Something for the weekend. Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers. Back in the sixties my family all enjoyed the show Secret Agent starring the late, great actor Patrick McGoohan as agent John Drake. A Catholic with a strong faith, McGoohan refused to take on rules that required him to seduce women or to engage in excessive violence. He was passionately in love with his one and only wife and wrote her love notes each day. Modern audiences probably know him best for his role as King Edward Longshanks in Braveheart, a film he had qualms about due to its historical inaccuracies. For me his greatest role was as Number Six in The Prisoner. In an industry that rewards lock step conformity, McGoohan was always very much his own man.
Secret Agent Man
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Jim Caviezel who starred as Number 6 in the 2009 Prisoner miniseries is also a devout Catholic.
I loved both the original and the re-make. Among my favorites.
Was John Drake the Prisoner?
Discuss.
I have always thought so, although McGoohan denied it.
John Drake, prisoner of his own mind!
At one point in the final Prisoner episode, Fallout, Number 2, being so frustrated with Number 6, (McGoohan), he calls him Drake.
I too was a fan. He played a villain in several movies. I couldn’t take that seriously, although he played the roles well, of course. I awoke one morning with the radio news that McGoohan had been arrested for DWI. I was not as horrified as I probably should have been. Extenuating circumstances, of course…