
* 1983 The Hound of the Baskervilles as Inspector Lestrade
* 1983 The Rothko Conspiracy
* 1984 Magnum, P.I. as Archer Hayes
* 1985 Connie as Crawder
* 1985 Minder on the Orient Express as Harry Ridler
* 1985 Blackadder II (episode "Money") as The Bishop of Bath and Wells
* 1987 The Sign of Four as Thaddeus Sholto / Bartholomew Sholto
* 1988 The Great Escape II: The Untold Story as Winston Churchill
* 1989 The Nightmare Years as Emil Luger
* 1990 Face to Face as Dr. Brinkman
* 1991 The Strauss Dynasty as Bauer
* 1990 Haggard