Actor Patrick McGoohan died in Los Angeles on 13 January at the age of 80 after a short illness. McGoohan made his name in the TV series Danger Man (broadcast in the USA as Secret Agent) and went on to create the cult show The Prisoner. McGoohan won a BAFTA award for his role in "The Greatest Man in the World", an episode of ITV's Armchair Theatre, in 1959. His film roles (after an early uncredited role as a guard in The Dam Busters) included Ice Station Zebra (1968), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Scanners (1981), Braveheart (1995), The Phantom (1996), A Time to Kill (1996) and the voice of Billy Bones in Treasure Planet (2002).McGoohan has been a comic strip star a few times, firstly in Danger Man (Lion, 1966) and later in a 4-issue series on The Prisoner. Jack Kirby famously drew an issue of a proposed comic based on the latter for Marvel in the early 1970s.
Obituaries: The Guardian (14 January); The Times (15 January); Daily Telegraph (15 January); The Independent (16 January).(* Danger Man comic © IPC Media; The Prisoner comic © DC Comics.)
This is sad news indeed - I love both danger man and the prisoner. Legend has it that teh actor turned down the role of James Bond.
ReplyDeleteHasn't there been talk for years about a big budget Prisoner film?
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteThere's currently a new TV series in the works from ITV, in association with AMC, starring Jim Caviezel (from Passion of the Christ). AMC describe it as a "re-imagining".
McGoohan turned down both James Bond and The Saint because he felt they were both immoral characters.