Actor Patrick McGoohan died Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at the age of 80, leaving behind a legacy of memorable films he'd done in a career that lasted forty years. Be it is a blessing or a curse, none of McGoohan's work as an actor was ever as memorable as his 1967 British TV show The Prisoner, where he played the imprisoned secret agent Number Six, trapped in a mysterious sci-fi village.
McGoohan was once famously quoted as saying, "Mel Gibson will always be Mad Max, and me, I will always be a number."
For a career-defining (and trapping) role, The Prisoner is not one to regret. Aside from being wildly popular, it was also a groundbreaking and influential show. Today, it's considered one of the finest TV shows ever made and branded a lasting mark on pop culture forever. One look at the peculiar opening credits and you know it's not the typical spy show of the time, depicting the kidnapping of the title character following his resignation.
The show took the pulpy espionage of James Bond and blended with political allegory, science fiction and all sorts of imaginative surrealism. It commented on individuality and institutionalism, perhaps best defined by a famous quote from the show: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered!" In an ironic twist, the main character is always looking to break free of his prison and repeatedly claims that he is man, not a number, but his real name was never revealed.
McGoohan's portrayal of Number Six will be remembered forever, as it's been immortalized not only on the television show, but also in numerous adaptations, spin-offs and continuations in the form of novels and comic books.
One lesser-known adaptation is an unfinished Marvel Comics adaptation by comics legend Jack Kirby. Kirby did The Prisoner? Yes, hard to believe, but he did. When The Prisoner first hit US television in 1968, Kirby did an homage to the show in an issue of Fantastic Four with then-writer Stan Lee. The story saw Dr. Doom building a spectacular village in Latveria to imprison the Fantastic Four, which Kirby drew with much inspiration from The Prisoner's village. Years later, in the mid-70's, he finally attempted a straight adaptation of the show. The 17-page story was supposed to be the first issue of many, retelling the first half of the first episode, but Marvel shut the project down before it could be completed. Since then, the pages have been floating around in auctions. Here are just some samples of the work he did in capturing the show's odd visuals and storytelling style.
Pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 12 and 15.
The Prisoner was McGoohan's baby. In addition to starring in the lead role, he developed the show and was an executive producer for its entire 17-episode run. He also wrote and directed several episodes, as well. With his passing, we'll never know what he would've thought of the upcoming remake by AMC and ITV, which just wrapped shooting last month. The remake is a 6 episode miniseries starring James Caviezel as Number Six and Ian McKellen as The Village's Chief Administrator Number Two. It will make its broadcast premiere on AMC sometime this year.
Universal has the rights for a movie adaptation of the series, but never managed to get it off the ground and left it stuck in development hell for years. The most recent incarnation of the project was in 2006, when they were really close to signing a deal with Christopher Nolan to make it his follow-up project to The Dark Knight.
Prior to his death, McGoohan had stopped making films for years. One of his final roles, ironically, was voicing Number Six in a parody of The Prisoner on a twelfth-season episode of The Simpsons, where Homer was taken into The Village for knowing too much.
As for the real deal, the entire series is still readily available on DVD, but in anticipation of the remake, AMC is streaming all 17 of the original episodes on their website. Watch them here and see the brilliance of The Prisoner.
