RIP Ricardo Montalban & Patrick McGoohan

Such a sad day for Sci-Fi/Fantasy fans with the loss of both Ricardo Montalban and Patrick McGoohan.

Most people remember Ricardo for being the enigmatic Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island, quite the staple of Saturday night TV when I was a kid in the Seventies. However, his return performance as Kahn in Star Trek II made that movie one of the best of the series and in science fiction. Pretty impressive for a guy who originally played a one-shot villain on a cult show.

Patrick is more elusive to many in America but his biggest contribution was The Prisoner, a very puzzling (in a good way) show embedded in a spy theme yet it works on numerous levels. It definitely drew attention elsewhere because he went on to play heavies in Hollywood movies: the bad guy in Silver Streak, the warden in Escape from Alcatraz and the “evil” king in Braveheart. Personally, my favorite was him as the ghost of Billy Zane’s father in The Phantom.

This entry was posted in Diversions. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply