Today Patrick Mcgoohan passed away. You may recall my post on The Prisoner which was full of lurid descriptions of my admiration for Mcgoohan’s magnum opus. So I won’t go into any more detail here about that fantastic and bizarre series which (unlike any other I could name) really puts the vision into television.

Mcgoohan was as cool and suave as his name was not. It is hard to understand why he is not more of a cultural icon, I mean look at this photo:

Smouldering, mysterious, and complex as the Mona Lisa.

It is interesting that he also played and excelled in a role which could not have been more different from Number Six. I am referring to his role opposite Clint Eastwood as the Warden in Don Siegel’s Escape from Alcatraz. It is perhaps one of the greatest ‘bad guy’ performances ever. You get such a strong impression of  the dictatorial Warden’s overbearing malice that it totally saturates the atmosphere of the film. This amplifies the tension as Eastwood’s character endeavours with his daring plot to escape: he is not just escaping from a grotty building or from some grumpy guards, but from the asphyxiating evil of the Warden. Achieving so much (with few lines) is a remarkable feat of acting.

There is a scene in which Mcgoohan’s character discovers that one of the prisoners, a poor old guy called Doc, has painted a portrait of him. The Warden is less than flattered. Doc’s painting privileges are removed, eventually resulting in his grotesque self-mutilation. The actual painting which was produced for the film is excellent (typical of Don Siegel’s attention to detail).

You get the picture. Those eyes could freeze lava.

Mcgoohan must have sat for the portrait, of course. And I wonder what he tried to think of to give that impression of cruel dominance? May be he thought about the secret tyrant of The Prisoner, Number One. He must have spent a long time considering this Big Brother figure when writing the series, which was such a personal project to him.

I find this curious little moment in film-making history to be quite fascinating, especially considering that, in the climax of The Prisoner,  Number Six finds that he has to look within himself for his final battle with the architect of oppression. Perhaps there was more to  Mcgoohan’s choice to play The Warden than meets the eye.