• The new B5TV.COM is here. We've replaced our 16 year old software with flashy new XenForo install. Registration is open again. Password resets will work again. More info here.

RIP Patrick McGoohan

Markas

Markas

His Majesty
Sadly, the star of The Prisoner and many other roles Patrick McGoohan has died in Los Angeles at the age of 80.

I loved The Prisoner. It fascinated me when I was a child.
 
Wow, what a shame, another great gone. I too loved the Prisoner. As a kid when I watched it, I didn't understand all the allegory, but, it worked on it's own without the allegory.
 
Yes, I just heard about Ricardo Montalban today, and now this. :(

I have "Prisoner" on DVD, I had to have it to see if it made better sense to me. He had creative control on that one, and it was meant to be shorter than it was, isn't that right? And I enjoyed him in Ice Station Zebra very much, as well.

He's also the kind of actor who popped up a lot, unexpectedly.

He did great work.
 
McGoohan was one of my favorites, and not only for The Prisoner, which I loved. He also starred in Danger Man, aka Secret Agent, which is available on DVD. It is intelligently written, not aimed at 12 year-olds, and well worth watching. If you ever get the chance, check out All Night Long, made in 1962. It is a sort of jazz version of Othello, and plays on cable, TCM I think.
 
Demonn said:
He shall live on through Braveheart. RIP
Click to expand...

For me, he'll be the guy that took the explanation for what the hell happened at the end of the Prisoner to the grave.

You win this time, McGoohan. :wtf:

I loved him in everything I saw him in, though. Well, can't say I loved him Braveheart, as I don't remember him from Braveheart. Or anything much about Braveheart, aside from that it really, really sucked. (Told you Mel Gibson was a douche! Hah!)
 
:LOL: I'm sure that'll comfort him a lot, Chilli. (He won, yea. :))

I suspect there is no real "specific meaning" for the ending. It was more like interpretive dance or theater: impressions meant to bring about emotions in the audience, and thoughts, but not necessarily individual point-by-point logical meanings.

The very last shot in the series is one of the most memorable endings to a show, though, and I'd say the meaning of that (figuratively or literally) came across as clear as a bell.

And I love the premise. Wasn't he at a party, or something, when someone asked him "so where do secret agents go when they retire?" He had the beginning and the end clearly in mind, and made up the middle later, I would guess.

And all the bit parts he played: he always gave a sense of class and gravitas to anything he appeared in that I've ever seen. He had the mature version of "it" for movie and t.v. audiences. :cool:
 
Chilli said:
For me, he'll be the guy that took the explanation for what the hell happened at the end of the Prisoner to the grave.

You win this time, McGoohan. :wtf:
Click to expand...

Who is Number 1? has 5 answers. The final episode gave three of them.

The fourth answer is God.
The fifth answer is a person like a king. The name of the king/president/prime minister was the answer people were expecting.
 
Last edited:
Chilli said:
I loved him in everything I saw him in, though. Well, can't say I loved him Braveheart, as I don't remember him from Braveheart. Or anything much about Braveheart, aside from that it really, really sucked. (Told you Mel Gibson was a douche! Hah!)
Click to expand...

He had Mel Gibson (William Wallace) put to death. It didn't go the way he wanted but he had him killed none the less. :p
 
A_M_Swallow said:
Who is Number 1? has 5 answers. The final episode gave three of them.

The fourth answer is God.
The fifth answer is a person like a king. The name of the king/president/prime minister was the answer people were expecting.
Click to expand...

Number One was the nuclear missile that blasts of near the end. It is clearly labeled as such. One could say that nukes were "God" to the governments of the time. Now, they are the demons, if other gov may try to possess them...
 
William Wallace: "Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace."
Young Soldier: "William Wallace is seven feet tall!"
William Wallace: "Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds. And if HE were here, he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 252 (members: 0, guests: 252)

Share this page

Back
Top