Magnum Mania!

I agree. Luther is an aquired taste, and although he made me cringe back when I was a 14 year old kid, I've grown to love the Luther episodes. Then I realized that's the mark of a great actor playing a great character. Luther is supposed to be annoying, yet he has an endearing quality that could only be brought to life by Eugene Roche. He truly is one of my favorite guest characters.

Me, too! I couldn't stand "File #521" but then I warmed to the character in "The Return" and he finally won me over in "File #001". There were some very touching and sensitive scenes between Luther and Higgins. I FINALLY figured out that he just is who he is...like the rest of us...and I was OK with him after that!!

I recognize him in some of those younger pictures so I know I've seen things that he's been in. But character actors...at least the good ones...seem to blend in to a story so I didn't realize that I'd seen him before!

Here's to you, Eugene!!

Hi, all

This afternoon, I was watching the very first episode of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids : The TV Show"
Do you remember the movie ? They made a TV series with many episodes.

The first episode's name is "Honey, We've Been Swallowed by Grandpa"

Here's the story : Wayne, Diane, and Amy are accidentally shrunk to near-microscopic size. Soon after, Grandpa Murdock (Eugene Roche) drops by to pick up his grandson for a fishing trip. Nick feigns illness to avoid going with his grandfather, who then leaves, but not before inadvertently swallowing his mini-relatives—van and all.
(wikipedia)

Well, what a big surprise to watch Eugene Roche in this episode and playing the main role !

http://youtu.be/iWorZJP4hdw I loved Soap!

It is amazing how one appearance of a MPI guest star on another show brings back all the memories of MPI. My wife and I were just watching some reruns of All in The Family from 1978 and Eugene Roche was in one. He played a war buddy of Archie in a reunion of war buddies episode.

I remember watching his Ajax commercials growing up.

http://youtu.be/_NjQltJjyUU

I watched the entire run of Star Trek: Voyager for the first time a few weeks ago. Eugene popped up in a pretty good episode called "Remember." Not a huge part, but it was well played, as always.

I watched “When a Man Loves a Woman” with Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan.

Saw Eugene and thought it was the Grampa from Blue Bloods for a second.

Nope... Realized it was Luther H. Gillis!

KingKC wrote:It is amazing how one appearance of a MPI guest star on another show brings back all the memories of MPI. My wife and I were just watching some reruns of All in The Family from 1978 and Eugene Roche was in one. He played a war buddy of Archie in a reunion of war buddies episode.

Hi KingKC,
Eugene played Pinky Peterson in 3 episodes of All in the Family. Pinky loved to play practical jokes on Archie. I remember one where at a convention at a hotel
Pinky convinces a spectacularly beautiful African American woman to go into Archie's bedroom - his buddies in the outer room looking on - where he is sleeping off a drunk, and get into bed with him as a prank.
She then wakes him up and purrs into his ear, convincing Archie they had had relations. Archie evolved during the series as he was basically a good person
who had been infected by his father's narrow views. So after trying to convince her to leave, that he was married and she was too young, at one point he says
"aw what the hell" and is ready to go for it. It was hysterical. I know it's impossible to effectively relate a comedy scene but if this episode is on it's well worth catching.
I read somewhere Roche along with O'Connor was part of a Hollywood Irish actors clique, a descendant of James Cagney's legendary gang of Irish acting pals.

Luther H. Gillis
Episodes with him are classics

Doc Ibold wrote:

MPS wrote:I have found that, at least for me, Luther is an accquired taste. The first time I saw him it was "what the..." Now I will pick out the episodes with LHG, just to see hime interact with Magnum.

I agree. There was a time when I could say I couldn't stand Luther or his episodes, but as MPS says, its an acquired taste. Especially if you take into account WHY he's there. I'll say I prefer him to Jim Bonnick by a long shot.

The A.A.P.I. Luther/Katsumoto scene is killer.

I found Luther very funny in that episode. Didn’t like him in his first episode, but have kinda warmed up to him in the ones after that.

Roche, like John Hillerman,was one of those actors who was in everything, but not that many people realize it.

K Hale wrote:
Roche, like John Hillerman,was one of those actors who was in everything, but not that many people realize it.

Just saw Executive Decision from early 90s (?) on the idiot box.

Hey, there's Luther again!

Jean-Claude Fornier wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:15 am Roche penned a book of short stories about the people and events that touched his life, and fathered nine children, including three sons who became entertainers. Eamonn and Brogan Roche are actors, and Sean Roche is a writer and producer.

I've been searching for this book to no avail. There's no listing on Amazon. Does anyone know if it was actually published?