We'll miss you, Number Six.
Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy-winning actor best known as the mastermind and star of the cult classic 1960s sci-fi show The Prisoner, has died. Son-in-law Cleve Landsberg says McGoohan passed away in Los Angeles after a short illness. No other information was available.
He turned down a chance to play James Bond to launch The Prisoner, about a former secret agent trapped on a mysterious island by an unknown enemy. Although it only lasted 17 episodes, it influenced several future genre shows, including Lost and the revamped Battlestar Galactica, which also has a key character named Number Six.
McGoohan won his two Emmys for his work opposite Peter Falk on the hit '70s detective series Columbo, costarred with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in Silver Streak and played the villainous King Edward Longshanks in Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning epic Braveheart.
McGoohan was 80.