US-born British actor Patrick McGoohan died 13 January 2009 in Santa Monica, California, after a short illness. Born 19 March 1928 in Astoria (Queens), New York, his family moved to Ireland when he was very young. McGoohan won two Emmy Awards (Supporting Actor in 1975 for Columbo: By Dawn’s Early Light, and Guest Actor in 1990 for Columbo: Agenda for Murder), but he will be most remembered for The Prisoner.
McGoohan created and executive-produced—and wrote and directed several episodes of—the incredibly short-lived British series (it lasted 17 episodes) aired in 1968 and 1969, and became a cult classic. In it, McGoohan starred as a British agent who, after resigning his post, is abducted and held captive by unknown powers in a mysterious village, where he is known as Number 6. It was a follow-on to his earlier hit series, Danger Man (1961) and Secret Agent (1965), in which he played British spy John Drake.
He began his acting career on the stage before moving into television and then films. Later in his career, he appeared as King Edward I in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (1995). IMDB.com reports that he turned down two iconic roles later played by Roger Moore: Simon Templar in The Saint and James Bond in Live and Let Die, and that he also refused the roles of Gandalf in the recent Lord of the Rings trilogy and Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films.
Other genre appearances include: Treasure Planet (2002), Hysteria (1998), Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985), Scanners (1981), Journey into Darkness (1968), and the Disneyland trilogy “The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh” (1963).
McGoohan is survived by his wife, Joan Drummond, whom he married in 1951, three children, five grandchildren, and one great grandchild.