Patrick McGoohan, 1928 - 2009.

By David Hudson on 01/14/2009

Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy award-winning actor who created and starred in 1960s TV show "The Prisoner," has died at the age of 80.... His character, Number Six, spent the entire time attempting to escape from a prison - which was disguised as a holiday camp - and trying to find out the identity of his captor, the elusive Number One. He repeatedly declared: "I am not a number - I am a free man!"

Leigh Holmwood, the Guardian.

It was the height of James Bond mania in 1965 when McGoohan showed up on American TV screens in "Secret Agent," a British-produced series in which he played John Drake, a special security agent working as a spy for the British government.... As a guest star on TV's "Columbo," McGoohan won Emmys in 1975 and 1990.

Dennis McLellan, the Los Angeles Times.

Updates: "The Prisoner" "a genre piece, in both an 'of course' and 'sort of' sense. Much, I dares say most, of McGoohan's film work is in 'genre' stuff, but in every performance, he's got a rough, almost (if you will) kitchen-sinkish presence; he is always somehow naked. It could make for some weird but bracing contrasts. He's absolutely the realest thing in the beloved-of-Howard-Hughes 1968 Cold War cheese block 'Ice Station Zebra,' for instance." Glenn Kenny also has a terrific textual clip from David Cronenberg as he recalls working with McGoohan on "Scanners."

"McGoohan was hard to pin down as a film and TV performer," writes Robert Cashill. "But there were memorable parts, including 1957's hard-hitting trucker expose 'Hell Drivers,' 1962's 'All Night Long,' a jazz-set 'Othello,' with McGoohan excellent as the Iago figure (look for them on Turner Classic); 'The Quare Fellow' (1962), from Brendan Behan's play; his fine Disney pictures, 'The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh' and 'The Three Lives of Thomasina' (my wife had a cat named Thomasina, from the film); giving a course on how to handle great chunks of exposition in 1968's 'Ice Station Zebra'; menacing Gene Wilder in 'Silver Streak' (1976), Clint Eastwood in 1979's 'Escape from Alcatraz,' and Mel Gibson in 'Braveheart' (1995), his last big part; and birthing mutants as a different kind of Dr Ruth in David Cronenberg's classic 'Scanners' (1981). Columbo never had a finer adversary than McGoohan."

Updates, 1/15: "He was a brittle, charming, mysterious, ruthless, deeply principled actor, capable of turning from kindly to harsh in the steely flash of an eye," writes Tim Lucas. "You would think the abundance of quality work he left behind would satiate us, but he leaves us standing, applauding, wanting more. That, young actors everywhere, is how it's done."

Bob Westal on "The Prisoner": "McGoohan appears to have effectively been the showrunner of the series, which for decades was often cited by critics as probably the single best TV series of all time. Though the competition for that title has increased exponentially over the decades, it was without a doubt, a major force in my adolescence, and world geekitude in general, when it was revived on PBS and later on cable and home video.... Best. TV show opening. Ever."

"Style, class, brains, good looks and a wonderful voice that commanded your attention were just a few of the things that made McGoohan stand apart from many of his contemporaries," writes Kimberly Lindbergs.

Update, 1/16: "'The Prisoner,' which ran for seventeen episodes from 1967 to 1968, was the best original drama series there's ever been on television," declares John Coulthart. "Period, as Harlan Ellison would say. Best because it grabbed the format of the TV adventure series with both hands and subverted the expectations of the audience and the people who were paying for it. Best because it dared to do this at a time when there was little precedent for experiment in a medium that was barely a decade old. Best because it had something important to say while still being entertaining. And best because it had Patrick McGoohan in the central role at the peak of his acting career."

[Photo: "The Prisoner," ITC, 1967]

Tags: Columbo, Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner