Patrick McGoohan

On June 11, 2008, he became a great-grandfather to Jack Patrick Lockhart.

Retired from acting after Columbo: Ashes to Ashes (1998), returning only to provide voice-over work in Treasure Planet (2002).

He was originally offered the role of Knight Two in Babylon 5: And the Sky Full of Stars (1994), but although he wanted to accept, he was unable to fit the filming into his schedule.

He was originally offered the role of Dr. Ira Graves in Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Schizoid Man (1989), but turned it down. The title is a reference to The Prisoner: The Schizoid Man (1967).

Owned the rights to an audioclip that metal band Iron Maiden wanted to use in their song "The Prisoner" (1982). He gave them the permission to use it in a telephone conversation with their manager.

In 1977 he was considered to replace Peter Falk as Columbo. However, McGoohan turned the part down because he was a close friend of Falk, and believed that only Falk should play Columbo. In addition he did not want to be the star of another TV series but only make guest appearances.

Played four different murderers in four different episodes of "Columbo": Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light (1974), Columbo: Identity Crisis (1975), Columbo: Agenda for Murder (1990), and Columbo: Ashes to Ashes (1998). He also directed all of them except the first, as well as Columbo: Last Salute to the Commodore (1976) and Columbo: Murder with Too Many Notes (2000).

Along with William Shatner, Robert Culp, Jack Cassidy and George Hamilton, he is one of only five actors to play two or more unrelated murderers in episodes of Columbo (1971). He played four in total, more than anyone else - specifically Colonel Lyle C. Rumford in Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light (1974), Nelson Brenner in Columbo: Identity Crisis (1975), Oscar Finch in Columbo: Agenda for Murder (1990) and Eric Prince in Columbo: Ashes to Ashes (1998). He also directed all but the first of these.

"During the 1970s, he appeared in four episodes of the TV detective series "Columbo," for which he won an Emmy Award.

In one scene in Ice Station Zebra (1968) he was supposed to dive into the flooded torpedo room of the nuclear sub to rescue a trapped naval officer. Being a strong swimmer he insisted on doing the scene himself rather than use a stuntman. A change was made to the script so allowing Olympic swimming champion Murray Rose, who'd been cast in another role, to do the scene with him in case anything happened. It was only after the scene was completed that Murray revealed that while he and Pat were standing up to their necks in the rising water just before the cameras rolled Pat had whispered to him "Now I've done it, my foot's stuck". Murray dived down and freed his foot which had become wedged tight in the torpedo rack.

Thus, the TV series The Prisoner (1967) came to revolve around the efforts of a secret agent, who resigned early in his career, to clear his name. His aim was to escape from a fancifully beautiful but psychologically brutal prison for people who know too much. The series was as popular as it was surreal and allegorical, and its mysterious final episode caused such an uproar that McGoohan was to desert England for more than 20 years to seek relative anonymity in LA, where celebrities are "a dime a dozen.

Variety Club of Great Britain ITV personality Award for 1965 for Danger Man (1960).

Shortly thereafter, he was chosen for the starring role in the Secret Agent (1964) TV series (AKA 'Secret Agent in the US), which proved to be an immense success for three years and allowed the British to break into the burgeoning American TV market for the first time. By the series' 3rd year, McGoohan felt the series had run its course and was beginning to repeat itself. McGoohan and Lew Grade - the president of ITC (the series' production company), had agreed that McGoohan could leave Danger Man to begin work on a new series, and turned in his resignation right after the first episode of the fourth year had been filmed ("Koroshi"). McGoohan set up his own production company and collaborated with noted author and script editor George Markstein to sell a brand new concept to ITC's Lew Grade. McGoohan starred in, directed, produced, and wrote many of the episodes, sometimes taking a pseudonym to reduce the sheer number of credits to his name.

Turned down two roles that eventually went to Roger Moore: Simon Templar in The Saint (1962) and James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973).

Appeared in three different productions with the same name: the Danger Man: The Prisoner (1960), BBC Sunday-Night Play: The Prisoner (1963), and The Prisoner (1967). Although they were all completely unrelated, the latter two had many similarities.

In 1959, he was named Best TV Actor of the Year in Britain.

He made his mark in gritty films like Hell Drivers (1957), which gave him his bad boy persona on screen.

Orson Welles was so impressed by his performance in the 1955 West End play "Serious Charge" that he cast him as Starbuck in his production of "Moby Dick Rehearsed".

Though born in America, Irish actor Patrick McGoohan rose to become the number-one British TV star in the 1950s to 1960s era. His parents moved to Ireland when he was very young and McGoohan acquired a neutral accent that sounds at home in British or American dialogue. He was an avid stage actor and performed hundreds of times in small and large productions before landing his first TV and film roles. McGoohan is one of few actors who has successfully switched between theater, TV, and films many times during his career. He was often cast in the role of Angry Young Man.

In 1948 he worked as a a stage manager at the Sheffield Repertory.