Patrick McGoohan

Patrick Joseph McGoohan (March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor and director, best known for playing the title role in The Prisoner (as Number Six) and John Drake in Danger Man. He appeared in several Columbo television films as the murderer.

• Mel [Gibson] will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a number.
  • Cited in "Actor achieved cult status with 'The Prisoner"" Los Angeles Times (15 January 2009)
  • Of his role in The Prisoner

• The village is a place that is trying to destroy the individual by every means possible; trying to break his spirit, so that he accepts that he is Number Six and will live there happily as Number Six for ever after. [...] And this is the one rebel that they can't break.
  • Cited in "How star of the stage Patrick McGoohan became a Prisoner of his own success after switching to the screen" Mailonline website (15 January 2009)
  • Of The Prisoner

• When they did finally see it, there was a near-riot and I was going to be lynched. And I had to go into hiding in the mountains for two weeks, until things calmed down. That's really true!
  • Interviewed by Warner Troyer (1977), cited in Peter Bennett, Alex Kendall, Julian McDougall After the Media: Culture and Identity in the 21st Century Abingdon, Oxon (UK) & New York City: Routledge, 2011, p. 90
  • On the unconventional ending of The Prisoner considered confusing by viewers.