Eugene Harrison Roche (September 22, 1928 â€" July 28, 2004) was an
American actor. He was the original "Ajax Man" in 1970s television
commercials.Roche was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the
son of Mary M. (née Finnegan) and Robert F. Roche, who was at the
time serving in the U.S. Navy. He served in the U.S. Army after
graduating from high school.He married Marjory Perkins in 1953. The
couple had nine children, including actor Eamonn Roche and Emmy
Award-winning writer/producer Sean Roche. They divorced in 1981.
Eugene Roche remarried in 1982 and remained married to his second
wife, Anntoni C. Roche (née Bratman), until his death in 2004.After
playing theater on various stages since 1953, Roche made his Broadway
debut in 1961 as a bit player in the play Blood, Sweat and Stanley
Poole with Darren McGavin and went on to appear in Mother Courage with
Anne Bancroft in 1963, and in The White House with Helen Hayes in
1964. Television comedy would become his forte with recurring roles on
Soap, as Christine Sullivan's father on Night Court, Webster, and
Larry Appleton's abusive boss on Perfect Strangers. Roche appeared as
"Pinky Peterson", one of Archie Bunker's buddies, on several episodes
of All in the Family, in mostly comedic episodes. After a memorable
performance as a prisoner of war who meets a shocking and sudden end
in the film Slaughterhouse Five (1972), he had supporting parts in
such feature films as The Late Show (1977), Foul Play (1978), and
Corvette Summer (1978).
American actor. He was the original "Ajax Man" in 1970s television
commercials.Roche was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the
son of Mary M. (née Finnegan) and Robert F. Roche, who was at the
time serving in the U.S. Navy. He served in the U.S. Army after
graduating from high school.He married Marjory Perkins in 1953. The
couple had nine children, including actor Eamonn Roche and Emmy
Award-winning writer/producer Sean Roche. They divorced in 1981.
Eugene Roche remarried in 1982 and remained married to his second
wife, Anntoni C. Roche (née Bratman), until his death in 2004.After
playing theater on various stages since 1953, Roche made his Broadway
debut in 1961 as a bit player in the play Blood, Sweat and Stanley
Poole with Darren McGavin and went on to appear in Mother Courage with
Anne Bancroft in 1963, and in The White House with Helen Hayes in
1964. Television comedy would become his forte with recurring roles on
Soap, as Christine Sullivan's father on Night Court, Webster, and
Larry Appleton's abusive boss on Perfect Strangers. Roche appeared as
"Pinky Peterson", one of Archie Bunker's buddies, on several episodes
of All in the Family, in mostly comedic episodes. After a memorable
performance as a prisoner of war who meets a shocking and sudden end
in the film Slaughterhouse Five (1972), he had supporting parts in
such feature films as The Late Show (1977), Foul Play (1978), and
Corvette Summer (1978).
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