Gene, Gene, the Dying Machine

Eugene Roche, a character actor known for roles on TV shows of the 1970s and ‘80s and as the Ajax man of commercial fame, has died at 75. Roche played Archie Bunker’s nemesis Pinky Peterson, Magnum, P.I.’s rival Luther Gillis, Christine Sullivan’s father on Night Court, Webster’s landlord after George and Katherine left the high-rise apartment, Larry Appleton’s editor on Perfect Strangers and attorney E. Ronald Mallu on Soap. In the film Slaughterhouse-Five, he played a likable POW who was executed for looting after picking up a porcelain figure in fire-bombed Dresden.