MESSAGE
DATE | 2009-01-15 |
FROM | From: "Michael L. Richardson"
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SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] The Prisoner Died today...
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From lest-hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Thu Jan 15 05:53:07 2009 Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n0FAr5bl002009 for ; Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:53:07 -0500 Received: (from majordomo-at-localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id n0FAr4EF002008 for hangout-outgoings; Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:53:04 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: www2.mrbrklyn.com: majordomo set sender to lest-hangout-at-nylxs.com using -f Received: from mout.perfora.net (mout.perfora.net [74.208.4.195]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n0FAr2dK002005 for ; Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:53:04 -0500 Received: from [72.60.77.26] (72-60-77-26.pools.spcsdns.net [72.60.77.26]) by mrelay.perfora.net (node=mrus0) with ESMTP (Nemesis) id 0MKp8S-1LNPqM0scW-000T55; Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:53:00 -0500 Message-ID: <496F163A.2080600-at-michaellrichardson.com> Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:55:54 -0500 From: "Michael L. Richardson" User-Agent: Icedove 1.5.0.14eol (X11/20080509) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] The Prisoner Died today... References: <20090115091408.GA32644-at-www2.mrbrklyn.com> <200901141443.35546.sderrick-at-optonline.net> In-Reply-To: <200901141443.35546.sderrick-at-optonline.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Provags-ID: V01U2FsdGVkX1+TK5uSfydVHWKfuH1F6MItFV+sPBQYO3Keqsi awxFO8VCJEFgqXc0g3Ht2gh4zipV/vUxblqq19vWPPxLvB0a3/ an+HUrn5PXmgZezIjCR9Bpl9PeDpTFEJfyQJ+f8eIE= Sender: lest-hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com
"I am not a number" I always thought he was ahead of his time.
swd wrote: > Remember, in "The Prisoner", where he would give the "okay" sign with his > fingers? And look through the "O"? > He was also in at least 2 Colombo episodes. Terrific actor. > > On Thursday 15 January 2009 4:14 am, Ruben Safir wrote: > >> Patrick McGoohan was No. 1 as 'Prisoner's' Number 6 >> The 'Prisoner' actor's indelible, implacable Number 6 lives on. >> By ROBERT LLOYD, Television Critic >> January 15, 2009 >> In the summer of 1968, the most important television series of my life >> premiered on CBS as a summer replacement for "The Jackie Gleason Show." >> A British import about a spy who, having resigned his position, is >> drugged and kidnapped and wakes up captive in a fanciful holiday resort, >> where he is hectored week after week to explain himself, “The Prisoner†>> starred and was co-created by Patrick McGoohan, who died in Los Angeles >> on Tuesday at the age of 80. >> >> Pop culturally, we were near the end of an age of spies. McGoohan >> himself, who had passed on a chance to be James Bond, was already known >> to audiences as John Drake, the hero of "Secret Agent," whose theme song >> (written by Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan) became a hit for Johnny Rivers. >> "The Prisoner" was something different: Most every other spy, on movies >> and in television, was a glorified cop doing his (or, rarely, her) >> master's bidding. To the extent that he was free, it was expressed in a >> tendency to do things "his own way," but he was always first and >> foremost a company man. Whether his cause was just was something that he >> and we alike took for granted. It wasn't part of the deal to question >> it, or to ask any questions at all. >> >> By contrast, "The Prisoner" was a television show of ideas -- the >> inalienable if inconvenient right to self in a world that demands your >> cooperation, if not capitulation -- which also distinguished it from >> pretty much every other television show I had ever seen. The fact that I >> was just then working out that my own junior high school was a kind of >> jail made its appearance timely and amplified its meaning, as did most >> everything else about that chaotic summer of the battlements. >> >> "The Prisoner" was more than an idea, of course: It was an idea >> personified, and while it's fair to say that its artistic success was >> the lucky product of the work of many hands, it was McGoohan who made >> the series work. (That is perhaps why I am not yet more excited about >> AMC's coming remake, set to premiere sometime this year.) It was, >> metaphorically, his own story, having quit "Secret Agent" at the height >> of its success because it no longer suited him to play that role. >> >> Nearly 40 at the time (and the father of three), he was heroic in a way >> that mixed the self-reliance of the classic secret agent with the comedy >> of the new age's anti-authoritarian tricksters. Good-looking, in an >> Everyman sort of way, he had a musical voice, a light step, a twinkling >> eye -- he was a bit of a John Lennon, come to think of it -- that in >> itself bespoke a kind of freedom. There was always humor in his >> contrariness, and if Number 6 was fated corporeally to remain a prisoner >> -- caught at the border by Rover, the bouncing ball from hell, or shown >> that his imagined escape was merely an illusion -- he remained himself. >> As hard as they tried, they could not wash his brain. >> >> It is not McGoohan's fault that he is so closely connected with that >> role in my mind that I cannot clearly assess his larger gifts as an >> actor. He played many parts before it, and many parts over the >> remaining, second half of his life, including the 1977 series >> "Rafferty," several turns on "Columbo" and in the films "Silver Streak" >> and "Braveheart." I was always glad to see him working, because I felt I >> owed him something, and though he was not the busiest of actors, he may >> have been as busy as he liked. >> >> Having early in his career deprived himself of an annuity by passing on >> Bond (and "The Saint," whose Roger Moore became Bond), he more recently >> turned down both the roles of Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" and >> Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films. This might have been for reasons >> of health, as has been reported, but I prefer to think of him once again >> exercising his right to be perverse: "I am not a wizard," he might well >> have said, "I am a free man." >> >> robert.lloyd-at-latimes.com >> > > >
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