In April 1944, shortly before his second birthday, he escaped with his family to Montreal, Canada, on the Portuguese ship Serpa Pinto.

His other appearances in that series were in the following year in Briefly Kiss The Loser[15] as Big Silver Gardner and in 1967 as Colin Turner in Cinéma Vérité.

[17] His film career continued with an appearance in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965)[18] as part of a Mohocks gang.

McGoohan was impressed by his acting skills and perfectionism (to prepare the duel scene, both actors practised quick-draw assiduously).

As a result, McGoohan wrote for Kanner the role of Number Forty-eight, who is made to stand trial as the representative of rebellious youth in "Fall Out", the final episode of the series.

In 1969, he starred as Graham Baird in the little-known short feature film Twenty Nine,[21] a story of a promiscuous young husband's night out in swinging London.

[23] He starred in a number of feature films soon after, including Crossplot (1969)[24] with Roger Moore, Connecting Rooms (1970)[25] with Bette Davis and Michael Redgrave, and Goodbye Gemini[26] (also 1970).

He worked again with Patrick McGoohan on the Canadian hostage drama film Kings and Desperate Men,[33] in which he starred as well as writing, producing and directing.