In Memoriam: Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino, 1920-2009; Patrick Joseph McGoohan, 1928-2009

[thatcrazycajun]

A double tragedy in the entertainment world today: Actors Ricardo Montalbán and Patrick McGoohan have both died in Los Angeles, at the ages of 88 and 81 respectively. Mr. Montalbán's obituary appears here, and Mr. McGoohan's here. Cause of death for neither has been reported as of yet, though McGoohan is said to have suffered "a brief illness."

The place of both these men in the hearts of science-fiction and fantasy fans is beyond dispute. Besides being the enigmatic (and apparently sorcerous) Mr. Roarke in the original 1970s ABC TV series Fantasy Island, Montalbán was even better known to legions of Star Trek fans as Khan Noonien Singh, onetime despot of the Eugenics Wars and later would-be murderer of Adm. James T. Kirk. And McGoohan's signature creation, The Prisoner, in which he starred and also acted as executive producer and co-creator, was mentioned in this blog only days ago.

But both men had stellar careers in their youths, years before the above-noted roles, in film, television and stage, although Ricardo had to cope with the racism of mid-20th-century Hollywood in competing for his roles. And both men continued to work quite steadily after their star turns; indeed, McGoohan is reported to have had two offers to appear in wide-release films on the table at the time of his passing.

My heart, thoughts and prayers are with both men's families, friends, colleagues and fans in this difficult hour. Thank you immensely, gentlemen, and may you both be chauffeured each day to the Heavenly Theater to star in your work of choice...in a Chrysler limo upholstered in rich Corinthian leather, of course.

Comments

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

I loved that Montalbán got to keep working pretty much up until the end. He did the voice of Señor Senior in Disney's Kim Possible, but the spinal injury that kept him in a wheelchair the last 15 years of his life didn't stop him from doing movies -- In Spy Kids II he just rolled merrily through the film, and through the magic of CGI he got to walk around in Spy Kids III.

Personally I think he was a much better actor than he sometimes gets credit for. He had to be -- in his career he was the go-to guy (as described by NPR) whenever a studio wanted a studly foreigner, especially a Latin one, although he played parts from all over the globe. And, of course, off of it.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

And if you watched Steven Spielberg's animated TV show Freakazoid! (an underrated gem if ever there was one), you also heard Ricardo as the super-villain Guitierrez, who attempted to ruin Freak's reputation by making an evil clone of him. One of the best things about RM was his sense of humor and utter refusal to take himself or his fame too seriously.

I had not known about the spinal injury; I saw him in SK3 and thought the wheelchair was just for the role. That only makes him even more impressive in my view; thanks for sharing this with us.

Another Train's Loading

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

Grouped passings such as this have led me to the belief that all our souls are really connected in karmic groups, and when your particular club's ready to go, everybody leaves at more or less the same time.

I was going to post these obits. Thanks for doing so. I can't help but think of a fan somewhere writing the slash story about Number Six actually having been sent to Fantasy Island and Mr. Rourke was really No. 2. Then again, I'm sure it's already been written.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Actually, the only Chrysler that had rich Corinthian leather was the Cordoba.

As to McGoohan, what can I say that's not already been said?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Ah, but in heaven you can have any sort of vehicular upholstery you want, nu? :-)