Patrick Bauchau was born in Brussels, Belgium on 6 December 1938, the son of Mary (née Kozyrev), a Russian-born school administrator and publisher, and Henry Bauchau, a school administrator, lawyer, publisher, writer, and psychoanalyst who served as an officer in the Belgian Underground during World War II. He was raised in Belgium, Switzerland and England.

Bauchau is better known for his roles in American television. Bauchau has starred in many different TV shows and movies, including A View to a Kill as Scarpine, The Pretender, Kindred: The Embraced, The Rapture, Panic Room, Boy Culture, Carnivàle and 2012. In 1987, he was considered for the part of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In 1989 he starred as the murderer in Columbo: Murder: A Self Portrait. In 1992 he guest-starred on Murder, She Wrote: The Monte Carlo Murders. In 2004 he appeared in the Ray Charles biopic Ray as Dr. Hacker. In 2005, he appeared as a guest star on ABC’s Alias, as well as on the Fox shows House and 24.

In 2007 Bauchau took the lead dramatic role in the biographical movie The Gray Man—a thriller which dramatised the crimes of the American sadomasochistic serial killer, rapist, and cannibal Albert Fish. In 2009, he appeared as a guest star on ABC’s show Castle. For movies, he often performs the French dubbing of his characters himself, as he is a native French speaker. In 2011, Bauchau guest-starred on the episode “Eye for an Eye” of USA’s Burn Notice.