Goodbye Patrick McGoohan, Goodbye Ricardo Montalban

The entertainment world has lost two wonderful actors.

Patrick McGoohan
"Be seeing you!"

John Drake, Number Six and Dr. Paul Ruth are no more; Patrick McGoohan has passed away.

Patrick McGoohan brought an extra intensity and unique acting style to each performance and at the height of his popularity, he exerted a control over his characters that was driven by his own strong beliefs against screen time for womanizing or gun violence.

I will always remember the heroic John Drake from Danger Man which was known in the United States as Secret Agent.


Not So Jolly Roger

However, his greatest impact upon me was as the unnamed Number 6 from the fantastic television series The Prisoner.


Free For All

Years later, Patrick McGoohan and Michael Ironside stole the show with their performances in Scanners.


Scanners

Each of these works has large numbers of fans. Each of these appeals to a different crowd: action adventure, science fiction / fierce independence and horror. Although McGoohan was in productions with even larger audiences (A Time to Kill, Braveheart, Silver Streak, Ice Station Zebra, wrote, directed and starred in various episodes of Columbo) and was (so it is told) offered the role of James Bond, he will live on in my mind and in my memories as the man who rebelled against being pushed, stamped, filed, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered!

LA Times
Patrick McGoohan IMDB
Patrick McGoohan Wikipedia



Ricardo Montalban
"We offered the world ORDER!"

Ricardo Montalban was a prodigious actor who portrayed roles on stage, television and the big screen but who will be long remembered as Khan Noonien Singh, the Ahab of Star Trek.

Montalban achieved extraordinary fame in America in his role of Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island. His distinctive voice is instantly recognizable (and much parodied) for the phrase "Rich Corinthian Leather" in television commercials for the Chrysler Cordoba.

Montalban was also the main villian in The Naked Gun as Vincent Ludwig who had turned his secretary (amongst others) into a brain-washed assassin in an attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth II.

Of course, I will always remember his as Khan, the genetically engineered madman who ruled over millions until he escaped a war-torn Earth to be awakened two hundred years later aboard the Starship USS Enterprise.


Space Seed


Star Trek II


Star Trek II

Associated Press
Ricardo Montalban IMDB
Ricardo Montalban Wikipedia