[2] She achieved her greatest level of popularity in British films during the Second World War in escapist melodramas for Gainsborough Studios.

Born in Hampstead, London, to apparently unmarried parents, the daughter of Felix Herold, a paper merchant, and Miriam (née Angell).

[1] In 1922, her half-French mother married Dutch-Belgian stockbroker, André Magnus Riese, who legally adopted young Felicia and her sister Barbara (1919–2016; later the wife of Fred Perry).

When Carroll thought Felicia Riese sounded "too foreign" and without character, he suggested she change her name to something short and memorable.

[4] Roc began her career as a stage actress, debuting in the 1938 London production of Nuts in May,[5] in which she was seen by Alexander Korda, who gave her an uncredited bit in The Divorce of Lady X (1938) and then a leading role as a Polish princess in The Rebel Son.

She had a bigger part in A Window in London (1940), the comedy Pack Up Your Troubles (1940), Dr. O'Dowd (1940), Three Silent Men (1940), It Happened to One Man (1940), and The Farmer's Wife (1941).

[6] Her parts grew bigger: My Wife's Family (1941), Suspected Person (1942), Let the People Sing (1942), and We'll Meet Again (1943) with Vera Lynn.

"[8] She appeared alongside two of Gainsborough's biggest stars, Margaret Lockwood and Stewart Granger, in Love Story (1944), a big hit.

[3][11] During filming, Roc was romantically linked with Ronald Reagan, while her US co-star Susan Hayward stated "that Limey glamour girl is a helluva dame.

"[citation needed] Despite good reviews and a remarked likeness to Deanna Durbin, she did not click with the American filmgoing public.

She produced only three more films and made a few television appearances (including the first episode of The Saint, her final acting role).