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Roger Devereau is the main antagonist of the 1976 film, Silver Streak. He is a criminal posing as an art dealer.
He was portrayed by the late Patrick McGoohan, who also played Eric Kiviat in Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, King Edward I of England in Braveheart and Lyle C. Rumford, Nelson Brenner, Oscar Finch and Eric Prince in Columbo.
Biography[]
At some point, Devereau was involved in a scandal at the Metropolitan Gallery and caused a plane crash in Cologne, Germany to cover his tracks, resulting in the deaths of one hundred innocent lives.
By the events of the film, Devereau was being hunted down by the FBI for over two years, and he learns of two Rembrandt letters that he forged are now in the possession of Professor Arthur Schreiner, which threaten to expose Devereau's shady dealings.
Devereau and his henchmen, Edgar Whiney, Johnson, and Reace, board the Silver Streak at Los Angeles, California where Professor Schreiner and his secretary, Hildegarde Burns, are on.
Their plan was to kidnap Schreiner and have Johnson pose as him to steal the Rembrandt letters and discredit the professor's book before killing him and then making their escape via a helicopter in Rockdale, Illinois. However, Reace ends up killing the professor earlier than expected and his body is thrown off the train, where it is discovered by George Caldwell from Hilly's compartment.
He is later seen eating with Hilly as the train is in New Mexico before joining Hilly in her compartment. George follows them into the compartment and Devereau lies to George about the professor still being alive. After showing George out, Devereau slaps Hilly.
When George gets back on the train again, Devereau is held at gunpoint by George and Grover Muldoon, who was posing as a steward, and is forced into the baggage car to reclaim the letters. However, he and Whiney are saved at the last minute by Johnson and a gunfight ensues, forcing George and Grover to jump off the train.
After the gun battle, Devereau burns the Rembrandt letters and orders his men to disconnect the emergency brakes in all the train cars as they approach Rockdale. However, things go south as the train is stopped at Harris Mill Junction where the police and FBI are waiting to arrest Devereau and his men. Unwilling to accept defeat, Devereau holds the engineer at gunpoint and forces him to start the train. As the train is starting, Whiney is shot and tries to board the train, but Devereau kicks the dying man off.
As the helicopters chase the train, Devereau shoots the engineer when he tries to escape and then places a toolbox on the dead man's pedal to keep the train going. Finally, Devereau gets shot at by George, distracting him long enough for Agent Donaldson to shoot him two times. A wounded Devereau is then decapitated by a passing freight train.
Trivia[]
Before Patrick McGoohan was cast, the role of Devereau was written for British actor David Tomlinson best known for his roles in Disney movies especially the villainous Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug, but Tomlinson turned down the offer due to filming commitments in his home country of England.
Future Unsolved Mysteries host Robert Stack was also considered for the role of Devereau but he was unavailable.
Robert Vaughan was accidentally given the script for the movie and wanted to play Devereau but McGoohan was already cast.