Craig Rolfe (“Rolfey”)
Portrayed by: Roland Manookian
Based on: Craig Rolfe (d. 1995)
First appearance: Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)
Role in the Films
Craig Rolfe, known to those around him as Rolfey, is one of the central figures in the Rise of the Footsoldier franchise. Part of the inner circle surrounding Pat Tate and Tony Tucker, he is portrayed as hungry to prove himself yet perpetually in over his head. His story ends at Rettendon, where he is murdered alongside Tate and Tucker in the killings that form the dark heart of the franchise’s narrative.
Roland Manookian has reprised the role across multiple entries in the series. Rolfe appears in Rise of the Footsoldier (2007), the film that established the franchise and introduced audiences to the Essex criminal world he inhabited. Manookian returned to the character in Rise of the Footsoldier: Part II (2015), albeit in a flashback capacity, before featuring again in Rise of the Footsoldier 3: The Pat Tate Story (2017) and Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella (2019). Most recently, Manookian appeared as Rolfe in Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins (2021), further expanding the character’s history within the franchise.
Real-Life Context
The character is based on the real Craig Rolfe, who was one of three men shot dead in the Rettendon murders of 1995. The killings, which also claimed the lives of Pat Tate and Tony Tucker, became one of the most notorious criminal cases in Essex history. The Rise of the Footsoldier franchise draws heavily on these true events, with the first films rooted in the autobiography of Carlton Leach, a former Inter City Firm hooligan turned gangster who moved in the same circles as Rolfe, Tate, and Tucker.