Patrick McGoohan, star of cult TV show The Prisoner and a number of notable films including Braveheart, has died. R.I.P. As I noted just last week, AMC recently put all seventeen episodes of The Prisoner online, viewable in their entirety.
While The Prisoner has deservedly earned an obsessive following over the years — there’s even an intriguing remake on the way — I thought I’d also note my hearty endorsement of McGoohan’s other major TV show, Secret Agent, a.k.a. Danger Man in the U.K. Initially dismissed as an attempt to capitalize on James Bond’s popularity (Ian Fleming was initially involved in the show’s development, as it started out as an attempt to bring Bond to TV), the show somehow transcended that thanks to its tight scripts and relentless emphasis on well executed plots. For a nearly fifty-year-old show about international espionage clearly done on a shoestring, it holds up astonishingly well.
UPDATE — friend of the Corner and film industry professional Craig Good offers this little remembrance:
When asked once why he created The Prisoner he gave the best-ever interview response (best imagined in his inimitable voice):
“To cause unrest.”
Heh.
UPDATE II: NR’s own Iain Murry has his own McGoohan tribute here.