Scots actor Maurice
Roëves dies aged 83
Actor Maurice Roeves - known for playing villains and hard
men - has died at the age of 83.
In a career spanning six decades, he acted in hundreds of TV
shows and films including The Sweeney, Star Trek, The Eagle Has Landed and
Tutti Frutti.
Born in Sunderland, the actor was brought up in Glasgow and launched his
career at the city's Citizen's Theatre.
He also appeared in Eastenders, River City,
Doctor Who and Irvine Welsh's The Acid House.
Roeves' most recent role was a small part in the 2020 BBC
television drama The Nest.
His wife Vanessa Roeves told the BBC that he had been in ill
health for some time.
A real life softie
Despite playing tough characters on screen, Vanessa said
Roeves was a "softie" in real life and that no part was too small for
her husband.
She said he was keen to be involved in his last project,
despite the small appearance.
And when Tutti Frutti was played on the launch of the BBC
Scotland Channel, she said Roeves was delighted at having come "full
circle".
Vanessa also said that the family would often joke,
"Does your character make it to the end of this one?" because his
characters would always be killed off.
However, Roeves found success at a time where lots of
working class actors were just managing to break through into the mainstream,
such as Albert Finney and Richard Harris.
From sweeping floors
to film roles
The Roeves family moved to Glasgow when he was seven years old as his father
had a cotton mill in Partick.
He went to school in the city and when he left full time
education he took an an office job to earn money.
But he returned to his studies and secured a place at the
then Royal Scottish Academy
of Music and Drama - now the
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. While there he won a gold medal for his
acting.
After graduating he got a job at the Citizens Theatre as an
assistant stage manager but found himself playing small roles in between
sweeping the stage floor.
His first major role was as Lorenzo in the Shakespeare's The
Merchant of Venice when apparently screaming fans would gather at the stage
door after the show to catch a glimpse of Maurice.
Following this performance Disney sent a scout to Glasgow to see Roeves perform.
He was then screen tested and offered his first film role,
marking his debut in a career that would stretch more than 60 years of
television and film.
Roeves' film debut was in The Fighting Prince of Donegal in
1966, where he played the Irishman.
Despite launching his film career, he continued in theatre
roles.
His next major role was in Macbeth at the Royal Court in London where he played Macduff, next to Sir
Alec Guinness' Macbeth.
An off-screen
friendship
One memorable Holywood screen role for Roeves was in Last of
the Mohicans acting beside Daniel Day-Lewis and Wes Studi.
Studi played Magua, a native American villain who ripped the
heart out of Col Edmund Munro, played by Roeves.
His friendship with Wes Studi lasted for more than 25 years
and they met often near Wes's home in Santa
Fe. Studi said on social media that they shared haggis
together.
ROEVES, Maurice
Born: 3/19/1937,
Sunderland, Tyne-and-Wear, England, U.K.
Died: 7/15/2020, U.K.
Maurice Roëves’
westerns – actor:
North and South, Book II (TV) – 1986 (Shain)
The Last of the Mohicans – 1992 (Colonel Edmund Munro)
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