News is just starting to filter out across the web and news sites that the actor Patrick McGoohan has passed away in LA at the age of 80 following a short illness. In that 1960s era that gave us a whole raft of superspy adventure series McGoohan found fame with the show Danger Man, one of the classic genre shows to come from the cigar-chomping Lew Grade. It was after this run that McGoohan was instrumental in setting the style of his next starring vehicle and the one for which, despite a long career in TV and movies (from works as diverse as Escape From Alcatraz to Braveheart and Columbo to the Simpsons), he will always be best remembered – The Prisoner. Indeed the actor himself is supposed to have quipped once that Mel Gibson would always be known for Braveheart and he would always be a number.
(Patrick McGoohan as Number 6 with Leo McKern as Number 2 – “who is Number 1?” – in the cult classic The Prisoner)
News came out several months ago that a new version of The Prisoner was being prepared with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen, although I haven’t heard much about it lately. The original show was and still is a cult phenomenon – gleefully subverting the superspy genre conventions with weird, sometimes psychedelic scenarios that were never properly explained (which just added to the show’s mystique), and it looks set to continue its cult status long after its star has passed from the mortal coil. (thanks to Anthony Taylor for the news)
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