Thursday 15 January 2009

ESCAPE TO FANTASY ISLAND

There are certainly better ways to get up, especially early, than to learn this kind of news: Ricardo Montalban, 88, and Patrick McGoohan, 80, have died.

Patrick McGoohan reached tv stardom in the sixties as secret agent John Drake in Danger Man/Secret Agent, before co-creating, producing and writing some episodes of the show which made him a legend: The Prisoner (1967). McGoohan is remembered also for his apperances in Columbo and for the warden in Escape from Alcatraz (1979).

Talking about legends, Ricardo Montalban is known to the generation of your humble servant for his character of Khan Noonien Singh in the Star Trek episode Space Seed, a role he reprised with brilliance in the movie Star Trek II: The wrath of Khan (1982), directed by Nicholas Meyer (http://tattard2.blogspot.com/2008/05/nicholas-meyer.html). But Montalban also made television History with Fantasy Island (1978-1984), where he played Mr Roarke, the mysterious host of a resort island where guests could see all their fantasies fulfilled.

« How do I feel? Old... » (James T. Kirk, Star Trek II: The wrath of Khan)

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