Ronald Lacey 'A Quiet Legend'

Intrview recorded 30th October, 2022 Alvin Rakoff is an Emmy Award-winning director, producer, and writer with more than a hundred directing credits in stage, film, and television. In his long and extraordinary career, he has worked with a startling catalogue of talented people, including Ronald Lacey, with whom he worked on several productions. Mr. Rakoff has recently published two autobiographical volumes recounting memories of his richly varied career, I’m Just the Guy Who Says Action , and I Need Another Take, Darling , and they are essential reading for anybody with an interest in, or enthusiasm for, the film and television industry. Mr. Rakoff very kindly agreed to answer a few questions about his career, and about working with Ron:    CM: In an interview last year, you talked about the impact of seeing Marlon Brando in the original stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire , and how this inspired your career in film-making. Did you know that you wanted to be a d...

  Ronald Lacey was a British character actor whose career spanned more than thirty years; his was a face familiar from a variety of television and film appearances, but it was his performance as the evil Major Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark that gained him international recognition and a place in popular culture. Few villains in cinema, few devils in the demonology of popular culture, are as immediately sinister as Lacey’s Nazi agent. His name rhymes with the German word for ‘death’ and in his first scene his shadow appears before he does. Toht doesn’t so much step out of the shows as bring the shadows with him. The renown earned by a single, highly successful role can sometimes mask an actor’s versatility even while it opens doors for them. Lacey’s performance as Indiana Jones’s wicked adversary led to further work in US film and television, but he had long been established in British theatre, film, and television. A brief acquaintance with his career may give the impressi...