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Patrick Noel Murray, who has passed away at 68, rose to prominence for his performance as Mickey Pearce in Only Fools and Horses, the spiv with a trilby hat who teams up briefly with his old schoolfriend Rodney Trotter in the iconic British sitcom Only Fools and Horses.

Initial Appearance

He first appeared in the third series in an episode from 1983 named Healthy Competition, in which Rodney's desire to escape his role as a lookout for his brother was quickly dashed when Mickey cheated him. The brothers came back together, and Mickey remained a regular presence throughout the programme's final Christmas special in 2003.

Character Background

Mickey Pearce was referenced several times following the program's launch in 1981, like in episodes where he snatched Rodney's girlfriend, but wasn't seen on screen at first. As the writer wanted to expand the secondary roles, the producer recalled Murray's appearance in an advertisement, trying to flirt with two women, and recommended him for the part. Murray was auditioned on a Friday and commenced his role a few days after.

The character was envisioned as a less savvy Del Boy, more naive but, in the same vein as Del, often seeing his money-making schemes fail. Mickey dabbles in everything, but he’s not very trustworthy,” Murray once explained. “He’s always stitching Rodney up, and Del is always threatening to clump him for it.” The spiv consistently mocks Rodney about not having a girlfriend while lying about his own romantic “conquests” and hopping from job to job.

On-Set Incidents

One 1989 storyline needed quick rewriting due to a mishap in which the actor stumbled over his dog at home and broke a glass pane, cutting a tendon in his right arm and losing five pints of blood. With the actor’s arm in a plaster cast, the creator modified the upcoming installment to incorporate Mickey getting beaten up by neighborhood thugs.

Later Career and Life

The last regular episode was broadcast in 1991, but Murray joined the performers who came back for holiday episodes for another 12 years – and continued to be loved at fan events.

Patrick Murray entered the world in Greenwich in London, his mother Juana, a dancer, and Patrick, a London Transport inspector. He studied at St Thomas the Apostle college in Nunhead. At 15 years old, he spotted an advert for a talent agency in the Daily Mirror and within a week landed a role in a stage play. He promptly secured television roles, debuting in 1973, aged 16, in Places Where They Sing, a BBC play adapted from a novel about student unrest. Shortly after, he appeared prominently in the kids' adventure series The Terracotta Horse, produced in those countries.

He also had roles a brief play Hanging Around (1978), about disaffected youths, and the film The Class of Miss MacMichael (1978), starring Glenda Jackson as a dedicated educator, prior to his major role arrived.

In the drama Scum, a production depicting the brutal borstal system, he played Dougan, a friendly detainee whose head for figures meant he was trusted to deal with cash smuggled in by visitors, which he retrieved on his trolley route. He was able to reduce the “daddy’s” percentage when Ray Winstone's Carlin became the leader.

This play, created for television in 1977, the BBC banned it for its graphic violence, yet it was later shown in 1991. In the interim, Alan Clarke adapted it into a film in 1979, with Murray as one of six from the initial cast reprising their roles.

He then had minor roles in the movies Quadrophenia (1979) and Breaking Glass (1980), and appeared as a bellboy in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).

His popularity from the sitcom earned him a string of guest appearances in the 80s and 90s in series such as Dempsey and Makepeace, Lovejoy, The Return of Shelley and The Upper Hand. He played two roles in The Bill.

Yet his personal life declined after he became a Kent pub manager in 1998, overindulging in alcohol and later getting support from Alcoholics Anonymous. He relocated to Thailand, where he married his second wife in 2016. Not long after, he came back to the UK and worked as a cab driver. He came back shortly to acting in 2019 as a London criminal Frank Bridges in the show Conditions, not yet broadcast.

Medical Challenges

He was diagnosed with the lung disease COPD in 2018 and, three years later, pulmonary cancer and a growth on his liver. Although he was given the all-clear in 2022 after an operation and chemo, the cancer returned soon after.

Private Affairs

In 1981, he wed Shelley Wilkinson; the union dissolved. He is survived by Anong, their daughter, Josie, and his three boys from his first marriage, Lee, Ricky and Robert, as well as three sisters and two brothers.