Patrick McGoohan has passed away in Los Angeles.
He won a couple of Emmys for his work opposite Peter Falk on Columbo and starred in dozens of movies like Ice Station Zebra, Escape from Alcatraz, Silver Streak and Braveheart, but was best known for his highly influential TV series, The Prisoner. It ran only 17 episodes, but it was a politically astute, socially aware mindfuck flickering before our bewildered eyes years before David Cronenberg, David Lynch or Guy Maddin ever filmed a single frame.
It's a shame, of course, but more so because the so-long-in-the-"development"-stage-that-no-one-ever-thought-the-damn-thing-would-get-made remake/update of The Prisoner, with James Caviezel as Number Six and Ian McKellan as Number Two, due to air later this year.
Patrick McGoohan was 80.
ETA: Ricardo Mantalban died today, too. Dammit. (Or, more appropriately: "KHAAAAAAAAAN!")
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2 comments:
Be seeing you.
I've never seen an episode of "The Prisoner". I've read that the writing was groundbreaking but off-putting for TV audiences back in the industry's early days ("Arrested Development" anyone?). I certainly know him from "Columbo" and many films.
In the 1940s Ricardo Montalban was one of the most beautiful men on the planet. Anyone so inclined to see Mr. Roarke/Khan when he was a fine Hollywood hunk should rent/buy MGM's aquatic-themed classics "On An Island With You" (1948) and "Neptune's Daughter" (1949) in which Montalban was Esther Williams' co-star. Dude looked hot in those tight 40s swim trunks, yo. He aged very well ("Fantasy Island" premiered in 1977, nearly 30 years later!).
Both he and McGoohan will be missed.
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