Patrick McGoohan

Patrick Joseph McGoohan (/məˈɡuː.ən/; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an American-born Irish actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film, television, and theatre. Born in New York City to Irish parents, he was raised in Ireland and England, began his career in England during the 1950s and became well known for his role as secret agent John Drake in the ITC espionage programme Danger Man (1960–1968). He then produced and created The Prisoner (1967–1968), a surrealistic television series in which he featured as Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village.

Beginning in the 1970s, McGoohan maintained a long-running association with the television series Columbo, writing, directing, producing and appearing in several episodes. His notable film roles included David Jones in Ice Station Zebra (1968), James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), the Warden in Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Dr. Paul Ruth in Scanners (1981), King Edward I in Braveheart (1995), Judge Omar Noose in A Time to Kill (1996), and the voice of Billy Bones in Treasure Planet (2002).

During the height of Danger Man's fame in the 1960s, McGoohan was the highest-paid actor on British television. McGoohan won the 1960 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor for his work on Danger Man, and twice won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (including its inaugural 1975 entry) for Columbo.