Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montaban were two of my favorite actors when I was young. Neither one was exactly a superstar, but both of them starred in movies and TV shows that I loved. They have both died in the past few days.
Patrick McGoohan was 80. He seems to have spent his entire career frowning and making the occasional cryptic comment. I love The Prisioner, an other worldly TV show Patrick McGoohan created and starred in about a secret agent that is kidnapped and renamed Number 6. He is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a lovely resort village.
Patrick McGoohan made a cameo on The Simpson’s where Homer stole his escape boat and Patrick had to remain a Prisoner. He was also the villain on the very silly Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor movie Silver Streak and he was in the dreadful sci fi film Scanners. His list of credits go back to the 1950s. He won two Emmys for his work on Columbo.
Ricardo Montaban was 88. He had a great voice and a smooth and intense delivery. The first role I noticed him in was as Khan on Star Trek-a role he revived with great gusto in Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan. This is my favorite of all the many Star Trek movies and one of the best parts is Ricardo Montaban growling and snarling at William Shatner. Of course, Kirk yelling Khan over and over and over is one of the all time great Star Trek moments.
I was also a huge fan of Fantasy Island, where Richardo Montaban played the enigmatic Mr Roarke who had the magical powers to make peoples dreams come true. He also showed up in Escape from The Planet of The Apes and a couple of episode of The Wild Wild West. He has a list of credits going back to the 1940s, but I only noticed his work in Sci Fi and similar silliness.
Richard Montaban and Patrick McGoohan were fun actors to watch and I always liked seeing both of them.
Fantasy Island was among my favorites as a child too. Sad to hear R.M. passed on. I hadn’t seen the news of P.M. passing.