Patrick McGoohan Dead at Age 80: Forever Remembered as "The Prisoner"

Patrick McGoohan was to many of us who grew up in the UK in particular a boomer hero-and in The Prisoner became the epitome of a rebel aginst conformity, encroaching state and corporate control--with his great speech--always played at the opening of the Prisoner--I am not a number --I am a free man. See Chas Andrews review on the website for more details of the Prisoner and why it quickly became the hit among so many of us boomers.

While McGoohan did not have a stellar film career as the Washington Post obituary points out --he did deserve credit for keeping the man he played in several TV and cinematic roles essentially the same straight arrow: He resisted the womanizing Bond image and interestingly turned down playing Bond before Sean Connery took the part and made it his own:


"When Drake fights, he fights clean," Mr. McGoohan once explained. "He abhors bloodshed. He carries a gun, but doesn't use it unless necessary -- and then he doesn't shoot to kill. He prefers to use his wits. He is a person with a sophisticated background and a philosophy. I want Drake to be in the heroic mould, like the classic Western hero -- which means he has to be a good man."

And so he has entered TV and Boomer legend history--except he was more than just an actor--writing some of the episodes of The Prisoner himself--directing others and
was also responsible for choosing the great setting for the show--always to be known as "the village" --he discovered the sinister place whule making "Danger Man, which as the Post informs us "was filmed at the Portmeirion resort in North Wales. He was so struck by the architecture, which blended several incongruous styles, that he made it the background for "The Prisoner."

So we will miss him. If any of the networks will care to re-run the Prisoner --I will be watching..