Eugene Roche

Adept at both comedy and drama, character player Eugene Roche (sometimes billed as Gene Roche) had an extensive four-decade career. Born in Depression-era Boston on September 22, 1928, he was the son of a Navy man. Roche started on radio at age 15, displaying a knack for character voices, both men and women. He enlisted in the U.S. Army following high school, then studied at Emerson College. Searching for work in summer stock and variety shows, he appeared in productions of "Pal Joey" with Bob Fosse and "Point of No Return" with Henry Fonda. Newly married at this time, he found classical stage parts to play in early 1950s San Francisco, then headed for New York and began appearing in dramatic TV shows and commercials. He made his Broadway debut with "Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole" starring Darren McGavin and went on to do "The White House" with Helen Hayes and "Mother Courage" with Anne Bancroft. Comedy became his forte on TV with recurring or featured roles on Soap (1977), Night Court (1984), Perfect Strangers (1986) and Webster (1983), while choice support parts came his way on film, including The Late Show (1977) and Foul Play (1978). Not overly tall but built like the base of a Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, he could and did play scary guys very well. His "Luther Gillis" on Magnum, P.I. (1980), in a recurring role as an acquaintance in the same line of business whose violent streak Magnum keeps underestimating, went from bulldog PI to violent near-sociopath in less than a minute whenever faced with a (male) obstacle standing in his way. Roche also appeared in many 1970s/1980s TV series -- usually, but not always, as heavies -- such as "The Rookies", "Ironside", "McCloud", "Hawaii Five-0", "Kojak", "Phyllis", "Medical Center", "The Streets of San Francisco", "Barnaby Jones", "Maude", "Police Woman", "Starsky & Hutch", "Lou Grant", "All in the Family", "Hart to Hart", "Taxi", "Gimme a Break", "Airwolf", "Highway to Heaven", and "Murder, She Wrote". His last role was in an episode of "7th Heaven" in 2004 (the year of his death). The father of nine children, three of his sons also opted for careers in entertainment: Eamonn Roche and Brogan Roche are actors, and Sean Roche is an Emmy award-winning writer and producer. Eugene died at the age of 75 on July 28, 2004 after suffering a heart attack.