Patrick McGoohan, 1928-2009

[Chalupa]

R.I.P. Number Six.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29JewlGsYxs

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...8n9ergD95N1HBG0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_McGoohan

[BruceH]

He was not a number!

He was a FREE MAN!!!

[WorldB3]

I loved that show when I was a kid!

Some of the music on that show had some pretty cool 60s jazz exotica and orchestral music. I am sure a lot of it has made its way on several Electronica mixes over the years.

[Shawn]

My favorite performance of his was the warden in Escape From Alcatraz.

[JohnS]

Sad news. McGoohan was always worth watching.

[GA Russell]

To this day, Secret Agent remains my favorite television show. One day I'll get the dvd box set of it.

I read a couple of interesting things about McGoohan not too many years ago.

1) He was Britain's highest paid television actor when doing Secret Agent (Danger Man), and had veto power over the scripts. He vetoed sex and violence.

2) Related to 1), he was a Catholic who took his faith seriously, and once gave an interview in which he condemned pre-marital sex. You won't see many famous Hollywood actors doing that!

3) Most of his roles for the past thirty years have been villains, and the younger generation sees him as that. Baby boomers see him as a hero.

Here's his LA Times obituary.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,3951859.story

Patrick McGoohan, TV's 'Secret Agent' and 'Prisoner,' dies

CBS Patrick McGoohan in "Danger Man" on CBS in 1961. The British actor, 80, often played villains on TV and in movies. But he gained his greatest fame as the TV spy John Drake. He also won two Emmys for 'Columbo.' By Dennis McLellan

9:57 AM PST, January 14, 2009 Patrick McGoohan, an Emmy Award-winning actor who starred as a British spy in the 1960s TV series "Secret Agent" and "The Prisoner" and was known for playing various villainous roles in films and on television, has died. He was 80.

McGoohan died peacefully Tuesday in St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica after a short illness, said Cleve Landsberg, McGoohan's son-in-law. The family did not provide further details.

It was the height of James Bond mania in 1965 when McGoohan showed up on American TV screens in "Secret Agent," a British-produced series in which he played John Drake, a special security agent working as a spy for the British government.

The hour-long series, which ran on CBS until 1966, was an expanded version of “Danger Man,” a short-lived, half-hour series on CBS in 1961 in which McGoohan played the same character.

But it was McGoohan's next British-produced series,

on CBS in 1968 and 1969, that became a cult classic.

Once described in The Times as an "espionage tale as crafted by Kafka," "The Prisoner" starred McGoohan as a British agent who, after resigning his post, is abducted and held captive by unknown powers in a mysterious village, where he known only as No. 6.

McGoohan created and executive-produced the series, which ran for only 17 episodes. He also wrote and directed several episodes.

Among the memorable villains he played on screen was England's sadistic King Edward I in Mel Gibson's 1995 film "Braveheart."

As a guest star on TV's "Columbo, McGoohan won Emmys in 1975 and 1990.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Granted "The prisoner" was a great series. But the McGoohan I'll always remember was his playing of the Iago caharacter in "All night long" - a version of "Othello" set in a jazz context.

RIP and thanks.

MG

[BruceH]

My favorite performance of his was the warden in Escape From Alcatraz.

Yes, that was a good one. He seemed to relish the irony of the role.

I also really liked his appearances on Columbo, which I've recently seen again on DVD.

[GA Russell]

I am reminded of the time I saw Secret Agent dubbed in French while in Quebec. It was called Destination Danger.

The French actor sounded nothing like McGoohan, much higher pitch and less dry, and it really changed the mood for me.

[Indestructible!]

Now this is a real shame!

I'm a huge fan of the Prisoner and Danger Man series... I always had this dream that I would eventually run in to Patrick McGoohan somewhere in Santa Monica so I could thank him for his great work.

Be seeing you, Patrick. R.I.P.

[mikeweil]

I always had to beg and fight with my parents as a schoolkid to watch The Prisoner - it was a very late show, and my father just didn't get the point of the series. That last episode with all walking out through the gallery of juke boxes playing "All you need is love" was pure pop art. I loved it and bought the DVD package as soon as it was out.

Yes he was a FREE MAN! The Prisoner was way beyond its time, and the court martial scenes copied by Star Trek and many others.

Thanks a million times, and R.I.P.

Edited January 15, 2009 by mikeweil

[BruceH]

I loved that show when I was a kid!

Some of the music on that show had some pretty cool 60s jazz exotica and orchestral music. I am sure a lot of it has made its way on several Electronica mixes over the years.

Yes indeed. One episode played a surprisingly jazzy version of "Pop Goes the Weasel" on the soundtrack.

Favorite part of nearly every episode: The closing overhead shot of the Village, McGoohan's angry face flying toward the viewer then BANG!---prison bars clamp down in front.

Trippy.

[Free For All]

I remember having nightmares about the giant beach ball.

[BruceH]

Actually, when I first bumped into the show as a little kid, just the opening sequence freaked me out.

[Indestructible!]

"Rover got him."

[BERIGAN]

My favorite performance of his was the warden in Escape From Alcatraz.

Yes, that was a good one. He seemed to relish the irony of the role.

I also really liked his appearances on Columbo, which I've recently seen again on DVD.

It really seemed like if there was a role of a bad guy, devoid of any good qualities whatsoever, he was all over it. Silver Streak is another example(even though there's lots of comedy in it)

It really seemed like if there was a role of a bad guy, devoid of any redeeming qualities whatsoever, he was all over it. Silver Streak is another example....

He was also a writer at times(Prisoner shows and 2 Columbos) and directed several Prisoners and 5 Columbos...