Popular American-born Irish actor Patrick McGoohan was born in New York City, the Astoria district on Long Island on March 19, 1928.
His parents had immigrated to the united States and, within a few months after his birth, decided to return to Ireland. They settled in County Leitrim, and by all accounts his early childhood was a financially impoverished one on a family farm that produced little on poor soil.
He went to a local school in Sheffield and recalls, 'We were evacuated during the war. During that time, I went to a private boys' school with four other boys from Sheffield all with pretty much the same background as myself. We had scholarships and evacuation allowances. After that, I went to work in the steel mills in Sheffield.' He got a school certificate, the equivalent of a diploma and passed the exams to go to Oxford, but then said he decided, 'I didn't want to go.'
In 1944, at age 16, he left school and held a series of jobs over the next few years. At this point he became ill with bronchial asthma and spent six months in bed. Once recovered, he applied for work at the Sheffield Repertory Company. He was still under 20. Patrick McGoohan took the job as stage manager at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre and for a while did every type of work needed to keep the company going. Within two years he was a leading player. By the mid-1950's, he had become established as a lead player on prestige stages at the West End in plays such as 'Moby Dick' (1955), 'Serious Charge' (1955) and Ring for Catty' (1956). At the same time he was also moving into television, taking feature roles in episodes of regular series, including 'The Vise', and 'You Are There', as well as a number of BBC-TV plays. Recognition was coming early, but not without considerable effort. McGoohan's first TV series 'Danger Man' was made in 1960 and 1961. The series established the direction and theme for what a few years later would become the highly successful 'Secret Agent' series.
Main character John Drake worked for NATO as a special security agent and was free to travel the world working on special problems for free world governments. The story lines set an early precedent for non-violence, preferring to have Drake use his wits and his fists rather than a gun. McGoohan influenced the program from the start.
The themes of morality and individuality fit in with his personal philosophy as well as his vision of what the character John Drake was supposed to be.
As both a moral and opinionated man, McGoohan held strong views and was forceful about seeing that they were carried out. He had insisted at the very first meeting on the script for the first episode that the bedroom scene be cut out. In fact, he stipulated that romantic involvements would have to be eliminated if he were to play the role, and consequently none appeared in either this series or the 'Secret Agent' series that followed.
Nor did any such relationships appear in 'The Prisoner' series. One episode of the series, 'Vacation' afforded McGoohan an early chance at directing, a skill he was to develop more fully on future projects.
Another episode, 'A View from the Villa', was filmed at Portmeirion in Wales and so impressed him that he made it the surreal location for 'The Prisoner' in 1966/67.
It should come as no surprise that when McGoohan was offered the role as the first James Bond, he turned it down - several times - as being incompatible with the type of role he wanted to play. He says it was a decision he has never regretted.
By the time 'Danger Man' resumed production in 1964, spy stories were all the rage and the series became a big hit. Shown in England under the previous title, it became 'Secret Agent' in the United States and debuted in 1965. John Drake was now a secret agent for England instead of NATO, and the series was expanded to an hour in length. It was recognized as being a classy show. It had original and good plots, a popular theme song and well-written background music, excellent production techniques, exceptional camera work, and it had McGoohan's strong and stylish performance.
As an actor, McGoohan had now carved out a voice and style all his own. As before, John Drake was a loner, an individual, and a moral character.
By 1966 McGoohan had grown tired of 'Secret Agent' and felt the program was beginning to repeat itself.
He approached Lew Grade about doing something a little different and proposed to him a limited-episode series called 'The Prisoner'. McGoohan had the status and power he needed to get the backing for the series he really wanted to do, and the free rein to control its every aspect. He spoke of 'The Prisoner': "I believe passionately in the freedom of the individual, and 'The Prisoner' is basically about the dehumanizing, the loss of individuality, which is happening to us all. People are the prisoners of our society. The series is a comment about life. 'The Prisoner' idea was with me for many years before I put it together with Portmeirion and decided to do the series. The general theme of the man in isolation against authority and bureaucracy, the idea of being a rebel against suppression and stupid rules has been with me since I was able to start thinking about anything at all." 'The Prisoner' started production in 1966. I had directed before that. I had directed in the theatre, and I'd done some writing. And, of course, during the making of 'Secret Agent', I directed some of those. I liked the total involvement. I'm not very happy just doing peripheral tasks. So that one is working as near as one can get to 24 hours a day. I like that, the feeling of achievement. The working with new ideas. I think that's wonderful. But one can only do it in spurts or you burn out."
McGoohan was the star and executive producer, as well as a frequent director and writer; the creative force and controlling hand of a series that was in large part his concept. An able production team was assembled from the previous series. McGoohan wrote a number of the episodes, using several pseudonyms as well as his own name during the course of the work.
The series debuted in England in 1967 and in the United States in June, 1968. A two-year period of personal and professional transition followed the release of 'The Prisoner'.
He moved his family to Switzerland in an effort to find some privacy. There were a few trips back to England to deal with business regarding the production of eight African documentaries. He said, "Individuality was what 'The Prisoner' was all about... the right of the individual to lead his own life, a private life. The First Amendment, I passionately believe in it! We have to have a free press to be free, we HAVE to have it. But we also have the right to a private life, to not have our lives invaded."
He is a man whose career ranges over the world, in every medium and form. And a man whose marriage and family take priority over that career. One who stolidly insists on a private life, yet the most consistent thread throughout 35 years of interviews is his affection for his wife and the importance of his family.
He is currently at work planning the film version of his popular series, 'The Prisoner'.
He continues to be a man whose career ranges over the world, in every medium and form. One who stolidly insists on a private life. He is a man who lives in the present and is constantly moving quickly into his future through the pursuit of any number of ideas or projects he has under way.
And he puts a few more hours in his day than most of us do by only sleeping a couple of hours at night.
When he says he's an early riser, he means 3:00 a.m. Patrick McGoohan is an actor who has spent a lifetime playing roles of men in isolation, apart from the mainstream of society; loners who, for better or worse, rejected the rules and lived their own way. The public role, after all, may be the clearest insight to the enigma of the private person.
His parents had immigrated to the united States and, within a few months after his birth, decided to return to Ireland. They settled in County Leitrim, and by all accounts his early childhood was a financially impoverished one on a family farm that produced little on poor soil.
He went to a local school in Sheffield and recalls, 'We were evacuated during the war. During that time, I went to a private boys' school with four other boys from Sheffield all with pretty much the same background as myself. We had scholarships and evacuation allowances. After that, I went to work in the steel mills in Sheffield.' He got a school certificate, the equivalent of a diploma and passed the exams to go to Oxford, but then said he decided, 'I didn't want to go.'
In 1944, at age 16, he left school and held a series of jobs over the next few years. At this point he became ill with bronchial asthma and spent six months in bed. Once recovered, he applied for work at the Sheffield Repertory Company. He was still under 20. Patrick McGoohan took the job as stage manager at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre and for a while did every type of work needed to keep the company going. Within two years he was a leading player. By the mid-1950's, he had become established as a lead player on prestige stages at the West End in plays such as 'Moby Dick' (1955), 'Serious Charge' (1955) and Ring for Catty' (1956). At the same time he was also moving into television, taking feature roles in episodes of regular series, including 'The Vise', and 'You Are There', as well as a number of BBC-TV plays. Recognition was coming early, but not without considerable effort. McGoohan's first TV series 'Danger Man' was made in 1960 and 1961. The series established the direction and theme for what a few years later would become the highly successful 'Secret Agent' series.
Main character John Drake worked for NATO as a special security agent and was free to travel the world working on special problems for free world governments. The story lines set an early precedent for non-violence, preferring to have Drake use his wits and his fists rather than a gun. McGoohan influenced the program from the start.
The themes of morality and individuality fit in with his personal philosophy as well as his vision of what the character John Drake was supposed to be.
As both a moral and opinionated man, McGoohan held strong views and was forceful about seeing that they were carried out. He had insisted at the very first meeting on the script for the first episode that the bedroom scene be cut out. In fact, he stipulated that romantic involvements would have to be eliminated if he were to play the role, and consequently none appeared in either this series or the 'Secret Agent' series that followed.
Nor did any such relationships appear in 'The Prisoner' series. One episode of the series, 'Vacation' afforded McGoohan an early chance at directing, a skill he was to develop more fully on future projects.
Another episode, 'A View from the Villa', was filmed at Portmeirion in Wales and so impressed him that he made it the surreal location for 'The Prisoner' in 1966/67.
It should come as no surprise that when McGoohan was offered the role as the first James Bond, he turned it down - several times - as being incompatible with the type of role he wanted to play. He says it was a decision he has never regretted.
By the time 'Danger Man' resumed production in 1964, spy stories were all the rage and the series became a big hit. Shown in England under the previous title, it became 'Secret Agent' in the United States and debuted in 1965. John Drake was now a secret agent for England instead of NATO, and the series was expanded to an hour in length. It was recognized as being a classy show. It had original and good plots, a popular theme song and well-written background music, excellent production techniques, exceptional camera work, and it had McGoohan's strong and stylish performance.
As an actor, McGoohan had now carved out a voice and style all his own. As before, John Drake was a loner, an individual, and a moral character.
By 1966 McGoohan had grown tired of 'Secret Agent' and felt the program was beginning to repeat itself.
He approached Lew Grade about doing something a little different and proposed to him a limited-episode series called 'The Prisoner'. McGoohan had the status and power he needed to get the backing for the series he really wanted to do, and the free rein to control its every aspect. He spoke of 'The Prisoner': "I believe passionately in the freedom of the individual, and 'The Prisoner' is basically about the dehumanizing, the loss of individuality, which is happening to us all. People are the prisoners of our society. The series is a comment about life. 'The Prisoner' idea was with me for many years before I put it together with Portmeirion and decided to do the series. The general theme of the man in isolation against authority and bureaucracy, the idea of being a rebel against suppression and stupid rules has been with me since I was able to start thinking about anything at all." 'The Prisoner' started production in 1966. I had directed before that. I had directed in the theatre, and I'd done some writing. And, of course, during the making of 'Secret Agent', I directed some of those. I liked the total involvement. I'm not very happy just doing peripheral tasks. So that one is working as near as one can get to 24 hours a day. I like that, the feeling of achievement. The working with new ideas. I think that's wonderful. But one can only do it in spurts or you burn out."
McGoohan was the star and executive producer, as well as a frequent director and writer; the creative force and controlling hand of a series that was in large part his concept. An able production team was assembled from the previous series. McGoohan wrote a number of the episodes, using several pseudonyms as well as his own name during the course of the work.
The series debuted in England in 1967 and in the United States in June, 1968. A two-year period of personal and professional transition followed the release of 'The Prisoner'.
He moved his family to Switzerland in an effort to find some privacy. There were a few trips back to England to deal with business regarding the production of eight African documentaries. He said, "Individuality was what 'The Prisoner' was all about... the right of the individual to lead his own life, a private life. The First Amendment, I passionately believe in it! We have to have a free press to be free, we HAVE to have it. But we also have the right to a private life, to not have our lives invaded."
He is a man whose career ranges over the world, in every medium and form. And a man whose marriage and family take priority over that career. One who stolidly insists on a private life, yet the most consistent thread throughout 35 years of interviews is his affection for his wife and the importance of his family.
He is currently at work planning the film version of his popular series, 'The Prisoner'.
He continues to be a man whose career ranges over the world, in every medium and form. One who stolidly insists on a private life. He is a man who lives in the present and is constantly moving quickly into his future through the pursuit of any number of ideas or projects he has under way.
And he puts a few more hours in his day than most of us do by only sleeping a couple of hours at night.
When he says he's an early riser, he means 3:00 a.m. Patrick McGoohan is an actor who has spent a lifetime playing roles of men in isolation, apart from the mainstream of society; loners who, for better or worse, rejected the rules and lived their own way. The public role, after all, may be the clearest insight to the enigma of the private person.
His granddaughter, Sarah, was born in 1979.
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He played two British secret agents whose true names were never revealed: Number Six in The Prisoner and David Jones in Ice Station Zebra.
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Two of the actors who played his murder victims in Columbo also appeared in The Golden Girls: Rue McClanahan played Blanche Devereaux in every episode of the series while Leslie Nielsen played Lucas Hollingsworth in the finale "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1)" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (2)".
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Patrick McGoohan: "Freedom is a myth."
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Some people believe that his Danger Man character, John Drake, and his The Prisoner character, Number Six, are intended to the same person. The fact that Christopher Benjamin played the same character, Potter, in both the Danger Man episode "Koroshi" and The Prisoner episode "The Girl Who Was Death" lends credence to this belief.
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Patrick McGoohan: (about The Prisoner) "I suppose that it is the sort of thing where a thousand people might have a different interpretation of it...that was the intention".
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Patrick McGoohan: (on his Danger Man character, John Drake) “I should never have thought of John Drake as a calm man but one with a constant potential of eruption. This is essential to any part. The audience must be aware of a man wanting to erupt into action.”
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He was a friend of Kenneth Griffith during the 1960s. They appeared in the Danger Man episode "Shinda Shima" and The Prisoner episodes "The Girl Who Was Death" and "Fall Out" together.
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Patrick McGoohan: (speaking in 1969 on how little fame and riches had changed his life) “I still have the same home. I still drink the same beer. I still use the same pubs in London - usually the public bars because that’s where the action is. And I think I still have the same friends from my broke days - those that were real friends that is.”
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Since The Prisoner ended in 1968, he has never once returned to Portmeirion, Wales, where it was filmed.
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In late 1967, he was in America filming Ice Station Zebra. As a result of this, he was written out almost entirely of The Prisoner episode "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling", appearing in only the final scene. In that episode, his character Number Six's mind was transferred into the body of another body, that of the Colonel, played by Nigel Stock. During this time, Number Six's own body remained in the Village.
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He is a big fan of Westerns.
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Due to complications arising from an operation, he was in a coma for most of 1992.
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He and his wife often play gin-rummy.
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Patrick McGoohan: (on his wife's ability at gin-rummy) "She’s very good at it. I think we’re runnin’ neck and neck. We’ll play 10 games; if she wins, we go away for a weekend.”
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Patrick McGoohan: “My father did not take to the pace of New York. He farmed in Ireland, in County Leitrim, the poorest county in Ireland. Its only export is people. He made the farm go for eight years and then they emigrated again, this time to England.”
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He and his wife, Joan Drummond, remarried in September 1977. The reason for this was that at the time of their first wedding on May 19, 1951, they were both too busy rehearsing for theatre roles to have a church wedding.
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He and his family have lived in Southern California since 1968.
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He has appeared in four different productions with Aubrey Morris: The Quare Fellow, Danger Man, The Prisoner and Columbo: Ashes to Ashes.
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He has five grandchildren.
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When he was a young man in the late 1950s, he was hailed as "Britain's most important film discovery" and it was predicted that he "should become a giant".
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This first film was The Dam Busters and his last thus far is Treasure Planet.
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He played his The Prisoner character, Number Six, in two spoofs of the series: The Laughing Prisoner and The Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes".
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In 1955, he starred in a West End production of a play called Serious Charge, in the role of a priest accused of homosexuality. Orson Welles attended the peformance and was so impressed by McGoohan's stage presence ("intimidated" he admitted later), he cast him as Starbuck in his York theatre production of Moby Dick Rehearsed.
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His wife, Joan Drummond, was a real estate agent for many years.
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In 1948 at the age of 20, he was accepted to the Sheffield Repertory Theatre as a student stage manager.
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He enjoys writing poetry.
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He met his wife, Joan Drummond, at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre in 1950 when he was 22 and she was 19. She turned down his first proposal of marriage but accepted his second.
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He left school in 1944 when he was sixteen-years-old. He took a job with the Sheffield British Rope Company. His single year there had him reaching a position in the accounts and sales department.
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He turned down two roles that eventually went to Roger Moore: Simon Templar in The Saint and James Bond in Live and Let Die.
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Two of his most famous characters, Number Six in The Prisoner and the Warden in Escape from Alcatraz, were not given names.
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He is the only actor to appear in all 17 episodes of The Prisoner.
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He has worked with two actors with a glass eye: Leo McKern in The Prisoner episodes "The Chimes of Big Ben", "Once Upon A Time" and "Fall Out" and Peter Falk in various episodes of Columbo.
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Patrick McGoohan: (on his initial intention when making The Prisoner) "I wanted to have controversy, argument, fights, discussions, people in anger waving first in my face saying, 'How dare you? Why don't you do more "Secret Agents" that we can understand?' I was delighted with that reaction. I think it's a very good one."
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Patrick McGoohan: (on how The Prisoner has been analysed and studied for many years) "I'm astonished! For instance, the beautiful presentation, the thing that you prepared for our good friends here, puts profounder meaning into many of the stories than I ever thought of."
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Patrick McGoohan: (on why he initially decided to develop The Prisoner) "Boredom, was how it started."
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He used two pseudonyms when writing for The Prisoner: Paddy Fitz for "Free for All" and Joseph Serf for "A Change of Mind". He also wrote "Once Upon A Time" and "Fall Out" using his own name.
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Patrick McGoohan: I must have individuality in everything I do. It’s not easy to find it always. I am an actor first although I’m now going into the fields of production, directing and writing too. I find all these challenges, this total involvement in everything I do, the most exciting way to live. A man must create pressure in his working life, something to which he can respond and must overcome. I question everything. I don’t accept anything on face value."
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As of 2006, he has retired from acting due to numerous health problems.
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Patrick McGoohan: "Mel [Gibson] will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a number."
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He wrote the script for the final episode of The Prisoner, "Fall Out", over two days in his dressing room.
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He directed at least one episode of all four series in which he starred: both series of Danger Man, The Prisoner and Rafferty.
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He was the title character of all four series in which he starred: both series of Danger Man (John Drake), The Prisoner (Number Six) and Rafferty (Dr. Sid Rafferty).
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He was the first choice to play both Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" films but turned down both roles, likely due to his ill health.
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He has been the honourary president of Six of One, the official appreciation society for The Prisoner, since its foundation of 1977.
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He was the first actor considered for the role of James Bond, before even Sean Connery, but turned down the role because of moral objections.
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He is a close friend of Peter Falk.
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He suffers from asthma.
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He took a job with the Sheffield British Rope Company at the age of 16 in 1944.
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His parents were Thomas McGoohan and Rose Fitzpatrick McGoohan.
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He has been married to Joan Drummond since May 19, 1951. They have three children, Catherine (b. 1952), Anne (b. 1959) and Frances (b. 1961).
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He played four different murderers in four different episodes of Columbo, more than anyone else.
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He is the father of Catherine McGoohan and Anne McGoohan.
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He wanted to be a Roman Catholic priest until he was fifteen. His mother had promised God before he was born that if her first child was a boy, he would become a priest.
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Patrick McGoohan: "Marriage is a wonderful thing. It is more important to like the person you marry than it is to love them."
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