Derrick O'Connor (3 January 1941 – 29 June 2018) was an Irish theatre and character actor who trained at East 15 Acting School, London. [1]
Life and career
O'Connor was best known for his performance as South African mercenary Pieter Vorstedt in Lethal Weapon 2 and for his roles in three Terry Gilliam films.[2] He also appeared as Jack Stone in the British police drama series The Professionals in the episode "You'll be Alright".[3] Another role was that of Peter Morgan in the series Crown Court (1976). In 1980, he appeared as Ray Fox, in the Thames TV series Fox
Gilliam, who directed O'Connor in three films, had noted in his audio commentaries that O'Connor seemed to have a habit of relinquishing most of his dialogue in favour of physical character humour. Notable examples include Time Bandits, in which his character's dialogue was resorted to simple grunts while the Maid Marian character "translated" for him and in Brazil, in which O'Connor scrapped all of his character's dialogue and simply repeated the dialogue of Bob Hoskins' character.[5]
O'Connor died from pneumonia in Santa Barbara, on 29 June 2018, at the age of 77.[6]
