Only days ago, the producers of AMC’s new “Prisoner” re-imagining commented that the star of the original series, Patrick McGoohan, was unable to travel in order to make a cameo in the new production. It struck me as a suspiciously ominous choice of phrase, and now I see that my instincts were correct: McGoohan has died at the age of 80.
As I mentioned in my “Prisoner” posting, I’ve never seen the original series (and I’ve been too busy to start watching the DVD set that AMC gave me), nor have I seen his previous series, “Secret Agent” and “Danger Man,” but I have many, many fond cinematic memories of McGoohan, including his roles in “Braveheart,” “A Time to Kill,” “Silver Streak,” “Escape from Alcatraz,” “Scanners,” and the underrated superhero romp, “The Phantom.” Additionally, Disney recently re-issued his classic adventure, “The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh,” where he plays Dr. Christopher Syn; I’d heard about it for many years, and it lived up to all the favorable reports I’d received.
R.I.P., Number Six.
