Patrick Macnee starred in TV’s Avengers
LOS ANGELES — Patrick Macnee, the British-born actor best known as dapper secret agent John Steed in the longrunning 1960s TV series The Avengers, has died. He was 93.
Macnee died June 25 of natural causes with his family at his bedside in Rancho Mirage, his son Rupert said.
The clever spy drama, which began in 1961 in Britain, later aired in Canada and the U.S. It ran for eight seasons and continued in syndication for decades.
Macnee’s character appeared in all but two episodes, accompanied by a string of beautiful women who were his sidekicks.
The most popular was likely Diana Rigg, who played sexy junior agent Emma Peel from 1965 to 1968. Honor Blackman played Catherine Gale from 1962 to 1964, and Linda Thorson was Tara King from 1968 to 1969. Joanna Lumley was his costar for a 1976 revival, The New Avengers.
“We were in our own mad, crazy world,” Macnee said in 2003 when The New Avengers was being issued on DVD. “We were the TV Beatles. We even filmed in the same studio.”
But while he made his name internationally playing a smart, debonair British secret agent, Macnee was never a fan of the James Bond movies.
“I think their stories aren’t that realistic,” he said in 1999. “I think the sadism in them is horrifying. … On the other hand, the books — the James Bond books — were fascinating.”
As he noted in his droll 1992 autobiography, Blind in One Ear, Macnee’s early life matched that of his famed character, John Steed, in many ways.
The fictional John Wickham Gascoyne Berresford Steed was born in the mid-1920s to a noble British family, educated at Eton and served in the military during the Second World War. Daniel Patrick Macnee was born Feb. 6, 1922, in London to a pair of eccentrics, and he also attended Eton, although he claimed to have been thrown out for dealing in horse-race bets and pornography. He also served in the military during the Second World War, captaining torpedo boats that sought to destroy German U-boats in French waters.
Before he left Eton, Macnee had discovered acting. He apprenticed in the British theatre, toured in provincial theatres and made his film debut as an extra in the 1938 film Pygmalion.
At 19, he married Barbara Douglas, and they had two children, Rupert and Jenny.
After the war, Macnee graduated from drama school, but had trouble finding work, moving to Canada at one point to hunt for acting jobs.
“I did desert my family,” he admitted to the Sunday Mail. “I left when my son Rupert was five and my daughter Jenny was three, and I will always feel bad about that.”
He married actress Kate Woodville in 1965, but they divorced in 1969. His final marriage was to Baba Majos de Nagyzsenye in 1988.
Among his films: Hamlet (starring Laurence Olivier), A Christmas Carol, Until They Sail, Les Girls, Young Doctors in Love, Sweet 16 and This Is Spinal Tap.
But it was The Avengers that provided a permanent living for Macnee. He owned 2.5 per cent of the profits, and the series continued to play worldwide into the 21st century.
Explaining its success, he said: “It’s a very simple reason: It’s extremely good. I feel very justified and delighted in seeing after all these years that the show works.”