Bruce Boa

Bruce Boa was a Canadian actor who found success in British film and television, typically cast as the token American and often as military men. He took a theology degree at the University of Western Ontario in 1952, briefly played professional football for the Calgary Stampeders, then traveled through Central America and Europe before starting his acting work in England in 1956; by the 1960s he had settled there for good. His most notable film role was General Carlist Rieekan in The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Among his other films were The Omen (1976), Ragtime (1981), Octopussy (1983), Full Metal Jacket (1987), in which he played a Marine colonel, and Screamers (1995). On television his best known part was probably Harry Hamilton, the brash American guest in the Fawlty Towers episode Waldorf Salad, and his many credits included Thriller (1975), the 1977 Come Back, Little Sheba with Laurence Olivier and Joanne Woodward, and The Bourne Identity (1988).