By Kenneth Jones
16 Jan 2009

Patrick McGoohan, the Astoria, Queens-born but British Isles-raised actor best known for playing a mysterious character in the TV series, "The Prisoner," died Jan. 13 at age 80, after a long career on stage, TV and in movies.

"The Prisoner," which he also created, ran only 17 episodes in the late 1960s, but it still has a loyal following. He played a character known only as No. 6. In the show, No. 6 is a former spy who is abducted and taken to a lavish, protected seaside enclave called the Village, which was his prison. Prior to the U.S. series, Mr. McGoohan was already a star of the British spy series "Danger Man."

Rising from stagehand at the Sheffield Playhouse in Sheffield, England, he would play leading classical roles. On London's West End, he played in a 1955 production of Moby Dick Rehearsed, written and directed by Orson Welles, The New York Times reported.

Mr. McGoohan's one Broadway appearance was in Hugh Whitmore's Pack of Lies, for which he earned a Drama Desk nomination in 1985.

His films includes "Scanners" and "Braveheart," among others.

He is survived by his wife, Joan Drummond, an actress, along with three daughters, Catherine, Anne and Frances; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson, according to the Times.