When I returned home from work tonight, I found two sad pieces of news, though not unexpected in a way. Both actors we lost today were quite old, full of honor and work, and survived by families that will remember them better than we mere fans.
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Ricardo Montalbán (IMDb, Wikipedia) was 88 when he passed away. Depending on how old you are, or how well-versed in Trek-lore you are, you may best remember him as the semi-mysterious Roarke, the law and prophets of Fantasy Island, or as a peddler of cars upholstered with “fine Corinthian leather,” or as the power-thirsty Khan Noonien Singh of Star Trek TOS’s “Space Seed.” For the oldest of us, though, we will know him as an actor in movie and television roles long before this, stretching back to forgotten pieces from the 1940s.
Montalbán was an actor who always tried to challenge himself. If he took on a role, he wanted to find facets that nobody else might have seen before. This was one reason why he chose to reprise the role of Khan for the second Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan; he felt that there were more facets to this character — often cited as one of the best villains ever put on celluloid — that needed to be explored. From the Wikipedia article on the character:
Montalbán said in promotional interviews for the movie he realized early on in his career that a good villain does not see himself as villainous. The villain may do villainous things, but he feels that he is doing them for righteous reasons. Montalbán further stated he always tried to find a flaw in the character because no one is completely good or completely evil; while Khan had a rather distorted view of reality and therefore performs acts of evil, he still feels that his vengeance is a noble cause because of the death of his wife. Khan quotes the character of Ahab from Moby Dick throughout the film, driving home his lust to make Kirk pay for the wrongs he has inflicted upon him.
Not many casual fans might have known that Montalbán suffered from a spinal condition that had been aggravated by being thrown from horses in some of his Western roles, and which deteriorated as he grew older. Operations only worsened the condition, and his last roles were often played from chairs or wheelchairs. Despite this, he remained active and in work up through last year, often doing voices in cartoons ranging from Kim Possible and Freakazoid to Family Guy. He can be seen on camera in a wheelchair in the first Spy Kids movie (and also making appearances in the more lamentable second and third movies of the series). He even did work on an episode of Dora the Explorer, as an animated puzzle character named El Encantador (the Wizard or Enchanter).
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I enjoyed watching and listening to Ricardo Montalbán, but my greater admiration was saved for Patrick McGoohan (IMDb, Wikipedia). Aged 88 at his death, McGoohan acted since 1954, when he played in an episode of You Are There, and alternated roles in both movies and television for years. His best movie role was perhaps in Ice Station Zebra opposite Rock Hudson, and he also played the voice of Billy Bones in Disney’s Treasure Planet.
But in America, he will be best known for three television series: his recurring appearances as various murderers in episodes of Columbo; British spy John Drake in Secret Agent (also known as Danger Man); and, of course, as the man known only as Number Six in The Prisoner. This series, a follow-up to Secret Agent and a definite brainchild of the discontented 1960s, explored the pressures placed on Man to conform to societal norms and expectations, shrouded in the allegory of a spy who suddenly and without explanation resigns from MI.6, and then finds himself kidnapped and spirited away to “The Village,” a place filled with people known only by numbers. Not knowing which side, if any side runs the place, the Prisoner fights to escape, to retain his identity and sense of self, and most of all to discover — who is Number One? The debate, discussion and uproar over this milestone piece of television has continued to this day, and fans still flock to the Welsh resort of Portmeirion to see the exteriors and discuss the deeper implications of McGoohan’s vision.
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Peace be to you.
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