Dirty Sanchez star Pancho Locke dies aged 47 as friends share the memory that lit up a whole cinema
MTV Dirty Sanchez star Mike “Pancho” Locke has died at 47, with family and former co-stars paying tribute.
Mike "Pancho" Locke, best known from MTV UK's Dirty Sanchez, has died at the age of 47. His family confirmed the news, prompting tributes that remembered him not just as a TV stunt performer, but as a friend, skater and much-loved presence far beyond the show.
Dirty Sanchez viewers knew him as Pancho. Friends knew a lot more
Locke became widely known through Dirty Sanchez, the MTV UK series often seen as Wales' answer to Jackass. The show ran for four series between 2003 and 2007 and followed Locke, Mathew Pritchard, Lee Dainton and Dan Joyce through extreme and gross-out stunts that included self-inflicted injuries and eating bugs.
His death was confirmed in a statement published by San Portablo, the Welsh streetwear brand he co-founded. The message, issued by the company and the Locke family, described Michael Richard Locke as a father, son, brother, uncle, friend, skater, stuntman and "all round goodfella". It added that he was known around the world as Pancho and called him an "absolute Welsh Treasure" and the "San Portablo King".
The statement also said he had lived an incredible life and "lit up the world with his charm". No cause of death has been released.
In the Instagram post embedded below, Pritchard summed up his tribute in a short message: "I love you Panch, until we meet again rest in power."
The tribute that says as much as the TV credits
While many people will remember Locke from Dirty Sanchez and 2006's Dirty Sanchez: The Movie, some of the most striking tributes focused on the person his friends say existed beyond the screen.
Dainton shared a series of images and wrote about growing up skating with friends, saying you never expect to lose people from that world because, in your head, those days and the people in them last forever. He said hearing the news had brought back a rush of memories, adding that he could still picture Locke, hear the laughter and remember the best times.
One story he shared stood out. At the premiere of the Dirty Sanchez spin-off Pritchard vs Dainton, the team secretly included a montage of Locke skating without telling him first. Dainton said that when Locke's name appeared on screen and Dean Martin's That's Amore began playing, "the whole cinema erupted". He said Locke had no idea it was coming, and that a newspaper responded with the line: "A star was born."
That memory helps explain why so many of the tributes have landed the way they have. They have not only looked back at a TV personality, but at someone friends say brought humour, warmth and a strong sense of loyalty with him.
Others remembered the side of Locke viewers never saw
Comedian Sando Ford also posted a tribute, saying he was "devastated" by the news. He wrote that while many people knew Locke from television, he was much more than that, describing him as clever, hilarious and loyal.
Ford added a personal detail that pointed to Locke's sense of humour off camera too. He said Locke would travel with him to open mic nights just to watch him struggle on stage, then laugh about it on the way home.
Taken together, the messages paint a picture that goes wider than Dirty Sanchez. For TV viewers, Locke was part of one of MTV UK's most notorious stunt line-ups. For the people remembering him now, he was also a long-time friend, a skater and someone whose presence clearly stayed with the people around him.
For now, those tributes are the clearest public record of how he is being remembered: as Pancho to audiences, and as Michael Richard Locke to the family and friends who say his brilliance will keep shining "far wide high low and across the seven seas."
