John Bach

This article is about the actor. For the basketball player and coach, see Johnny Bach. For other uses, see Johann Bach.

John Bach
Born	(1946-06-05) 5 June 1946 Garndiffaith, Monmouthshire , Wales
Years active	1975–present

John Bach (born 5 June 1946) is a British-born New Zealand actor who has acted on stage, television and film over a period of more than four decades. Though born in the United Kingdom, he has spent most of his career living and working in New Zealand.

International audiences are most likely to have seen Bach as the Gondorian Ranger Madril in the second and third movies of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003). His leading roles in New Zealand television include playing the titular Detective Inspector John Duggan in the Duggan telemovies and television series, one of the truckdriving brothers in series Roche, and time on long-running soap opera Close to Home. In 1992 he starred as Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell in the telemovie The Sound and the Silence. In 1999 he played the Earl of Sackville in an episode of the TV miniseries A Twist in the Tale.

Bach's Australian work includes science fiction series Farscape, playing Mike Power in based on a true story mini-series The Great Bookie Robbery (1986), and as Sir Ian Hamilton in the 2015 TV miniseries Gallipoli.

In 2010 Bach appeared in NZ science fiction series This Is Not My Life as the sinister Harry Sheridan, as magistrate Titus Calavius in Spartacus: Blood and Sand and in an episode of Legend of the Seeker.

He has also appeared in several New Zealand films, including Utu, Carry Me Back, Goodbye Pork Pie, The Last Tattoo, Pallet on the Floor, Old Scores (in which he had a central role), and Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

In 2014 he performed as body double for Saruman in place of Christopher Lee, who was unable to fly to New Zealand for principal photography on The Hobbit film series.

He appeared as the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the first season of the 2016 Netflix drama series, Roman Empire. In 2021, he began a recurring role as Don on the comedy series Under the Vines, created by Erin White and starring Rebecca Gibney and fellow Lord of the Rings alum Charles Edwards.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Richard Pearse	Jack Pearse	TV movie
1977	Wild Man	Barman	Feature film
1978	The Mad Dog Gang Meets Rotten Fred and Ratsguts	Wilkie	TV movie
1979	The Gathering	Lou	TV movie
1980	Goodbye Pork Pie	Snout	Feature film
	Beyond Reasonable Doubt		Feature film
	The Mad Dog Gang Spooks Wilkie, Wink Wink and the Wobbler	Wilkie	TV movie
	Sea Urchins	Harvey	TV movie
1981	Bad Blood	Bert Chopp	Feature film
1982	Battletruck	Bone	Feature film
	Carry Me Back	Winton
1983	Wild Horses	Jack	TV movie
	Utu	Belcher	Feature film
	The Lost Tribe	Edward / Max	Feature film
	Prisoners	Bodell	Feature film
	Nearly No Christmas	King Penguin	TV movie
1984	Heart of the Stag	Shearer
	Other Halves	Jim	Feature film
	Iris	Mike	TV movie
	Pallet on the Floor	Jack Voot	Feature film
1985	Lie of the Land	Gorrie
1986	Dangerous Orphans	Desk Sergeant	Feature film
1988	Georgia	Karlin	Feature film
1990	Blood Oath	Major Roberts	Feature film
1991	The Sound and the Silence	Alexander Graham Bell	TV movie
	Old Scores	Lead role	Feature film
1993	Crimebroker	Frank MacPhee	TV movie
	Typhon's People	Daniel Harrington	TV movie
1994	The Last Tattoo	Austin Leech	Feature film
	The Feds: Obsession	Rainer Bass	TV movie
1995	The Feds: Suspect
	The Feds: Deception
	The Feds: Abductions
	The Feds: Seduction
	The Feds: Terror
	The Feds: Vengeance
1996	The Feds: Betrayal
	The Feds: Deadfall
2000	Clare	Herbert Green	TV movie
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Gondorian Ranger Madril	Feature film
2002	Der Liebe entgenen	Mr Chapman	TV movie
2003	The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King	Gondorian Ranger Madril	Feature film
2004	Ike: Countdown to D-Day	Sir Trafford Leigh-Malloy	TV movie
2005	Kidnapped	Cluny
	The Man who Couldn't Dance	Dancing Man	Short film
2007	The Tattooist	Lazlo McFadden
2008	The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	British Homeguard #1	Feature film
2009	Piece of My Heart	Mike	TV movie
2011	Rest for the Wicked	Frank
2014	The Cure	Lionel Stanton	Feature film
	Nancy Wake, the White Mouse	Fiocca	TV movie
	The Hobbit	Saruman body double	Feature film
2014	The Light Harvester		Short film
2016	Judgement Tavern	The Judge	Short film
	The Light Between Oceans	Jock Johnson	Feature film
2019	Mistress Mercy	Judge Anderson	TV movie
2020	Zealandia	Man	Short film
	Reunion	Jack	Feature film
2022	The Ballard of Maddog Quinn	Grandpa Quinn	Short film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2021–23	Under the Vines	Don	TV series, 11 episodes
2020	The Sounds	Frank Cabbott	6 episodes
2017	Janet King	Graham King	TV series, 5 episodes
2016	Roman Empire	Marcus Aurelis	TV docuseries, 2 episodes
	Jack Irish	Michael Longmore	TV series, 5 episodes
2015	Gallipoli	Ian Hamilton	TV miniseries, 7 episodes
2014	Hope and Wire	Vernon	TV series, 1 episode
2013	Wentworth	Vinnie Holt	TV series, 2 episodes
2010	Spartacus	Calavius	5 episodes
	Legend of the Seeker	Herald	TV series, 1 episode
	This is Not My Life	Harry Sheridan	5 episodes
2006	The Lost Children	Frank	TV series, 12 episodes
2005	Hercules	Crenon	TV series, 2 episodes
2004	Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars	Einstein	TV miniseries, 2 episodes
2002–03	Farscape	Einstein	TV series, 5 episodes
2000–02	The Dark Knight	Du Bois	TV series, 6 episodes
2000	The Lost World	Balar	TV miniseries, 1 episode
	Tales of the South Seas	Miller	TV series, 1 episode
1997–99	Duggan	John Duggan	TV series, 13 episodes
1999	Young Hercules	Zeus	TV series, 1 episode
	A Twist in the Tale	Earl of Sackville	1 episode
1998	The Day of the Roses	Tom Weir	TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1997	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Thierry	TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1995	Mysterious Island	Captain Nemo	TV series, 22 episodes
	Snowy River: The Mcgregor Saga	Jim O'Rourke	TV series, 1 episode
1994	Time Trax	Xavier	TV series, 1 episode
	High Tide	Boucher	TV series, 1 episode
1993	White Fang	Tom Cooper	TV series, 1 episode
1989–92	The Ray Bradbury Theater	Lazlo	TV anthology series, 2 episodes
1992	Spender	Doorman	TV series, 1 episode
1991	Heroes II: The Return	Donald Davidson	TV series, 2 episodes
	Golden Fiddles	Walter Balfour	TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1990	The Paper Man	Phillip Cromwell	TV miniseries, 6 episodes
1989	The Heroes	Donald Davidson	TV miniseries
1988	Spit MacPhee	Jack Tree	TV miniseries, 4 episodes
1986	The Great Bookie Robbery	Mike Power	TV miniseries, 3 episodes
1985	Roche	Mick	TV series, 9 episodes
1984	Inside Straight	Bill McLean	TV series, 3 episodes
1975–83	Close to Home	Tom Hearte	TV series, 784 episodes
1982	Loose Enzo	Ron	TV series, 1 episode
1980	Mortimer's Patch	Kevin Cartwright	TV series, 1 episode
1977	The Governor	John Sheehan	TV series, 1 episode
1975	The Games Affair		TV series

Note

Bach's surname is pronounced "Baitch", and not as in the Welsh language pronunciation of the word for small, from which it is derived.

External links

• John Bach at IMDb