Mike 'Pancho' Locke

Mike "Pancho" Locke, the Welsh stuntman, skateboarder and television performer who became a cult favourite through MTV's Dirty Sanchez, has died at the age of 47. <cite index="1-1">Mike "Pancho" Locke, the Welsh stuntman and skateboarder who became a household name through the cult MTV prank series Dirty Sanchez, has died at the age of 47.</cite> His death was announced on Friday 6 November 2026.

<cite index="4-1">Michael Richard Locke, born 13 March 1979, better known as Pancho, was a Welsh professional stuntman and skateboarder.</cite> <cite index="1-2">Born in Neath in 1979, Mr Locke was a father of two who had settled in Port Talbot.</cite> He grew up in south Wales and came up through the skateboarding scene before being drawn into the orbit of a group of friends whose daredevil pranks would eventually become television.

Locke rose to fame as one quarter of the Dirty Sanchez crew, alongside Mathew Pritchard, Lee Dainton and Dan Joyce. <cite index="2-1">Mike Locke, known as Pancho, rose to prominence on the stunt and prank television series alongside Matthew Pritchard, Lee Dainton and Dan Joyce.</cite> The MTV show, which ran through the noughties, turned the four Welshmen into unlikely stars by filming them performing dangerous and often gross out stunts on themselves and each other, in a style that drew comparisons to the American series Jackass. <cite index="3-2">The dad of two from Port Talbot came to prominence in the noughties with the madcap Welsh stunt crew Dirty Sanchez whose MTV show was a huge global hit.</cite> Locke also starred in the 2006 big screen spin off, and <cite index="4-2">appeared in the Channel 4 series Balls of Steel as one half of the "Pain Men", alongside Sanchez crew member Mathew Pritchard.</cite>

In more recent years Locke had stepped back from television and moved into fashion, launching his own streetwear label. <cite index="15-2">More recently Locke had set up fashion label San Portablo clothing.</cite> He remained a well known and well liked figure within the Welsh stunt and skate community long after Dirty Sanchez left the air, and was still closely associated in the public mind with the show that made him famous two decades earlier.

Locke's death was confirmed on the morning of 6 November 2026. <cite index="1-5">His death was confirmed on Friday morning through a statement.</cite> <cite index="15-3">His passing was announced by his family and his clothing brand, San Portablo streetwear, who remembered him as "an absolute Welsh treasure".</cite> No cause of death has been made public. Tributes followed quickly from fans and from the wider Dirty Sanchez community who had grown up watching him on screen, with <cite index="3-1">tributes pouring in for the Dirty Sanchez star</cite> across social media. Details of a funeral or memorial service have not yet been announced.