He began his career in England during the 1950s and became well known for the titular role of secret agent John Drake in the ITC espionage programme Danger Man (1960–1968).
Beginning in the 1970s, McGoohan maintained a long-running association with the television series Columbo, writing, directing, producing and appearing in several episodes.
His notable film roles included David Jones in Ice Station Zebra (1968); James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971); the Warden in Escape from Alcatraz (1979); Dr. Paul Ruth in Scanners (1981); Edward I of England in Braveheart (1995); Judge Omar Noose in A Time to Kill (1996); and the voice of Billy Bones in Treasure Planet (2002).
[citation needed] During World War II, he was evacuated to Loughborough, where he attended Ratcliffe College at the same time as future actor Ian Bannen.
[7] "Intimidated" by McGoohan's stage presence, Orson Welles cast him as Starbuck in his York theatre production of Moby Dick—Rehearsed.
[8] Welles said in 1969 that he believed McGoohan "would now be, I think, one of the big actors of our generation if TV hadn't grabbed him,"[9] reflecting that he had "all the required attributes, looks, intensity, unquestionable acting ability and a twinkle in his eye".
[citation needed] Production executive Lew Grade soon approached McGoohan about a television series where he would play a spy named John Drake.
While McGoohan, a Catholic, refused the role on moral grounds,[22] the success of the Bond films is generally cited as the reason for Danger Man being revived.
A staid English vicar, Dr. Christopher Syn (a reformed pirate captain - played by McGoohan) disguised as a scarecrow and mounted on a magnificent black stallion thwarts King George III's Revenue officers in daring night-time smuggling adventures on the remote Kent coast.
After he had also refused the role of Simon Templar in The Saint,[23] Lew Grade asked McGoohan if he wanted to give John Drake another try.
McGoohan pitched a miniseries about a secret agent who angrily quits and is abducted to a surreal, cheerful holiday resort village.
Grade asked for a budget, McGoohan had one ready, and they made a deal over a handshake early on a Saturday morning to produce The Prisoner.
The title character, the otherwise-unnamed "Number Six", spends the entire series trying to escape from a mysterious prison community called "The Village", and to learn the identity of its ruler.
The series' main exterior filming location was the Italianate resort village of Portmeirion, Gwynedd, Wales, which had been featured in some episodes of Danger Man.
During production of The Prisoner, MGM cast McGoohan in an action movie, Ice Station Zebra (1968), for which his performance as a British spy drew critical praise.
He was meant to follow it with the lead role of Dirk Struan in an expensive adaptation of the James Clavell best-seller Tai-Pan but the project was cancelled before filming.
[30] McGoohan received two Emmy Awards for his work for the television series Columbo, with his long-time friend Peter Falk.
As he had done early in his career with the Rank Organisation, McGoohan began to specialise in villains, appearing in A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975), Silver Streak (1976) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1977).
In 1985 he appeared in his only Broadway production, featuring opposite Rosemary Harris in Hugh Whitemore's Pack of Lies, in which he played another British spy.
In it, Homer Simpson concocts a news story to make his website more popular, and he wakes up in a prison disguised as a holiday resort.
[35] McGoohan died following a "short illness" at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, on January 13, 2009, at the age of 80.