Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses star Patrick Murray’s completely different careers off screen from pub landlord to pro poker player

Patrick, who starred at Mickey Pearce in the sitcom, has led an interesting life since the show ended in 2003

Patrick Murray found fame as Mickey Pearce, the dim-witted friend of Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses. However, after the show ended in 2003 Patrick has all but retired from acting and instead embarked on a number of interesting careers ranging from a pub landlord to a poker player.

Patrick was born in Greenwich in 1965 and was educated at St Thomas the Apostle College in Nunhead before he went in search of an acting career in the 1970s. He starred in a number of adverts alongside roles in Scum, Curse of the Pink Panther and Quadrophenia, before eventually landing the Only Fools gig.

In 1998 Patrick opened his own pub but later developed a drinking problem and sought help from Alcoholic Anonymous. In the early noughties he then spent 10 years living in Thailand where he married his partner, Anong there in 2016. The couple now have a daughter named Josie.

Patrick with the late John Challis, who played Boycie, in 2018
Patrick with the late John Challis, who played Boycie, in 2018 (Image: ITV)

But the star then had a tough time of it as his family struggled to move to the UK in 2018. The Home Office denied his wife and daughters’ visa applications telling Patrick he didn’t earn enough money to support his family.

The dad told Loose Women: “Being out of the industry for so long, the work dried up so I went back to driving an executive car, a Mercedes, to do it. I only saw my baby on the phone for two years, I was a Skype dad.”

As well as being a chauffeur, Patrick has also worked as a builder, a taxi driver, a DJ and a semi-pro poker player.

Around the same time as his visa struggles, Patrick also revealed that he had been diagnosed with lung disease. The star revealed he had been diagnosed with the lung condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In January 2022 he then revealed he had fresh health issues after he was diagnosed with cancer. He wrote online: “Naturally I wanted to keep my own health problems private, but failing to fully endorse this ad would be selfish. Thanks to my ultrascan I have a fighting chance. It showed my organs needed further investigation and tumours were spotted. This led to a PET scan which covers a much larger area.

“To my wonderful surprise these lesions were not cancerous but the scan did find an early-stage cancerous tumour in my lung. This has since been removed. I am tweeting now, which wouldn’t be the case if I hadn’t had the ultrasound all those months ago.

“A lot of people put these symptoms down to age and the discomfort to simply having a weak stomach. Please don’t ignore it if it persists. As for me, and thanks to the NHS, I can now see the same beautiful horizon as you.”

The last update from Patrick in July indicated that all the treatment was going well. In May he tweeted: “Last Friday l saw my oncologist. She told me the lung cancer was cured and that the tumour in my liver was shrinking.

“It’s not over yet, but as you can imagine I am over the moon with this latest news.”

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