Patrick Joseph McGoohan (March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-born
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, raised in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
and
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
series
Danger ManDanger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts...
(renamed
Secret Agent when exported to the
USThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
), and the cult classic
The PrisonerThe Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory, and psychological drama....
. McGoohan wrote and directed several episodes of
The Prisoner himself, occasionally using the pseudonyms Joseph Serf and Paddy Fitz. He subsequently appeared in
David CronenbergDavid Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection...
's cult movie
ScannersScanners is a science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, with original music by Howard Shore and starring Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan...
, and in
Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American Australian actor, film director and producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in the Mad...
's Oscar winning epic
BraveheartBraveheart is a 1995 Academy-award winning historical action-drama film produced and directed by Mel Gibson, who also starred in the title role. The film was written for screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace...
as
Edward LongshanksEdward I , also known as Edward Longshanks, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English Barons. In 1259 he briefly sided with a baronial...
.
Early life
McGoohan was born in
Astoria, QueensAstoria is a neighborhood in the northwestern corner of the borough of Queens in New York City. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Sunnyside , and Woodside...
,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, to Thomas McGoohan and Rose Fitzpatrick, who were living in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after emigrating from Ireland to look for work. Shortly after he was born, McGoohan's parents moved back to Mullaghmore,
County LeitrimCounty Leitrim is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Connacht. It was named after the town of Leitrim .Leitrim is the 26th largest of Ireland’s 32 counties in area and smallest in terms of population...
,
IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
, and, seven years later, they moved to
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
,
EnglandThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. McGoohan attended De La Salle school in Sheffield, but following the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was
evacuatedEvacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II were designed to save the population of urban or military areas from Nazi German aerial bombing of cities and military targets such as docks. Civilians, particularly children, were moved to rural areas thought to be less at risk...
to
LoughboroughLoughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It had a population of 57,600 in 2004. It is the second largest settlement in Leicestershire after Leicester, is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council, and the home of Loughborough University.In 1841 Loughborough was...
,
LeicestershireLeicestershire or , abbreviation Leics.is a landlocked county in central England. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
. There he attended
Ratcliffe CollegeRatcliffe College is an independent Catholic boarding and day school in Leicestershire, England. The College, situated in of parkland on the Fosse Way about six miles north of Leicester, was founded on the instructions of Blessed Father Antonio Rosmini-Serbati in 1845 as a seminary. In 1847, the...
, where he excelled in mathematics and
boxingBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
.
Acting career
McGoohan left school aged sixteen and returned to Sheffield where he worked variously as a chicken farmer, a bank clerk and a lorry driver before getting a job as a stage manager at
Sheffield Repertory TheatreThe Sheffield Repertory Theatre was a theatre company in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.The foundation of the Sheffield Repertory Company is generally considered to date from 1923, however the first recorded meetings of an amateur company of the same name were held at the Oxford Street...
. When one of the actors became ill, Patrick filled in, launching his acting career.
He fell for an actress named Joan Drummond, the woman to whom he reportedly wrote love notes every day. They were married on May 19, 1951. They had three daughters,
CatherineCatherine McGoohan is a British actress, active in the United States.McGoohan is the eldest daughter of acclaimed Irish-American actor Patrick McGoohan and his widow, British former stage actress Joan Drummond. She has two younger sisters, Anne and Frances...
(born 1952), Anne (born 1959) and Frances (born 1960).
In 1955, McGoohan starred in a
West EndWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's "Theatreland". Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking world...
production of a play called
Serious Charge, in the role of a priest accused of being
gayThe term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
.
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
was so impressed by McGoohan's stage presence ("intimidated," Welles said later) that he cast him as Starbuck in his York theatre production of
Moby Dick RehearsedMoby Dick Rehearsed is the title of a play written and directed by Orson Welles. It was performed in London in 1955. A lost film of the play, directed by Welles, starred the original stage cast, most of whom went on to become big names of the stage and screen.Welles's minimal stage design was...
.
While working as a stand-in during actress screen tests, McGoohan was signed to a contract with the
Rank OrganisationThe Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. Its film division once distributed Universal Pictures releases in the UK...
, the largest European production company between 1930 and 1960. The producers may have been more interested in capitalizing on his boxing skill and appearance than his acting ability, casting him as the conniving bad boy in such films as the gritty
Hell DriversHell Drivers is a 1957 British film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins and Patrick McGoohan.-Plot:...
and the steamy potboiler
The Gypsy and the Gentleman, and after a few films and some clashes with the management, the contract was dissolved.
Free of the contract, he did some TV work and continued on the stage in his favourite role,
IbsenHenrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family...
's
BrandBrand is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It is a verse tragedy, written in 1865 and first performed in Stockholm on 24 March 1867. Brand was an intellectual play that caused many people to "think outside the box"....
, for which he received an award. Soon producer
Lew GradeLew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Ukraine-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...
approached him about a TV series in which he would play a spy named John Drake. Having learned from his experience at the Rank Organisation, McGoohan insisted on several conditions in his contract before agreeing to do the show
Danger ManDanger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the programme and wrote many of the scripts...
: all the fistfights should be different, the character would always use his brain before using a
gunIn military parlance, a gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm...
, and, much to the horror of the executives, no kissing. They hired him anyway.
The first series, half-hour shows geared toward an American audience, did fairly well, but not as well as hoped in the US. It lasted only one year, but was rerun in several countries and gained cult status worldwide. After the series was over, one interviewer asked McGoohan if he would have liked the series to continue, to which he replied, "I would rather do twenty TV series than go through what I went through under that Rank contract I signed a few years ago for which I blame no one but myself."
McGoohan spent some time working for
DisneyThe Walt Disney Company , often simply known as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world, known for its family-friendly products...
on
The Three Lives of ThomasinaThe Three Lives of Thomasina is a Walt Disney Productions fantasy feature film starring Patrick McGoohan, Susan Hampshire, and child actress Karen Dotrice in a story about a cat and her influence on a family. The screenplay was written by Robert Westerby and Paul Gallico and was based upon...
and
The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. He had already turned down the roles of
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
and
Simon TemplarSimon Templar is a British fictional character known as the Saint, featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books, until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris'...
(
The SaintThe Saint is a long-running ITC mystery spy thriller, that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise....
) when Lew Grade asked him if he would like to give John Drake another try. This time, McGoohan had even more say about the series; it was expanded to an hour and the writing was changed to allow McGoohan more acting range. The popularity of the series exploded. McGoohan became the highest paid actor in the UK and the show lasted almost three more seasons.
After shooting the first two episodes for the fourth season in colour, McGoohan told Lew Grade he was going to quit. Grade asked if he would at least work on "something" for him, and McGoohan gave him a run-down of what would later be called a
miniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a pre-planned limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
about a secret agent who resigns suddenly and wakes up to find himself in a prison disguised as a holiday resort. Grade asked for a budget, McGoohan had one ready, and they made a deal over a handshake early on a Saturday morning to produce
The PrisonerThe Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory, and psychological drama....
.
McGoohan not only produced, he also wrote, directed and starred in the show. He used two pseudonyms, writing "Free for All" as Paddy Fitz and directing "Many Happy Returns" and "A Change of Mind" as Joseph Serf. He also wrote "Once Upon A Time" and "Fall Out" using his own name. The seven episodes were increased to seventeen.
The main character spends the entire series trying to escape from
The Villagethumb|A part of [[Portmeirion]], the real-life filming location for exterior shots of the Village.thumb|The Stone BoatThe Village is the fictional setting of the 1960s UK television series The Prisoner, where the main character, Number Six, was interned with other former spies and operatives...
and to learn the identity of his nemesis, Number One.
The Prisoner was a completely new, cerebral kind of series, stretching the limits of the established television formulas. Its influence has been echoed in
LostLost is an American serial drama television series. It follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney, Australia, and Los Angeles, United States, crashes somewhere in the South Pacific...
,
Babylon 5Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on the Babylon 5 space station: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
,
Nowhere ManNowhere Man is an American television series that aired from 1995 to 1996 starring Bruce Greenwood. Created by Lawrence Hertzog, the series aired Monday nights on UPN. Despite critical acclaim, including TV Guides label of "The season's coolest hit," the show was cancelled after only one season...
,
I-manIn 1986, the Disney Company ran a telefilm called I-Man, supposedly as the pilot for a proposed series, which was never picked up.-Plot:...
,
The Truman ShowThe Truman Show is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...
,
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
,
ReBootReBoot is a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure television series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based production company Mainframe Entertainment, and created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell and John Grace, with the visuals designed by Brendan...
, even
American IdolAmerican Idol is a reality competition to find new solo musical talent, created by Simon Fuller. It debuted on June 11, 2002 on the Fox network, and has since become one of the most popular shows on American television...
teaser ads.
The main character, the unnamed
Number SixNumber Six is the central fictional character in the 1960s television series The Prisoner, played by Patrick McGoohan. In the currently filming AMC remake, he will be played by Jim Caviezel....
, became McGoohan's most recognisable character. Unfortunately, it also became his prison. Number Six was so obsessively pro-individual that whenever McGoohan later played someone who had something to say about individuality or freedom, the character was often compared to his previous incarnation; for example, his portrayal of the warden in
Escape from AlcatrazEscape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American thriller film, directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood that dramatizes the one possibly successful escape from the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island...
. "
Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American Australian actor, film director and producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in the Mad...
will always be
Mad MaxMad Max, the first movie of the Mad Max franchise, is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and Byron Kennedy. The film, starring the then-little-known Mel Gibson, was released internationally in 1980. Its narrative based around the traditional...
, and me, I will always be a Number," he was once quoted as saying.
The cult of
The Prisoner spawned many books, college courses, a quarterly magazine and documentaries. There were several fan clubs - most notably "Six of One," which honours the show annually with a convention in
PortmeirionPortmeirion is an Italianate resort village in Gwynedd, on the coast of Snowdonia in Wales. The village is located in the community of Penrhyndeudraeth, on the estuary of the River Dwyryd, south east of Porthmadog, and from the railway station at Minffordd, which is served by both the narrow...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
, where the show's exteriors were shot. McGoohan was the honorary president. In the May 30, 2004 edition of
TV Guide,
The Prisoner was ranked seventh in a list of the "25 Top Rated Cult Shows Ever!" McGoohan's show outranked the likes of
The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
(#8) and
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
(#18).
TV Guide wrote, "Fans still puzzle over this weird, enigmatic drama, a
KafkaFranz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
esque allegory about the individual's struggle in the modern age."
McGoohan appeared in many films, including
Howard HughesHoward Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer, film director, philanthropist, and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained fame in the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big budget and often controversial films like Hell's Angels,...
's favourite,
Ice Station ZebraIce Station Zebra is a 1968 action film directed by John Sturges, starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine and Jim Brown. The screenplay by Alistair MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink and W.R. Burnett is loosely based upon MacLean's 1963 novel of the same name. Both have...
, for which he was critically acclaimed, and
Silver StreakSilver Streak is a 1976 comedy, action and mystery film about murder on a Los Angeles-to-Chicago train journey. It stars Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Pryor, Patrick McGoohan and Ned Beatty and is directed by Arthur Hiller. The film score is by Henry Mancini. This film marked the first...
, with
Gene WilderGene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leo Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
and
Richard PryorRichard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III was an American comedian, actor, and writer. Pryor was known for his unflinching examinations of racism and customs in modern life, and was renowned for his frequent use of colorful, vulgar, and profane language and racial epithets...
. In 1977 he starred in the TV series
Rafferty, playing a former army doctor who has retired and moved into private practice. Many people consider this series a forerunner to
House, M.D.House, also known as House, M.D., is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The program was co-created by David Shore and Paul Attanasio; Fox officially credits Shore as creator. The show's central character is Dr...
.
McGoohan received two
Emmy AwardThe Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards , Grammy Awards and Tony Awards .They are presented in various...
s for his work on
Columbo with his long-time friend
Peter FalkPeter Michael Falk is an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles, and has been nominated for an Academy Award twice, and won the Emmy Award on five occasions and the Golden Globe award...
. He directed five
Columbo episodes (including three of the four in which he played the murderer) and wrote and produced two (including one of these). He also appeared in the 1981 film
ScannersScanners is a science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, with original music by Howard Shore and starring Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan...
, a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
/
horror filmHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
by Canadian director
David CronenbergDavid Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection...
that has since attained cult movie status.
In 1991, he starred in
Masterpiece TheatreMasterpiece is an anglophiliac drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on PBS on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly primetime drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions...
s production of The Best of Friends for PBS, which told the story of the unlikely friendship between a museum curator, a nun and a playwright. McGoohan played
George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays...
alongside Sir
John GielgudSir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor/director/producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
as
Sydney CockerellSir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell was a British museum curator, collector, and well-connected figure in the literary world....
and Dame
Wendy HillerDame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years...
as Sister
Laurentia McLachlanDame Laurentia McLachlan was born as Margaret McLachlan in 1866 in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1884 she joined the Benedictine Abbey at Stanbrook Abbey. In 1931 she was elected Abbess of Stanbrook...
.
He was most recognized by a later generation of fans as the Machiavellian
King Edward "Longshanks"Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English Barons. In 1259 he briefly sided with a baronial...
from the 1995
OscarThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
-winning
BraveheartBraveheart is a 1995 Academy-award winning historical action-drama film produced and directed by Mel Gibson, who also starred in the title role. The film was written for screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace...
. In 1996, he appeared as Judge Omar Noose in A Time to KillA Time to Kill is a 1996 film adaptation of John Grisham's 1989 legal thriller novel of the same name. Directed by Joel Schumacher, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L...
. He directed Richie HavensRichard P. "Richie" Havens is an American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
in a rock-opera version of OthelloOthello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
called Catch My SoulDisambiguation: for UK Stage version see Catch My Soul Catch My Soul is a 1974 film produced by Jack Good and Richard M. Rosenbloom, and directed by Patrick McGoohan. It was an adaptation of Good's stage musical of the same title, which itself was loosely adapted from William Shakespeare's Othello...
.
In 1996, he appeared in Paramount's big budget cinema adaptation of The PhantomThe Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many forms of media, including television and film, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the African jungle...
comic strip, playing the father of the title character (played by Billy ZaneWilliam George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor and director. He is best recognized for his role as Caledon Hockley in the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic, as the deranged psychopath Hughie Warriner in Dead Calm, John Justice Wheeler in Twin Peaks, as The Phantom in the 1996 film of the same...
).
In 2000, he reprised his role as Number Six in an episode of The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
, "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes“The Computer Wore Menace Shoes” is the sixth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. The episode title is a play on the 1969 movie The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.-Plot:...
". In it, Homer SimpsonHomer Jay Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and father of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
concocts a news story to make his websiteA website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network...
more popular, and he wakes up in a prison disguised as a holiday resort. Dubbed Number Five, he befriends Number Six and escapes with his boat.
McGoohan's last film was a voice role in the animated film Treasure PlanetTreasure Planet is an animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 27, 2002...
, released in 2002. That same year, he received the Prometheus Hall of Fame AwardThe Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
for The Prisoner
.
McGoohan's name was linked to several aborted attempts at producing a new motion picture version of The Prisoner.
In 2002, director Simon WestSimon West is an English-born American film director. Born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Simon West originally directed adverts, including a commercial for Budweiser. His film directing career started when he directed Con Air in 1997....
(Lara Croft: Tomb RaiderLara Croft: Tomb Raider is a film adaptation of the Tomb Raider video game series. Directed by Simon West and starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, it was released in U.S. theaters on June 15, 2001....
) was signed to helm a version of the story. McGoohan was listed as executive producer on the project, which never came to fruition. More recently, director
Christopher NolanChristopher Jonathan James Nolan is a British-American filmmaker, writer and producer. The son of an English father and American mother, Nolan is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States. He is married to Emma Thomas, his longtime producer...
attached to a proposed film version. However, the source material remained difficult and elusive to adapt into a feature film. Ultimately, a reimagining of the series was filmed for the American Movie Classics network in late 2008, with broadcast scheduled for sometime in 2009; McGoohan was not involved in the project.
McGoohan was one of several actors considered for the role of
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
in
Dr. NoDr. No , starring Sean Connery, is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather. The film was directed by Terence Young, and produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
(along with future Bond actor Roger MooreSir Roger George Moore KBE is a English actor and film producer. He is perhaps best known for portraying two British action heroes, Simon Templar in the television series The Saint from 1962 to 1969, and James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
). Part of McGoohan's popular legend is that he turned down the role on moral grounds (the same grounds that would affect how he played John Drake). Ironically, the success of the Bond films is generally cited as the reason for Danger Man
being revived in 1964, which led in turn to The Prisoner
.
Despite his extensive British stage experience, he appeared on Broadway only once. In 1985, he starred opposite Rosemary HarrisRosemary Ann Harris is an English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:Harris was born in Ashby, Suffolk, England, the daughter of Enid Maude Frances and Stafford Berkley Harris. Her grandmother was Romanian...
in Hugh WhitemoreHugh Whitemore is an English playwright and screenwriter.Whitemore studied for the stage at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he is now a Member of the Council. He began his writing career in British television with both original teleplays and adaptations of classic works by Charles...
's Pack of LiesPack of Lies is a 1983 play by English writer Hugh Whitemore.Based on a true story, the plot centres on Bob and Barbara Jackson and their daughter Julie , a television reporter and newspaper journalist in the UK...
, in which he played a British intelligence agent. McGoohan was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Best Actor.
A biography of the actor was published in 2007 by Tomahawk Press.
Death
McGoohan died on 13 January 2009 at
St. John's Health CenterSaint John's Health Center is a hospital in Santa Monica, California, United States. The hospital was founded in 1942 by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.- Hospital Overview :Saint John’s Health Center Mission...
in Santa Monica, California, following a brief illness. He was
crematedCremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic chemical compounds in the form of gases and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high temperatures and vaporization....
.
At the time of his death, McGoohan had been retired from acting for several years and was living in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
with his wife of 57 years, Joan Drummond McGoohan. He had three daughters.
External links
- Barker, Dennis. "Obituary: Patrick McGoohan," The Guardian, Thursday, January 15, 2009.
- McLellan, Dennis. "Patrick McGoohan dies at 80; TV's 'Secret Agent' and 'Prisoner'," Los Angeles Times, Thursday, January 15, 2009.
- Martin, Douglas. "Patrick McGoohan, Star of 'The Prisoner,' Dies at 80," New York Times, Thursday, January 15, 2009.
- Fund, John. "Why 'The Prisoner' Endures," The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, January 20, 2009.
- Aushenker, Michael. "Patrick McGoohan, 80; TV's 'The Prisoner'," Palisadian-Post, January 22, 2009.
- Patrick McGoohan - Daily Telegraph obituary