THE PRISONER , ACTOR, WRITER, DIRECTOR PATRICK MCGOOHAN, PASSES AWAY AT AGE 80

On British television's Kafka-esque, cult classic, The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan's resourceful, defiant detainee, Number Six ,fought the law and the law won.

When Sir Lew Grade's ITV exported the series, viewers around the globe were transfixed by the weekly struggle to subjugate the pride and the power of a independent mind. In the end, Number Six triumphed over the evil that sought to enslave him.

From California, comes word that Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy-winning actor who brought The Prisoner to life for global audiences, has died.

McGoohan passed away Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said.

McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama "Columbo," and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film "Braveheart."

But he was most famous as the character known only as Number Six in "The Prisoner," a sci-fi tinged 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small enclave known only as The Village, where a mysterious authority named Number One constantly prevents his escape.

McGoohan came up with the concept and wrote and directed several episodes of the show, which has kept a devoted following in the United States and Europe for four decades.

He had first come to international attention as the star of two British television series that were played around the globe: The syndicated Danger Man and it's sequel, the CBS-TV hit, Secret Agent.

Patrick McGoohan was 80 .




Here is a rare clip from a 1977 talk show in which McGoohan looks back at the Prisoner;