'Prisoner' actor Patrick McGoohan dies in LA

[RamboLiberal]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Patrick McGoohan, an Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show "The Prisoner," has died. He was 80.

McGoohan died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said Wednesday.

McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama "Columbo," and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film "Braveheart."

But he was best known as the title character Number Six in "The Prisoner," a surreal 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small village and constantly tries to escape.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/0...

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Good actor. I was a little to young to get in to and understand The Prisoner at the time. Now I wish I had watched it. I also remember him from Secret Agent(Danger Man). Loved the song to that show. "Secret Agent Man. Secret Agent Man. They've given you a number and taken away your name".

RIP.

[xchrom]

1. loved The Prisoner -- Patrick -- you are gone too soon. nt

[WriteDown]

2. Awesome actor, awesome show. nt

[Richard D]

3. RIP

All the episodes are online: http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner-1960s-serie...

[RamboLiberal]

8. Cool - thanks - I was thinking of getting the DVD set n/t

[pinto]

4. RIP Number Six.

Great actor, great series.

[WI_DEM]

5. I remember him best as one of the best guest villians on "Columbo" in several episodes

but one in particular where he played the head of a military school.

[Kingofalldems]

21. That was one of the best Columbo episodes

I think Bruno Kirby of The Godfather was also in it.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

6. Loved him in The Prisoner

And he was a great villain in Silver Streak.

Safe travels, Pat.

[Bob3]

7. I am not a number - I am a free man!

HA HA HA HA HA!

That whole exchange always haunted me. Loved the prisoner - a combiation of James Bond and Kafka and just 60's weirdness.

[TomClash]

9. Greatest Cult TV Show Ever - R.I.P. nt

[Cassandra]

10. Years ago I went to The Village with a friend as a side trip...

from London. It was cool.

[stlsaxman]

69. I went to "The Village" in 2003 for a convention... it was pure magic.

okay- call me a geek...



"6 for 2 and Free For All!"



Number 6 Private



and let's not forget our beloved Rover...

[graywarrior]

11. That show was one of the first cool shows on tv

[jobycom]

12. Nooo!! He was in one of my favorite kids' movies, "The Three Lives of Thomasina."

That was one of those movies that shaped my identity as a child, and I've since watched it as an adult and was still impressed by it. My kids love it, too. Damn. Or darn, I guess, for the kids.

RIP. You were one of my favorites, for no reason I can explain.

[Robbins]

13. Very Sad

I loved the Prisoner.A original and surreal show.Not for Everyone.I have Sets 1-3 of The Prisoner On VHS,and since I still have a
DVD/VHS combo I can still watch VHS I own or recorded off TV.

In the mid 90's he tried to get a film version of the Prisoner off the ground he would executive Produce and play Number 2.a Shame
It didn't happen.

He also was able to poke fun at himself when he voiced Number Six on a episode of the Simpsons.

A loss.

[edbermac]

14. Remember him in Ice Station Zebra and Escape From Alcatraz

A real SOB as the Clint's warden.

RIP

[CubicleGuy]

28. I guess he's finally escaped for good

Interesting that he decided to do a turn as the jailer in "Alcatraz" after having done "Prisoner".

Many happy returns, Number Six.

[Faygo Kid]

33. I thought of "Ice Station Zebra," too. Great.

Really enjoyed that movie. Great stuff, with Rock, Borgnine and many others, and McGoohan was the best.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. ()

Please click here.

[kevsand]

16. "Be seeing you..." /nt

[DebbieCDC]

17. He also did a great series on the old Walt Disney shows when I was a little kid

Called "The Scarecrow" it was a true story about a English minister who donned the disguise of a scarecrow at night and was sort of a Robin Hood in 18th century Southern England. I absolutely LOVED that show as a kid of about 6 or 7 and I can still remember it vividly. What was funny was the minister's name was Dr. Syn!!!

Then of course "Secret Agent Man" and "The Prisoner" were top-notch. I didn't quite understand all of "The Prisoner" at the time, not yet being familiar with Kafka, but now know how far ahead of its time the series was. And God, he was just brutal in "Braveheart".

RIP, King Edward.

[CBHagman]

65. He also played the vet in "Thomasina."

I absolutely loved The Three Lives of Thomasina when I was a kid. McGoohan played a widowed Scottish vetrinarian whose little daughter (Karen Dotrice of Mary Poppins bonds with the cat of the title. The story seemed a little mystical to me back in the day, especially the cat's (!) dream sequence, but on viewing it as an adult, I realized the story is all about the power of love and forgiveness

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057579 /

[MaineDem]

66. I remember that!

I loved it as a kid.

[jus_the_facts]

18. RIP....also inspired this Iron Maiden classic...and he was also the judge in 'A Time To Kill'....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkBd3FD1GRY

[ananda]

19. One of the brilliant creative minds of he century!

The Prisoner was a seminal work, total genius
all the way through!

RIP Patrick.

[rocktivity]

20. And another chunk of my being falls away

But what a fine body of work he leaves behind. He was one of my adolescent heartthrobs, too.




rocknation

[brentspeak]

22. RIP. Great actor and director

[autorank]

45. True

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001526/

[elocs]

23. Sad news because I always enjoyed Patrick McGoohan, particularly in The Prisoner

which I eagerly watched when I was in high school. He was such a good actor and a handsome man and I never understood why he never became a bigger star.

Damn, this is what inevitably happens when you get old--the special lights from your youth begin to flicker and fade away.

[LostinVA]

24. I always hoped that he would leave something in his will for fans

The FINAL TRUTH: was Number Six actually Number 1? I personally think so, but I've always hoped that, when he died, he would have left something explaining this about "The Prisoner."

[8 track mind]

25. "I am not a number! I am a free man!" RIP Patrick n/t

[Gregorian]

26. Darn it. That show, and his part in it, were like a secret clubhouse to me.

I cherished that with all of my being. It was like a secret decoder ring to the failures of a cruel economic world.

And I was having such a fine morning. Oh well... Be seeing you.

[Donnachaidh]

27. don't foget "The Scarecrow" - an early Disney movie

damn!

another great one bites the dust.

[sofa king]

29. By coincidence, I was just writing a review of The Prisoner.

Here it is. Sad to see the fellow go.

Just savor the juicy introduction of each show, which is all the exposition series watchers have to go on: an obviously British spy angrily turns in his resignation and returns home to pack his bags, apparently going on vacation to a sunny island. Then an undertaker driving a Rolls-Royce gasses him. The spy wakes up in an identical copy of his apartment, now in a place called "The Village" (actually the bizzarre resort town of Portmeiron, Wales). Just like the Johnny Rivers song in Patrick McGoohan's previous series, the secret agent man is given a number and his name taken. As Number Six, the spy must attempt to retain his sanity while refusing to explain why he resigned, trying to escape, and occasionally relishing the thought of a vengeful return.

The Prisoner ran a little longer than planned by actor, writer, director, and producer Patrick McGoohan--out to seventeen episodes from a planned seven. One or two episodes are real stinkers--"The Girl Who Was Death" plays out like an interminable version of the Benny Hill Show's end credits. Money, weather, and a commitment to the film Ice Station Zebra (one of the first all-star techno-thrillers) pushed the show increasingly into the studio and away from Portmeiron's expensive and remote location. It is unquestionably a product of its psychedelic time, with lava lamps and heavy cyan/magenta lighting appearing in every episode, and drugs--the bad, unfun kind--playing a prominent role. The end, perhaps as it must have been, is opaque, confusing, and drops most of the details the viewers were hoping would be tied together, but unlike most of its successors it at least has an ending. The final conclusion is probably better discussed in a Sociology course rather than on a living room couch.

But for all that, The Prisoner is still a delight, and a masterpiece of mindf*%s. A proper review of the series would at least touch upon some now oft-discussed themes of the series: betrayal, paranoia, perception, authority, loss of identity, defiance, and that tricky thing called reality which we all claim to know but do not. Other debates still rage around the order in which the episodes should be viewed, whether Number Six is supposed to be John Drake from McGoohan's Danger Man series, why the number seven appears only by accident, and so on. The result is that the viewer will have to chart a unique and personal course through The Prisoner. Some of the episodes, like my favorite, "The Schizoid Man," stand quite well all by themselves, while others depend heavily upon previous episodes.

It is interesting to note that Patrick McGoohan reputedly turned down the roles of both James Bond and Simon Templar, preferring a more cerebral approach to the spy genre, but the success of both the Bond films and The Saint was what made The Prisoner possible and allows it to stand tall and apart from them. However, The Prisoner's legacy reaches farthest in a completely different direction--onto the small screen, where shows like Lost, Twin Peaks, and The X-Files have attempted to emulate the success of the unfolding-mystery series, making most of the same mistakes along the way. None have equaled it.

[Hissyspit]

50. By coincidence, I had just watched all the episodes in order on DVD.

I had bought a used copy of the complete set for a friend for Christmas and watched them all with him. I realized the series was even better than I had thought in the past.

I disagree that the in the final episode No. 6 tells us nothing. It tells us a lot and it all makes sense.

[sofa king]

58. Really? Tell me, please! (Spoiler Warning)

My take on the final two episodes is that The Village was Number One, and served as a metaphor for society as a whole. The entrenched leadership of any society despises individuality and non-confomity and attempts to stifle it before it becomes a threat. But, if the threat grows great enough, society simply adopts the behavior of the nonconformist, holds him up as a hero, and then moves on without substantially changing.

The question of why Number Six resigned is unimportant and therefore unanswered, because what Number One really wants is submission. They don't want to know why, they want to make him conform. They don't want to harm him because if they can't break him, they need to adopt his ways to ensure their own survival.

Of course, that fails to explain how various Number Twos had to get on the phone and actually speak to Number One. Nor does it explain the various contradictory locations of The Village, which side it's on, if any, and what in the hell that rocket is and where it went.

Nor does it explain why the only two people actually shown to be Number One, when Number One is finally shown, are Patrick McGoohan and George W. Bush.

What do you think? Am I close?

[Hissyspit]

62. Yes, you are pretty much on the button. (Spoiler Warning)

I'm way too sleepy to post much tonight, but about the rocket, at first, I wanted it to come back down and explode and destroy the village, as No. 6 promised, but then I realized... oh, crap. I forgot. Seriously. I had it figured out. The series had to end with apocalyptic imagery, because, 1. it was a satire of all spy stories of the time, at a basic level, but also 2. the game that The Village as society was (and still is) playing with itself (ha) would or could end in apocalypse.

Remember, as well, the series ends the way it began, implying the history of the prisoner will or may repeat itself. The problem with the literal idea that No. 1 is No. 6 himself (which is how I read it years ago when I first saw it) is that No. 1 is wearing a mask, the ape, the primal origin of man, and therefore the No. 6 image could be a mask, too. He then just runs away. There is actually no particular reason to think this is No. 1, except for some name tag.

Prisoner is Christ AND Ezekiel. Old Testament and New.

I have to go to sleep.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

30. "Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" finally made it to DVD 2 months ago...

...I'm very familiar with "Secret Agent" and "The Prisoner," but "Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" will always be the definitive McGoohan performance in my eyes.



There is also a great story told by Bruce Dickinson on the VH1 "Classic Albums: The Number of the Beast" DVD. The segment was filmed in "The Village" set from "The Prisoner."

Iron Maiden wanted to use the "I'm not a number, I'm a free man" snippet on the track of their song "The Prisoner." Maiden's manager Ron Smallwood, had to phone McGoohan, who owned all rights to the show. He was terrified of the call and found himself more than a little starstruck. He explained what they wanted to do, McGoohan paused for a moment and said "DO IT." The band loved him for it and they love telling the story even more.

R.I.P., Patrick, and thanks for the memories.

[DebbieCDC]

31. I didn't know "The Scarecrow" had made it to DVD

Damn, I gotta have that.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

34. It's beautiful and well worth the wait...

2 DVDs: first one is "Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" in 3 segments, exactly as it appeared on the Disney show...second is "Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow," which was the theatrical release. As Leonard Maltin notes in the commentary, the theatrical version was so skillfully edited that you will not notice what's missing unless you watch both versions and take copious notes.

The picture, sound, everything is a 10 on a 10 scale. It was easily one of the top 10 DVD releases of 2008.

[DebbieCDC]

35. Excellent -- thanks for the head's up.

I haven't seen that (the original series) since forever, but it made such an impression on me I can still recall it so well. My dad was a history buff (which he passed on to me) and he loved watching the "historical" Disney series with me. Who remembers Leslie Nielsen as Francis Marion, "The Swamp Fox"? Boy, am I showing my age or what?

[beac]

32. You can watch the entire Prisoner series online!

Here's the link:

http://www.amctv.com/videos/the-prisoner-1960s-video /


My husband and I discovered it on DVD in the university library several years ago and were instantly hooked. It's the greatest weird/confusing/mod/cool show ever made.

I never realized that was him playing Longshanks in 'Braveheart.'

RIP, Mr McGoohan.


(And apparently AMC is doing a re-make mini-series of 'The Prisoner' starring Ian McKellen as Two and Jim Caviezel as Six. Should be interesting, but it will be hard to top the original!)

[pleah]

36. Bummer.:(

[PatGund]

37. You were not a number....

And you shall be missed.

Be Seeing You.

[SteppingRazor]

38. Y'all hear AMC is remaking The Prisoner? Supposedly, it'll run after Madmen next season. n/t

[DebbieCDC]

40. Well if it's on after "Mad Men" I won't miss it then

Although it will be pretty damn hard to top the original "Prisoner" series

[SteppingRazor]

41. Very hard. But nevertheless, I am eagerly anticipating it.

And, yeah, what with it being on after Madmen, I probably wouldn't miss it anyway.

[Rosco T.]

53. AMC will be showing it, being remade by ITV in the UK IIRC..

Jim Caviezel as Number Six.

[thereismore]

39. Peter Falk considered him to be the most underrated actor of all, his favorite. nt

[baldguy]

42. Be seeing you.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

43. Now I'll NEVER find out who Number 1 is.

Be seeing you, my nymsake.

[Rosco T.]

52. You are, Number Six.

[autorank]

44. "That's telling"

The Prisoner was the all time best! A pre-cogitive documentary. RIP kind sir.

And Longshanks was one of the very best cinema villains in history, bar none. When he threw his son's
'military affairs' adviser out the window of the castle, my God!




Be Mutual

[timtom]

46. You can buy the series from Amazon.

I was sorta waiting for this. I knew he was getting on in years and was always glad to see him still working.

This news was a kick in the stomach.

[beac]

47. After reading this thread, I went over to his imdb listing and found out that he

was the first choice for both Gandolf and Dumbledore, but turned them both down.

He married Joan Drummond in 1951 and they were still married on the day he died.

Lots of other interesting tidbits: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001526/bio

[Lydia Leftcoast]

48. A terrific actor from the golden age of British TV imports

May he rest in peace.

[damntexdem]

49. Did a big, white ball come and pick him up?

I mean, do we really know that he's dead -- or just disappeared?

[FarLeftRage]

51. Everyone forgot his role in "Silverstreak"

That's too bad.

[MaineDem]

54. I adored him in "Secret Agent"

I clearly remember the episode about a pirate radio station on an offshore platform in the North Sea. Gotta love the 60s.

Loved that show!

RIP, Patrick.

[UpInArms]

55. here's a link to a YouTube of Secret Agent Man

http://www.youtube.com/my_favorites#

I just think those great dancers on the stages in the background are the best!

[xxqqqzme]

56. 'The Prisoner' was one of the few

TV shows we got on Guam that was worth watching. I had no idea there were only 17 episodes, guess I've seen them all w/o knowing it.

[Rhiannon12866]

57. OMG! That's terrible...

He was an excellent actor and I remember "Secret Agent," too. Think they showed it on CBS latenight back in the '80s. The theme's sure memorable... I may have seen "The Prisoner" once or twice, but I didn't understand it, either. I should probably revisit it now. They are sure to be showing a marathon somewhere soon...

BTW, a guy who I dated in college was Patrick McGoohan's cousin, actually his mother's... Nice Irish boy.

Godspeed, Number Six...

[CBHagman]

59. First really cool man I ever saw on TV.

I'm so sorry to see him go.

[tledford]

60. Many other fine performances, but "The Prisoner" was remarkable. eom

[progressoid]

61. K/R for a great guy.

[bananas]

63. "Prisoner" Star Patrick McGoohan Dies

Source: CBS/AP

"Prisoner" Star Patrick McGoohan Dies
Actor Who Starred In "Secret Agent," Won Emmys For "Columbo," Dies In L.A. At 80
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14, 2009



(CBS/AP) Patrick McGoohan, an actor who created and starred in the cult classic TV show "The Prisoner," died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 80.

His son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, announced the news Wednesday.

McGoohan starred in the 1960s CBS series "Secret Agent," and won two Emmys for his guest appearances on the detective drama "Columbo." Most recently he appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson Academy Award-winning film "Braveheart."

But he was most famous as the character known only as Number Six in "The Prisoner," a 1968 British series about a spy who resigns from the intelligence service, only to be abducted and held captive in a mysterious haven known as The Village. There his overseers strip him of his identity in their attempts to glean information, while thwarting his attempts to escape.

Prior to "The Prisoner," McGoohan starred in "Secret Agent" (also known as "Danger Man"), which debuted in 1964, and whose memorable theme song seemed to speak of the hazards facing the characters in both series ("They've given you a number, and taken away your name").

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/14/entertainment...

[Octafish]

64. He was Number One.

My favorite TV show, ever.

Farewell, Sir.

[Hawaii Hiker]

67. I'll always remember him as the warden in "Escape from Alcatraz"

and as Edward Longshanks in "Braveheart"..

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001526 /

[stlsaxman]

68. When I saw The Prisoner as a youth- everything changed.

My favorite quote of McGoohan's:



Some signs seen around The Village-

[Blue_Tires]

70. AMC has ALL the Prisoner episodes online for free:

for those who missed it:

http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner-1960s-serie...