Patrick McGoohan, RIP
Patrick McGoohan, who starred in "The Prisoner," one of the all-time classic cult television series, died two weeks ago.
It's hard to describe "The Prisoner." Talking about it by stating its plot is a little like describing a bagel as a "bread donut," And while they were good for the 1960s, by today's standards the production values were absolutely dismal.
As I remember it 40 years or so later, "The Prisoner" was a cross between George Orwell's 1984 and "The Man From Uncle." The character McGoohan played -- Number Six -- was a cross between James Bond (although that may have been the accent) and Napoleon Solo.
McGoohan was much more than Number Six. There was also "Secret Agent," those marvelous episodes of "Columbo," and his acting tour de force playing opposite Mel Gibson as Longshanks in Braveheart.
But I'll always remember him playing Number Six and trying to outsmart the lava lamp-like thing that came up from the water to stop him from escaping from the village.
RIP Danger Man
McGoohan was an very interesting character. He walked away from gobs of money to do work he liked -- that makes anyone interesting to me.
He became the highest-paid actor in Britain on the strength of artistically successful stage and movie performances and the big commercial TV success "Danger Man/Secret Agent", then turned down the roles of James Bond because he didn't like the sex and violence, and The Saint (which made Roger Moore) because he thought it was derivative. He walked away from Danger Man when it was at its peak to do "The Prisoner", which at its best offered a speculative limited run. Then, instead of being James Bond and all, he did things like direct Richie Havens in a musical version of Othello. He also reportedly turned down the roles of Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" and Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" movies.
The Prisoner's production values may have been dismal in the sense that film and special effects technology has come a long way since the 1960s, but conceptually they are still completely first rate. Who else has ever matched Rover (even if Homer Simpson did pop it with a fork)?
The Prisoner is being brought back on cable TV by AMC later this year in a "reimagined" version. We'll see then if 21st century production values match what McGoohan put on 1960s film.