Patrick McGoohan
Patrick McGoohan has died. (Someone suggested I write "he finally escaped.") He did a lot of acting on stage and screen, but he'll always be remembered for the seventeen episodes of The Prisoner.
He helped create this show about a secret agent who resigns from the force and is then held captive in The Village. He tries to escape while his captors (presumably his former employers) try to extract information from him. McGoohan had earlier starred in more conventional TV spy/action fare, so this slice of 60s surrealism (in wonderful color) was a bit of a shock.
He was Number Six, constantly harassed by Number Two, and searching for Number One. But don't you get it, man? We're all Number Six, and we're all in our own Village, held down by The Establishment. But if you want to break free, you've got to start by freeing your own mind.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:12 AM
7 Comments:
I was never a fan of The Prisoner. I guess it was a little too esoteric for my teenage mind. I was a fan of Danger Man (aka Secret Agent) and loved the Johnny Rivers theme song, Secret Agent Man.
However, as a Disney Kid, my warmest memories of McGoohan are of his roles as The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (one of those great mini-series that Disney used to produce in the early years) and as the doctor in The Three Lives of Thomasina. I haven't seen The Scarecrow in years but Thomasina remains a favorite to this day.
Scarecrow (if its the one I am thinking of) had a great theme song. Very deep voices.
My cousins in Toronto named their cat Thomasina. Guess they were fans, too.
These comments always spur me to further research. Some interesting nuggets
1. Scarecrow was first aired in 1963 in 3 installments on Disney's Sunday night show (I must have seen it sometime in the late 60s) and involved a band of local citizenry engaged in joyful smuggling while evading George III's evil tax collectors. Dvds on Amazon were $50+ but I found them elsewhere for $10.
2. The theme song to Scarecrow was written by Terry Gilkyson (sp?) otherwise famous for having Walt Disney throw out his entire treatment of "The Jungle Book" because it was too dark, except for one song -The Bare Necessities which is the best song. (My son as a toddler watched the Jungle Book 3x a week for several years, including the special features so I know this story well)
3. Patrick McGoohan might have been a good James Bond (maybe a late 1950s version). Great name.
More nuggets: McGoohan was offered the James Bond role and turned it down for moral reasons.
Also, he was offered the roles of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies and Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series and turned them both down. No mention as to the reason.
That leads to a question of how Bond could be immoral but The Prisoner wasn't- was it the smoking, drinking & sex or was it political in some fashion?--I know nothing of Mr. McGoohan's beliefs.
Bond killed without mercy. He was licensed to do so. Danger Man was a bit more clever and a bit more peaceful.
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