Mrs. McGoohan Speaks
AgentJo...@aol.com
January 22, 2009
Michael Aushenker , Staff Writer, Palisadian Post
Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy Award-winning actor who in the late 1960s
created, produced and starred in the cult-classic television series
'The Prisoner,' died on January 13. The longtime Pacific Palisades
resident was 80.
At the peak of James Bond's popularity in 1965, the multi-talented
McGoohan appeared as John Drake in the CBS series 'Secret
Agent' (known in Britain as 'Danger Man').
''Secret Agent' was the first British series ever filmed for American
primetime,' McGoohan's widow, Joan Drummond McGoohan told the
Palisadian-Post. 'It was a huge hit. It gave him a lot of clout.'
Enter 'The Prisoner,' a British-produced program on CBS in 1968 and
1969. McGoohan played the enigmatic erstwhile secret agent, No. 6, who
one day wakes up in his prison, an island with a manufactured township
called The Village, teeming with surveillance equipment. The show
resembled an Orwellian exercise of surreal paranoia.
'Patrick wrote the first script,' said Joan, his wife of 58 years. 'He
outlined the stories. Technically, there was a story editor, but it
was rubbish. He wrote a lot of them, even under different names:
Archibald Schwartz, Paddy Fitz.'
She singled out the penultimate episode, which McGoohan wrote, as
having 'some of the best acting I've ever seen on television.' She
remembered how unhappy viewers were with the final installment, which
purposely left the show's running MacGuffin unresolved.
'People were furious,' she said. 'They thought they would find out who
No. 1 was. It was too surreal for most people.'
''The Prisoner' summed up what he felt,' Joan McGoohan continued. 'He
thought it was very contemporary. He was an independent thinker. He
followed all world happenings, the Middle East. He was a brilliant
mind. All sorts of people, when they met him, they listened. Where it
came from, I have no idea.'
After only 17 episodes, 'The Prisoner' left the air.
'In his mind, it was finished,' Joan McGoohan said. 'But then these
fan clubs turned up.' A cult following has since endured for decades.
Later this year, American Movie Classics will air a remake of the
series, starring James Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellan.
'They wanted Patrick to have some part in it,' McGoohan's wife said,
'but he adamantly didn't want to be involved. He had already done
it.'
McGoohan won two Emmys for acting in 'Columbo' in 1975 and 1990. He
also directed episodes of the original 1970s version of Peter Falk's
program, and was very involved behind the scenes of the 'Columbo' TV
movies that followed.
Born in 1928 to Irish parents in Queens, New York, McGoohan grew up in
Ireland until the age of 7, when his family moved to Sheffield,
England. In the late 1940s, he became a stage manager at Sheffield
Repertory Theatre, where he began acting and met actress Joan
Drummond. In 1959, McGoohan received a London Drama Critics Award for
his performance in Ibsen's 'Brand.'
'People who saw it had never forgot his performance, almost like some
mythical thing,' Joan McGoohan said. 'My only regret is that he didn't
play King Lear. Laurence Olivier had called him to play at the
National and he turned it down.'
But the role McGoohan treasured most can be seen in the 1991 PBS
production 'The Best of Friends,' opposite John Gielgud, in which he
portrayed a legendary Irish playwright.
'He had his spirit,' his wife said. 'He was totally George Bernard
Shaw, that was just transcendent. He related to Shaw's irreverence,
his humor, his underlying gravitas.'
Thanks to the 1960s' 'Danger Man' series in Britain (the precursor of
'Secret Agent'), McGoohan was offered the chance to be the original
James Bond in feature films. He famously turned down the role, partly
because he dreaded the level of fame it might trigger.
'He never even thought twice about turning it down,' Joan McGoohan
said. 'He was the obvious choice. But he thought the role was cheap.
He wouldn't carry a gun and he wouldn't sleep with a different woman
every week.'
The McGoohans moved to Pacific Palisades in the mid-1970s, with
daughters Catherine, Anne and Frances; more recently, Joan has been an
agent in the local Sotheby's International Realty office.
Of 'The Prisoner''s enduring cult status, Patrick McGoohan, who played
the villainous King Edward I in Mel Gibson's 1995 film 'Braveheart,'
once said: 'Mel will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a
number.'
McGoohan's wife explained that he had clinched his role in
'Braveheart' by intimidating Gibson with a stare over lunch in
Malibu.
'Mel treated him beautifully as a director,' Joan McGoohan said.
Locally, the McGoohans frequented Sam's at the Beach restaurant in
Santa Monica Canyon. In the village, they dined at Modo Mio.
Joan McGoohan enjoyed a laugh at the notion that, in a sense, No. 6
never left 'the village.'
'He would get up at the crack of dawn, get the New York Times, and get
some coffee at Mort's or Starbucks,' she said. 'He wrote. Always,
always.'
Although she usually sleeps in, McGoohan told the Post last Friday, 'I
got up very early today. I thought, 'I'm doing Patrick's routine.'
It's just so precious, the start of the day. I'm going to try to
change my routine a bit and try to enjoy those moments.
'I feel we've had such wonderful times together. We were partners for
life. I feel very lucky.'
In addition to his wife and daughters, McGoohan is survived by five
grandchildren and a great-grandson. Private services were held on
Monday.
Jan
Thank you so much for posting this. I was hoping she would have
something to say.
roger
news:10e7a5b0-f36c-4853...@g39g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
> Thank you so much for posting this.
Here's the URL
http://www.palisadespost.com/content/index.cfm?Story_ID=4587=Palisadian-Post
with a typical "wrong way round" photo of Patrick.
moorl...@googlemail.com
>I was hoping she would have something to say
I like the bit where she says *Arrival* was rubbish until her husband
rewrote it...
:-))))))))
roger
<moorl...@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:1e87bb68-c49e-41be...@r41g2000prr.googlegroups.com...
roger
news:1e87bb68-c49e-41be...@r41g2000prr.googlegroups.com...
> I like the bit where she says *Arrival* was rubbish until her husband
> rewrote it...
That's an interesting interpretation of:
moorl...@googlemail.com
> <moorlar...@googlemail.com> wrote in message
How did you know that was the bit I meant?
redcat
The article has:
'Patrick wrote the first script,' said Joan, his wife of 58 years. 'He
outlined the stories. Technically, there was a story editor, but it was
rubbish.'
So, that confuses me. Is what happened that PMG outlined the stories and
then a story editor was to actually write them?
Who was the story editor? Does she mean _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?
redcat
redcat
'In his mind, it was finished,' Joan McGoohan said. 'But then these fan
clubs turned up.'
Does that not sound like disapproval?
redcat
Rick Davy
<AgentJo...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:86124b9a-838a-4025...@m2g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
> Patrick McGoohan, 80; TV's "The Prisoner"
I found that a really nice, and touching, piece to read.
Rick
moorl...@googlemail.com
*rubbish* and not *garbage*..........
I wonder if she likes pancakes...... or flapjacks?
Jill Mills
> Thank you so much for posting this. I was hoping she would have
> something to say.
Yes - what a lovely article!
Some interesting and moving comments.
Jill
Jan
wrote:
> <AgentJohnDr...@aol.com> wrote in message
In that little part at the end where she said she got up early that
day, like he did...it brought to my mind Delenn in Babylon 5 after
Sheriden died; she would get up to watch the sunrise and in her mind's
eye, see him sitting there on the bench with her.
simonca...@aol.com
wrote:
Ditto- it's like she knew there would be many people wanting to know.
A choice piece.
Si
John W Kennedy
Perhaps, but it could equally well be bemusement.
John W Kennedy
The job of a story editor in the US is to make sure that all the scripts
in a series are consistent in style, characterization, background,
etc.... By all accounts, PMG was the /real/ story editor of "The
Prisoner", no matter what the credits said, just as Joe Straczynski was
the real story editor of "Babylon 5", even though Larry DiTillio had
that title for the first two years.
I do not know for a fact whether "script editor" is the UK equivalent of
US "story editor", but I suppose it is. The early episodes credit George
Markstein; the later ones list no one.
John W Kennedy
"Babylon 5" is one of the few shows in the history of television to
rival "The Prisoner" in quality, and it payed homage to it in Bester's
habit of saying "Be seeing you!" with an imitation of the Village
salute. They hoped to get PMG to guest star, but it never worked out.
Legend11 (Formerly Slitheen)
news:86124b9a-838a-4025...@m2g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
> Patrick McGoohan, 80; TV's "The Prisoner"
>
>
Thanks. Wow....I never expected that. In fact it was the last thing I
expected from such a private person. She sounds like a very nice lady. Such
a privilege to read, thanks again.
--
Legend11 (Formerly Slitheen)
Jan
>
> - Show quoted text -
There were other Prisoner references to, which absolutely delight me,
since I am a huge B5 fan as well as TP. The sequence in Comes the
Inquisitor, which has some great Alice Cooper lines, is very Prisoner-
esque in its rhythm, and it is hard not to see TP in the interrogator
episode (Intersections in Real Time?) with Sheriden. In another
episode, Garibaldi is questioning someone, and he actually does give
the full "be seeing you" salute. It's fun to be on the lookout for
these things. :) It would've been great if PMG could've been the
head of Psi Corps as Stracyzinski had wanted!
Legend11 (Formerly Slitheen)
news:Cr-dnWa6A7mQvuLU...@earthlink.com...
Hard to say. I wouldn't have thought so. I mean he kept all that at arms
length, and people respected that...so I guess they were no nuisance to him.
I'd certainly like to think he appreciated the fact that so many people
loved his work.
--
Legend11 (Formerly Slitheen)
Legend11 (Formerly Slitheen)
news:497faad5$0$18006$607e...@cv.net...
I too love Babylon 5...a lot, and while it definitely appears on my list of
favourites, for me The Prisoner leads the pack by a country mile in terms of
originality and quality. Of fairly recent TV, only Firefly and Lost have
gained entrance to my exclusive list of favourite TV shows.
I agree, Babylon 5 does share some Prisoner-esque qualities. i.e. The Psi
Corps...as you rightly point out. The notices on the wall of Psi Corps HQ,
'The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father' always remind me of the notices
on walls in The Prisoner. From what I know of JMS, which from following his
Usenet postings is a fair bit, I'd bet my mortgage that The Prisoner
directly influenced the scenes of the Psi Corps HQ.
--
Legend11 (Formerly Slitheen)
AgentJo...@aol.com
You betcha. He thought the hardcore fanatics were a bunch of loons.
Didn't you notice him keeping his distance?
AgentJo...@aol.com
wrote:
> <AgentJohnDr...@aol.com> wrote in message
Leave it to ol' JConn to come through with the good stuff.
BCNU.
AgentJo...@aol.com
She's a very classy lady, but you owe credit for publication of her
comments to an enterprising local reporter. The family is fairly well
known about town.
Brian Watson
Every interview, every statement from the man, suggests that he regarded it
as a finished project, but that he was flattered that it was still held in
high regard and would treat those who treated him and it with respect in the
same way.
I think any artist in any medium sees their work in the same way. One
creates, moves on, and hopes the piece has had some value.
In a VERY trivial parallel, I still get people in their 30s calling me
"Buttons" because of a pantomime they saw me in 25 years ago.
I said it was trivial....
:-))
--
Brian
"Fight like the Devil, die like a gentleman."
Brian Watson
>> 'Patrick wrote the first script,' said Joan, his wife of 58 years. 'He
>> outlined the stories. Technically, there was a story editor, but it was
>> rubbish.'
>>
>> So, that confuses me. Is what happened that PMG outlined the stories and
>> then a story editor was to actually write them?
>>
>> Who was the story editor? Does she mean _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?
>
> The job of a story editor in the US is to make sure that all the scripts
> in a series are consistent in style, characterization, background, etc....
> By all accounts, PMG was the /real/ story editor of "The Prisoner", no
> matter what the credits said, just as Joe Straczynski was the real story
> editor of "Babylon 5", even though Larry DiTillio had that title for the
> first two years.
>
> I do not know for a fact whether "script editor" is the UK equivalent of
> US "story editor", but I suppose it is. The early episodes credit George
> Markstein; the later ones list no one.
It's pretty apparent that McGoohan was happy to work with Markstein at
first, but that they split over genuine creative differences.
My guess is that when Lew Grade required more episodes, McGoohan thought it
was a chance to say, "if we do it, we do it my way," and saw no need to
proceed with the literal version that Markstein wanted to have in mind as
the focus point they had BOTH been aiming at.
The emphasis changed. From being a post-spy series addressing contemporary
concerns, it became more about the issues with the underpinning post-spy
story and end point being just "understood".
moorl...@googlemail.com
>He thought the hardcore fanatics were a bunch of loons.
> Didn't you notice him keeping his distance?
He certainly seemed to once the clubs started saying it was all
Marksteins idea.
I was re-reading the1992 Dave Rogers book last night. He basically
told the Society story about Markstein and then he wrote that he
personally didn't believe much of any of
it.............. :-))))) ....... I realised why that was the first and
last prisoner book I ever bought apart from that one about wandering
round Portmeirion, spotting all the buildings that appear in episodes
of Danger Man.......
McGoohan was fairly open about his opinion that cults had *their own
agenda* in his interview with Howard Foy in that magazine, The Box, in
about 1991. He was always polite about the individual though. I guess
if anyone saw the dangers of the *group mentality*, it was him.
AgentJo...@aol.com
> I guess
> if anyone saw the dangers of the *group mentality*, it was him.
That is exactly correct. On more than one occasion, Mr. McGoohan was
publicly embarrased by the antics of some Prisoner fans.
When people form a cult around any one thing, it necessarily entails a
closing of the mind to some extent. The group mentality to which you
refer
has been exhibited by some on this very forum from time to time. The
irony of such behaviour is striking --- and very sad.
Shaitan
wrote:
>On Jan 27, 10:29?am, "Rick Davy" <Rdavy...@NOSPAMbtopenworld.com>
I thought that was Mrs McGoohan.
Jan
<Slithee...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> "John W Kennedy" <jwke...@attglobal.net> wrote in messagenews:497faad5$0$18006$607e...@cv.net...
>
> - Show quoted text -
I was thinking of a funny B5/Prisoner intersection the other night:
"Who are you" (Vorlon question)
"The new Number 2" (Prisoner answer)
"What do you want?" (Shadow question)
"Information, we want information." (Prisoner answer)
Also, if I remember correctly, those signs in Psi Corps headquarters
were done in Albertus Modified.
Dick Spanner
> Patrick McGoohan, 80; TV's "The Prisoner"
>
>
>
> Michael Aushenker , Staff Writer, Palisadian Post
>
> Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy Award-winning actor who in the late 1960s
> created, produced and starred in the cult-classic television series
> 'The Prisoner,' died on January 13. The longtime Pacific Palisades
> resident was 80.
>
> At the peak of James Bond's popularity in 1965, the multi-talented
> McGoohan appeared as John Drake in the CBS series 'Secret
> Agent' (known in Britain as 'Danger Man').
>
> ''Secret Agent' was the first British series ever filmed for American
> primetime,' McGoohan's widow, Joan Drummond McGoohan told the
> Palisadian-Post. 'It was a huge hit. It gave him a lot of clout.'
>
> Enter 'The Prisoner,' a British-produced program on CBS in 1968 and
> 1969. McGoohan played the enigmatic erstwhile secret agent, No. 6, who
> one day wakes up in his prison, an island with a manufactured township
> called The Village, teeming with surveillance equipment. The show
> resembled an Orwellian exercise of surreal paranoia.
> 'Patrick wrote the first script,' said Joan, his wife of 58 years. 'He
> outlined the stories. Technically, there was a story editor, but it
> Archibald Schwartz, Paddy Fitz.'
>
> having 'some of the best acting I've ever seen on television.' She
> remembered how unhappy viewers were with the final installment, which
> purposely left the show's running MacGuffin unresolved.
>
> 'People were furious,' she said. 'They thought they would find out who
> No. 1 was. It was too surreal for most people.'
>
> ''The Prisoner' summed up what he felt,' Joan McGoohan continued. 'He
> thought it was very contemporary. He was an independent thinker. He
> followed all world happenings, the Middle East. He was a brilliant
> mind. All sorts of people, when they met him, they listened. Where it
> came from, I have no idea.'
>
> After only 17 episodes, 'The Prisoner' left the air.
> 'In his mind, it was finished,' Joan McGoohan said. 'But then these
> Later this year, American Movie Classics will air a remake of the
> series, starring James Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellan.
>
> 'They wanted Patrick to have some part in it,' McGoohan's wife said,
> 'but he adamantly didn't want to be involved. He had already done
> it.'
>
> McGoohan won two Emmys for acting in 'Columbo' in 1975 and 1990. He
> also directed episodes of the original 1970s version of Peter Falk's
> program, and was very involved behind the scenes of the 'Columbo' TV
> movies that followed.
>
> Born in 1928 to Irish parents in Queens, New York, McGoohan grew up in
> Ireland until the age of 7, when his family moved to Sheffield,
> England. In the late 1940s, he became a stage manager at Sheffield
> Repertory Theatre, where he began acting and met actress Joan
> Drummond. In 1959, McGoohan received a London Drama Critics Award for
> his performance in Ibsen's 'Brand.'
>
> 'People who saw it had never forgot his performance, almost like some
> mythical thing,' Joan McGoohan said. 'My only regret is that he didn't
> play King Lear. Laurence Olivier had called him to play at the
> National and he turned it down.'
>
> But the role McGoohan treasured most can be seen in the 1991 PBS
> production 'The Best of Friends,' opposite John Gielgud, in which he
> portrayed a legendary Irish playwright.
>
> 'He had his spirit,' his wife said. 'He was totally George Bernard
> Shaw, that was just transcendent. He related to Shaw's irreverence,
> his humor, his underlying gravitas.'
>
> Thanks to the 1960s' 'Danger Man' series in Britain (the precursor of
> 'Secret Agent'), McGoohan was offered the chance to be the original
> James Bond in feature films. He famously turned down the role, partly
> because he dreaded the level of fame it might trigger.
>
> 'He never even thought twice about turning it down,' Joan McGoohan
> said. 'He was the obvious choice. But he thought the role was cheap.
> He wouldn't carry a gun and he wouldn't sleep with a different woman
> every week.'
>
> The McGoohans moved to Pacific Palisades in the mid-1970s, with
> daughters Catherine, Anne and Frances; more recently, Joan has been an
> agent in the local Sotheby's International Realty office.
>
> Of 'The Prisoner''s enduring cult status, Patrick McGoohan, who played
> the villainous King Edward I in Mel Gibson's 1995 film 'Braveheart,'
> once said: 'Mel will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a
> number.'
>
> McGoohan's wife explained that he had clinched his role in
> 'Braveheart' by intimidating Gibson with a stare over lunch in
> Malibu.
>
> 'Mel treated him beautifully as a director,' Joan McGoohan said.
>
> Locally, the McGoohans frequented Sam's at the Beach restaurant in
> Santa Monica Canyon. In the village, they dined at Modo Mio.
>
> Joan McGoohan enjoyed a laugh at the notion that, in a sense, No. 6
> never left 'the village.'
>
> 'He would get up at the crack of dawn, get the New York Times, and get
> some coffee at Mort's or Starbucks,' she said. 'He wrote. Always,
> always.'
>
> Although she usually sleeps in, McGoohan told the Post last Friday, 'I
> got up very early today. I thought, 'I'm doing Patrick's routine.'
> It's just so precious, the start of the day. I'm going to try to
> change my routine a bit and try to enjoy those moments.
>
> 'I feel we've had such wonderful times together. We were partners for
> life. I feel very lucky.'
>
> In addition to his wife and daughters, McGoohan is survived by five
> grandchildren and a great-grandson. Private services were held on
> Monday.