Prisoner star McGoohan dies
PATRICK McGoohan, star of the cult 1960s TV classic The Prisoner, has died aged 80.
The Emmy award-winning actor died on Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said last night. [>
He played the character Six in the surreal TV series, filmed in Portmeirion in north Wales, and spent the entire time trying to escape from The Village and identify his captor, known only as Number One. [>
His best-known line was the declaration: “I am not a number - I am a free man!” [>
McGoohan co-created the show and also penned some of the episodes under a pseudonym. He even brought his character back to life for an episode of the popular cartoon, The Simpsons. His role in The Prisoner – initially seen as a risk for ITV – saw him become a cult figure and he was the honorary president of the show’s fan club Six of One. [>
The club meets annually in Portmeirion to honour the iconic backdrop to the show – which had a budget of £75,000 per episode – more than any other action adventure series being made at the time. [>
There were only ever 17 episodes of The Prisoner, which first appeared on the screens in 1967, but they regularly attracted 11 million viewers. The show also spawned many documentaries, books and a quarterly magazine, as well as being influential in modern TV, notably in Lost, Babylon 5 and The Truman Show. [>
Last year, ITV confirmed that Sir Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel will star in a remake of The Prisoner. [>
Caviezel will take the role of Number Six while McKellen will appear throughout the series as Number Two. [>
McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the detective series Columbo, the first for an episode in 1974 and another 16 years later. [>
More recently he appeared as King Edward Longshanks in Mel Gibson’s 1995 film Braveheart and his last role came in 2002, as a voice artist in the animated film Treasure Planet. Born in New York, McGoohan moved with his parents to County Leitrim, Ireland, and then, seven years later, to Sheffield. [>
After an evacuation during the Second World War to Loughborough, he returned to Sheffield, getting a job as a stage manager at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre. [>
His big break came when one of the actors became ill and he filled in. It was also there that he met his future wife, actress Joan Drummond. [>
He first came to screen prominence in the early 1960s in the TV series Danger Man, in which he played a secret service agent. [>
He leaves his wife of 57 years, Joan Drummond McGoohan, three daughters and five grandchildren. [>
