14 January 2009
Patrick McGoohan has died at the age of 80. The actor's son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said that McGoohan died yesterday in Los Angeles after a short illness.
As well as The Prisoner, he also won two Emmys for detective drama Columbo, playing different characters, with the first coming in 1974 and the other 16 years later. More recently, McGoohan appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film Braveheart.
McGoohan, who was born in New York but raised in England and Ireland, came to screen prominence in ITV's early 1960s drama series Danger Man, in which he played a secret agent. He is also the man who famously turned down the the lead role in the first James Bond movie, Dr No, before Sean Connery was cast.
It was The Prisoner, which aired originally on ITV (UK) between 1967 and 1968, with which he was chiefly associated, writing some of the episodes himself under a different name. His character spent the entire time attempting to escape from a prison – which was disguised as a perfect village.
In 2000, McGoohan reprised his most famous role in an episode of The Simpsons. His last acting job came in 2002, voicing a character in animation Treasure Planet. McGoohan's other film acting credits include Ice Station Zebra, Escape from Alcatraz, Scanners and A Time to Kill.
ITV is currently remaking The Prisoner in conjunction with American cable channel AMC. It is due to air in November 2009.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
(US)
(US)
(UK)
(UK)