Popular American-born Irish actor Patrick McGoohan was born in New York City, the Astoria district on Long Island on March 19, 1928.
His parents had immigrated to the united States and, within a few months after his birth, decided to return to Ireland. They settled in County Leitrim, and by all accounts his early childhood was a financially impoverished one on a family farm that produced little on poor soil.
He went to a local school in Sheffield and recalls, 'We were evacuated during the war. During that time, I went to a private boys' school with four other boys from Sheffield all with pretty much the same background as myself. We had scholarships and evacuation allowances. After that, I went to work in the steel mills in Sheffield.' He got a school certificate, the equivalent of a diploma and passed the exams to go to Oxford, but then said he decided, 'I didn't want to go.'
In 1944, at age 16, he left school and held a series of jobs over the next few years. At this point he became ill with bronchial asthma and spent six months in bed. Once recovered, he applied for work at the Sheffield Repertory Company. He was still under 20. Patrick McGoohan

took the job as stage manager at the Sheffield Repertory Theatre and for a while did every type of work needed to keep the company going. Within two years he was a leading player. By the mid-1950's, he had become established as a lead player on prestige stages at the West End in plays such as 'Moby Dick' (1955), 'Serious Charge' (1955) and Ring for Catty' (1956). At the same time he was also moving into television, taking feature roles in episodes of regular series, including 'The Vise', and 'You Are There', as well as a number of BBC-TV plays. Recognition was coming early, but not without considerable effort. McGoohan's first TV series 'Danger Man' was made in 1960 and 1961. The series established the direction and theme for what a few years later would become the highly successful 'Secret Agent' series.
Main character John Drake worked for NATO as a special security agent and was free to travel the world working on special problems for free world governments. The story lines set an early precedent for non-violence, preferring to have Drake use his wits and his fists rather than a gun. McGoohan influenced the program from the start.
The themes of morality and individuality fit in with his personal philosophy as well as his vision of what the character John Drake was supposed to be.
As both a moral and opinionated man, McGoohan held strong views and was forceful about seeing that they were carried out. He had insisted at the very first meeting on the script for the first episode that the bedroom scene be cut out. In fact, he stipulated that romantic involvements would have to be eliminated if he were to play the role, and consequently none appeared in either this series or the 'Secret Agent' series that followed.
Nor did any such relationships appear in 'The Prisoner' series. One episode of the series, 'Vacation' afforded McGoohan an early chance at directing, a skill he was to develop more fully on future projects.

Another episode, 'A View from the Villa', was filmed at Portmeirion in Wales and so impressed him that he made it the surreal location for 'The Prisoner' in 1966/67.
It should come as no surprise that when McGoohan was offered the role as the first James Bond, he turned it down - several times - as being

the program from the start.
The themes of morality and individuality fit in with his personal philosophy as well as his vision of what the character John Drake was supposed to be.
As both a moral and opinionated man, McGoohan held strong views and was forceful about seeing that they were carried out. He had insisted at the very first meeting on the script for the first episode that the bedroom scene be cut out. In fact, he stipulated that romantic involvements would have to be eliminated if he were to play the role, and consequently none appeared in either this series or the 'Secret Agent' series that followed.
Nor did any such relationships appear in 'The Prisoner' series. One episode of the series, 'Vacation' afforded McGoohan an early chance at directing, a skill he was to develop more fully on future projects.

Another episode, 'A View from the Villa', was filmed at Portmeirion in Wales and so impressed him that he made it the surreal location for 'The Prisoner' in 1966/67.
It should come as no surprise that when McGoohan was offered the role as the first James Bond, he turned it down - several times - as being incompatible with the type of role he wanted to play. He says it was a decision he has never regretted.
By the time 'Danger Man' resumed production in 1964, spy stories were all the rage and the series became a big hit. Shown in England under the previous title, it became 'Secret Agent' in the United States and debuted in 1965. John Drake was now a secret agent for England instead of NATO, and the series was expanded to an hour in length. It was recognized as being a classy show. It had original and good plots, a popular theme song and well-written background music, excellent production techniques, exceptional camera work, and it had McGoohan's strong and stylish performance.
As an actor, McGoohan had now carved out a voice and style all his own. As before, John Drake was a loner, an individual, and a moral character.
By 1966 McGoohan had grown tired of 'Secret Agent' and felt the program was beginning to repeat itself.
He approached Lew Grade about doing something a little different and proposed to him a limited-episode series called 'The Prisoner'. McGoohan had the status and power he needed to get the backing for the series he really wanted to do, and the free rein to control its every aspect. He spoke of 'The Prisoner': "I believe passionately in the freedom of the individual, and 'The Prisoner' is basically about the dehumanizing, the loss of individuality, which is happening to us all. People are the prisoners of our society. The series is a comment about life. 'The Prisoner' idea was with me for many years before I put it together with Portmeirion and decided to do the series. The general theme of the man in isolation against authority and bureaucracy, the idea of being a rebel against suppression and stupid rules has been with me since I was able to start thinking about anything at all." 'The Prisoner' started production in 1966. I had directed before that. I had directed in the theatre, and I'd done some writing. And, of course, during the making of 'Secret Agent', I directed some of those. I liked the total involvement. I'm not very happy just doing peripheral tasks. So that one is working as near as one can get to 24 hours a day. I like that, the feeling of achievement. The working with new ideas. I think that's wonderful. But one can