March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009.
Image surfaced in a google search and allegedly came from goon-magazine.de.
Read the LA Times obituary, a BBC overview and the BBC obituary.
If you're one of those rare under-cultured sorts who has no idea who this man is, or are somehow unware of The Prisoner and its cultural impact, read McGoohan's wikipedia entry, and this interview. That should get you started. Buy the show while you're at it.
Here's an excerpt from the interview:
Troyer: What about the philosophy, the rationale of the Village? What did you tell them about that? Its raison-d'etre, not its mechanics...
McGoohan: (very deliberately) It was a place that is trying to destroy the individual by every means possible; trying to break his spirit, so that he accepts that he is No. 6 and will live there happily as No. 6 for ever after. And this is the one rebel that they can't break.
Troyer: To what end was that process of breaking down the individual will?
McGoohan: To what end?
Troyer: For the Village, what was the purpose, the goal?
McGoohan: I think it's going on every day all around us.
It's been forty years (a matter of weeks to the day) since society was so stylishly and thoughtfully challenged. That all comers have failed to be as engaging, as thought-provoking - or as accurate - says a lot for the state of modern media.
One of the largest and most long-lasting contributions my father made to the development of my worldview was to tape re-runs of The Prisoner during a run on CBS late-late night in the {late 80s|early 90s} and letting me watch them. Nothing I was exposed to in my formative years - with the possible exception of Robotech, but I'm trying to be serious here - has had such a broad-ranging impact on my creativity.
Number 2 : Do you still think you can escape, Number 6?
Number 6 : Oh, I will do better than that.
Number 2 : Oh?
Number 6 : I'm going to escape and come back.
Number 2 : Come back?
Number 6 : Escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the Earth, obliterate it, and you with it.
=== Added ===
As my dad mentions in the comments, I blogged about The Prisoner previously (and more eloquently, which is proof that booze kills brain cells). Back then, they were muttering about a remake... now they're actually following through. As an Industry, as opposed to a focused, pissed off individual with connections.
As xeno quotes in the comments: Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages.
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