Roc was born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold in Hampstead, north London, the
daughter of a paper merchant. She was adopted whilst still an infant by a wealthy
Dutch-Belgian stockbroker, André Riese, and grew up believing him to
be her real father until discoverig the truth when aged 34.
Educated at Francis Holland School, Regent's Park, in London and
Bertram Gables Boarding School at Broadstairs in Kent, RADA graduate
Patricia Roc had little stage experience when cast in her debut film;
The Rebel Son (1938). She then appeared in a trio of Edgar Wallace
thrillers, The Gaunt Stranger (1938), The Mind of Mr. Reeder (1939)
and The Missing People (1940). Roc’s first major success was
Millions Like Us
(1943), after which her popularity soared during the mid-1940s thanks
to the fashionable Gainsborough melodrama’s including Madonna
of the Seven Moons (1944), The
Wicked Lady (1945) and Jassy
(1947).
Her first marriage, to an osteopath in 1939, was dissolved, and she
moved to Paris in 1949 after marrying French cinematographer Andre Thomas.
As a result she began to work increasingly in European cinema. Widowed
in 1957, she returned to England before retiring in 1964 after marrying
Viennese businessman Walter Reif. In later life Roc retreated to the
Swiss resort of Minusio overlooking Lake Maggiore. She died in Locarno,
Switzerland on December 30th 2003 aged 88.
