Patrick McGoohan has no Trek connection, but we're all talking about him anyway. What an amazing feat--to go from commercial success with "Secret Agent Man" (thank you Johnny Rivers, for the "Secret Asian Man" theme song) to his against-the-grain self-made classic "The Prisoner," which rings so clearly once again in these days of "endless war" and susceptible civil liberties.
And then, to lose Ricardo Montalban as well. I wish I'd gotten to really meet him, although we set up an interview in 2002 after he was so proud when a life-long quest to help aspiring Latino performers and producers finally came to pass when his Nosotros foundation opened the Ricardo Montlaban Theatre in Hollywood. What an indelible career—from Latin lovers to "rrrich Corinthian leather" to the biggest Eugenics Wars devil of them all... and finally good ol' Mr. Rourke. Married to his wife Georgette in 1944 until she passed in 2007. And as far as Khan goes, when it comes to big-screen Trek villainy he's the bar that everyone else aspires to. And still never tops."Nick [Meyer] told me that when he went out on the road to promote [The Wrath of Khan], he was so full of all the technicalities of space travel, he became an expert. And he went to all of these interviews and gatherings, and yet he said the most commonly asked question, wherever he went, was 'Was that really Ricardo Montalban's chest?' !"—STC #139, Aug. 2002
As for any sadness today, let's just (CUE ukeleles) and leave it with the guy in the white dinner jacket :
"Smiles, everyone—smiles!"
1 comment:
Well said Larry - both were huge idols of mine, especially McGoohan. We're losing some of the greats.
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