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Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan is heard as the scalawag pirate who has a secret to get off his chest in the opening scenes of the film.

McGoohan was born in New York, the son of Irish immigrants. Soon after his birth, the family returned to Ireland, gifting Patrick with a transatlantic accent that sounds simultaneously familiar and exotic to English-speaking audiences of all stripes. Settling in Sheffield , England, McGoohan worked in a variety of occupations before becoming a stage manager and then actor. He has appeared in 180 stage productions, including the Orson Welles production of Moby Dick in London's West End and Hugh Whitemore's Pack of Lies on Broadway.

McGoohan became a household name in the United Kingdom when he starred as agent John Drake in the hit TV series Danger Man. From 1960-1 McGoohan appeared in thirty-nine half-hour episodes of the series; in 1965-6 the show was resuscitated in color in an hour-long version (retitled Secret Agent in the U.S.) and McGoohan appeared in forty-five additional episodes. Growing justifiably tired with the series, McGoohan abruptly quit after a two-hour finale, and proposed his own show idea to ITV. The resulting series, The Prisoner, for which McGoohan originally planned only six episodes but which eventually stretched to seventeen, is universally regarded as classic. The setup is simple: A secret agent, never named, retires from duty and is abducted by an organization that is also never named - they dub him Number Six and demand his secrets; he insists he's not a number, and refuses to talk. Surreal, claustrophobic, paranoid and ultimately too subversive for much of its audience, the series was executive produced by McGoohan, who also wrote and directed many episodes.

Subsequently McGoohan relocated to Los Angeles and appeared in guest-star roles in the TV series Rafferty, as well as eight episodes of the series Columbo for which he also directed six episodes.

McGoohan has appeared in such films as The Dam Busters (1954), The Three Lives of Thomasina (1963), All Night Long (1963), Ice Station Zebra (1968), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Man in the Iron Mask and Silver Streak (both 1976), Brass Target (1978, Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Baby…Secret of the Lost Legend (1985), Jamaica Inn (1985), Of Pure Blood(1986) and Braveheart (1995). The actor had one of his most popular roles in the 1964 Disney TV production of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (released theatrically as Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow).


Note: This profile was written in or before 2002.

Patrick McGoohan Facts

OccupationActor
BirthdayMarch 19, 1928 (96)
SignPisces
BirthplaceNew York, New York, USA
Height6' 2" (1m88)  How tall is Patrick McGoohan compared to you?

Selected Filmography

Escape From Alcatraz
The Ultimate Gift
Evan Almighty
Braveheart
Treasure Planet
The Three Lives of Thomasina
A Time to Kill
Ice Station Zebra
Anne of the Thousand Days / Mary, Queen of Scots
Silver Streak
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