Patrick McGoohan – the star and co-creator of seminal Sixties TV show, The Prisoner – has died after a short illness. He was 80.
Best known for his TV work, including** Danger Man** and two Emmy Award-winning appearances as nemeses on Columbo, McGoohan rarely dabbled in cinema, but he still managed to amass a series of notable roles, including the evil King Edward Longshanks in Braveheart, Dr. Paul Ruth in David Cronenberg’s Scanners, British spy Jones in Ice Station Zebra, and the Warden in Escape From Alcatraz.
His last credited role was as the voice of Billy Bones in 2002’s **Treasure Planet **- and what a voice he had too, shaped by an upbringing in England and Ireland, it was rich, deep, and sonorous, with his strangely neutral accent giving many of his performances a sinister, otherworldly quality.
He often played villains, but his best-known role was as the hero of The Prisoner, the cult series in which he played a man – Number Six – incarcerated in a booby-trap laden village, who constantly made escape attempts while declaring that, “I am not a number – I am a free man!” Ironically, the show itself somewhat trapped and typecast McGoohan, who never quite escaped its shadow.
McGoohan, who was born in New York in March, 1928, actually co-created the show, and produced, directed and wrote several episodes, including some under pseudonyms. He came up with the show after a stint on secret agent show Danger Man, which had been successful enough to put him in the frame to play the first James Bond, before Sean Connery nabbed the role.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Joan Drummond McGoohan, and their three children.