Patrick McGoohan

I must pause to honor the memory of Patrick Magoohan the star and co-creator of the milestone super-mod series The Prisoner, who died Monday. The Prisoner was a mainstay of my youth and probably more than anything else made me the paranoid curmudgeonly outsider I am today. So thank you, Number 6.

And who knew: he was born in Astoria! And died in LA.

Not completely off topic since he did start on the British stage in the 50s, and even appeared on Broadway in the Hugh Whitmore 1985 spy-drama Pack of Lies, in which Frank Rich called him "ideally cast" as "an icily silver fox of an intelligence technician." (Despite Rich's review, I found it not a bad little play when I read it years ago.)

Full details, of course, on the official fanclub--"Six of One"--website. (No, I'm not a member.)

Meanwhile, congrats Number 6. You finally got off the island.