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They’re givin’ you a number, and takin’ away your name. Actor Patrick McGoohan is dead at age eighty.
The storyline of his 1960′s smash hit, The Prisoner, remains relevant today: the security services, the media and corporations rule our world, but only because we let them. (See the last episode of The Prisoner for the identity of No. 1.) In addition to playing No. 6, he was Longshanks in Braveheart, Disney’s The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, John Drake in Danger Man and Secret Agent, and great friend and frequent co-star of Peter Falk.
A stylish actor of intelligence, substance and wit, he refused to submit to Hollywood’s demands for formulaic car chases, sex scenes and shoot’em ups. His secret agent used his brains instead of a gun, and on screen he never seduced women-who-were-doomed-to-die because they’d slept with him. He turned down the role of James Bond in Dr. No, which opened the door for Sean Connery. He gave us No. 6 instead: a free man. He will be missed.
6 Comments
I loved watching The Prisoner!
A remake will be broadcast this year, with John Caviezel from Gibson’s Passion of the Christ as The Prisoner. That does not bode well: I haven’t seen in his work the intelligence, the wit, the subtle insurrection that’s required for No. 6. But I hope I’m wrong.
Correction: Jim Caviezel, not John.
I don’t know. He might be able to pull it off. I’ve enjoyed his Edmund Dantes and The Count of Monte Cristo
There needs to be an outsiderish quality, competence but rebellion, an understated, less Jason Bourne. That depends as much on the script and the director as Caviezel’s acting. Hope it works. No. 6 was McGoohan’s signature role, as actor, writer, director and as commentator on the 1960’s, Vietnam and Cold War era intelligence-industrial complex.
One of my favorite actors. One of my favorite series. Sad.
He was one of the greats.