The Only Fools and Horses legend’s famous actor daughter who turned down Hollywood roles
The blockbuster could have looked very different had things turned out this way
Only Fools and Horses fans will inevitably have fond memories of the character Trigger, played by Roger Lloyd Pack in the iconic comedy from 1981 to 2003. If you happen to have forgotten, Colin ‘Trigger’ Ball’s character was a simple-minded road sweeper in the sitcom.
Following his role in the show, Roger went on to star as the seedy farmer Owen Newitt in Vicar of Dibley, ruthless Ministry of Magic functionary Barty Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and evil megalomaniac John Lumic in Doctor Who. He sadly died aged 69 in 2014.
But it seems he wasn’t the only acting talent in the family. Roger’s daughter, 50-year-old Emily Lloyd-Pack, quickly rose to Hollywood fame herself back in the 80s.
Emily starred in her debut and breakthrough role in the 1987 film Wish You Were Here at the age of 16, for which she received critical acclaim and ‘Best Actress’ awards.
Inundated with film offers after her success, Emily moved to Manhattan when she was 17, and starred in the 1989 films Cookie and In Country .
However, Emily opened up to the Daily Mail in 2015, about how her mental health suddenly deteriorated in her late teens. During this period of her life, the actor had to turn down a number of roles due to mental health and other reasons- including the lead role in Pretty Woman.
She told the Mail: “At that time I was inundated with scripts. I made the film In Country with Bruce Willis, then signed on to star in Mermaids, the story of teenager Charlotte Flax and her unconventional upbringing in smalltown Massachusetts in 1963.”
Emily said offers were flooding in for a variety of projects, and so many of them clashed with the scheduling for Mermaids that she had no choice but to turn them down.
She said: “One was the part of a prostitute opposite Richard Gere in a film called Pretty Woman.
“The role went instead to Julia Roberts.”
Emily was dropped from the 1992 film Husbands and Wives as her deteriorating health affected her ability to work, and was also replaced in the 1995 film Tank Girl .
In 1997, a journalist said Lloyd was “in danger of becoming better known for the parts she has lost than those she has played”. After filming Under The Hula Moon in 1995, Emily said she “knew it was time to go home”.
She said the longer she stayed back in Britain, “the more the good roles dried up,” and from being able to afford a decent house in Venice Beach, she couldn’t afford her own place in London.
Emily moved into a housing association flat in Hackney at 29, and was in and out of Homerton Hospital with severe mental health issues for years.
Thankfully, by 2013, Emily’s health began to stabilise.
That same year she published an autobiography, Wish I Was There .
She told the Mail in 2015: “The most recent years have been calm and stable for me. A combination of the medication and coming to terms with my condition have made this possible.”
She added: “I’m ready to reconnect now.
“I realise I may never again soar so high as I did in the early part of my career.
“But that’s OK.
“Maybe this time my wings might not get singed.”
