The former film star Patricia Roc has died aged 88. The actress, who was suffering from kidney failure, died in hospital at Locarno in Switzerland, near her home overlooking Lake Maggiore, where she had lived for 28 years, said the author Michael Thornton, a family friend.

She was registered at the hospital under her real name, Felicia Reif, he said.

Her 51-year-old son, company director Michael Thomas, was at her bedside.

Roc was once described by the head of her studio, Lord Rank, as "the archetypal British beauty, the goddess of the Odeons". Sir Noel Coward spoke of her as "a phenomenon, an unspoiled movie star who can act".

For 10 consecutive years from 1943, she was one of Britain's top 10 box-office stars, in films such as Millions Like Us, The Wicked Lady, The Brothers, and the Hollywood-made Canyon Passage.

She married three times. Among her lovers was the future US president Ronald Reagan.

The film and stage star Jean Kent, 82, who appeared with Roc in several films, said yesterday: "I am so very sad. I knew her for 60 years. She came to my wedding in 1945, and we were always the very best of friends. She was a great star and a most beautiful woman, completely unpretentious and full of fun. I shall miss her very much indeed."