{"id":1533,"date":"2009-01-14T23:15:58","date_gmt":"2009-01-14T22:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/blog\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2015-03-26T15:31:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T15:31:08","slug":"patrick-mcgoohan-dies-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=1533","title":{"rendered":"‘Prisoner’ star Patrick McGoohan dies at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>LONDON \u2013 Mel Gibson told me that when was casting his Oscar-winning best picture “Braveheart,” he kept saying he wanted someone like Patrick McGoohan to play the vital role of William Wallace’s nemesis, Longshanks, King Edward I (pictured below)<\/p>\n

Finally, he wondered why not McGoohan himself? The result was one of the most dynamic portrayals of a brutal monarch in movies. It was McGoohan’s last major film role.<\/p>\n

The Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show “The Prisoner” (top), died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 80.<\/p>\n

\"McGoohan<\/a>Here’s the AP report:<\/p>\n

Patrick McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama “Columbo,” and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film “Braveheart.”<\/p>\n

But he was most famous as the character known only as Number Six in “The Prisoner,” a sci-fi tinged 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small enclave known only as The Village, where a mysterious authority named Number One constantly prevents his escape.<\/p>\n

McGoohan came up with the concept and wrote and directed several episodes of the show, which has kept a devoted following in the United States and Europe for four decades.<\/p>\n

Born in New York on March 19, 1928, McGoohan was raised in England and Ireland, where his family moved shortly after his birth. He had a busy stage career before moving to television, and won a London Drama Critics Award for playing the title role in the Henrik Ibsen play “Brand.”<\/p>\n

He married stage actress Joan Drummond in 1951. The oldest of their three daughters, Catherine, is also an actress.<\/p>\n

His first foray into TV was in 1964 in the series “Danger Man,” a more straightforward spy show that initially lasted just one season but was later brought back for three more when its popularity — and McGoohan’s — exploded in reruns.<\/p>\n

Weary of playing the show’s lead John Drake, McGoohan pitched to producers the surreal and cerebral “The Prisoner” to give himself a challenge.<\/p>\n

The series ran just one season and 17 episodes in 1967, but its cultural impact remains.<\/p>\n

He voiced his Number Six character in an episode of “The Simpsons” in 2000. The show is being remade as a series for AMC that premieres this year.<\/p>\n

“His creation of ‘The Prisoner’ made an indelible mark on the sci-fi, fantasy and political thriller genres, creating one of the most iconic characters of all time,” AMC said in a statement Wednesday. “AMC hopes to honor his legacy in our re-imagining of ‘The Prisoner.”‘<\/p>\n

Later came smaller roles in film and television. McGoohan won Emmys for guest spots on “Columbo” 16 years apart, in 1974 and 1990.<\/p>\n

He also appeared as a warden in the 1979 Clint Eastwood film “Escape from Alcatraz” and as a judge in the 1996 John Grisham courtroom drama “A Time To Kill.”<\/p>\n

His last major role was in “Braveheart,” in what The Associated Press called a “standout” performance as the brutal king who battles Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace, played by Gibson.<\/p>\n

In his review of the film for the Los Angeles Times critic Peter Rainer said “McGoohan is in possession of perhaps the most villainous enunciation in the history of acting.”<\/p>\n

McGoohan is survived by his wife and three daughters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2013 Mel Gibson told me that when was casting his Oscar-winning best picture “Braveheart,” he kept saying he wanted someone like Patrick McGoohan to play the vital role of William Wallace’s nemesis, Longshanks, King Edward I (pictured below) Finally, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[52,65,249,855,952],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-news","tag-braveheart","tag-columbo","tag-the-prisoner","tag-mel-gibson","tag-patrick-mcgoohan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6127,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/6127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}