1. Daniel Patrick Macnee was a British-American actor best known for his breakthrough role as secret agent John Steed in the television series The Avengers.
43 Facts About Patrick Macnee
1. 2.
Patrick Macnee later reprised the role in The New Avengers.
3.
Patrick Macnee appeared in Oasis's music video for "Don't Look Back in Anger".
4.
Patrick Macnee is one of the few actors to have played both Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in different productions.
5.
The elder of two sons, Daniel Patrick Macnee was born in Paddington, London, England, on 6 February 1922; to Daniel Macnee and British socialite Dorothea Mabel Macnee.
6.
Patrick Macnee's father, who was a grandson of the Scottish artist Sir Daniel Macnee, trained race horses in Lambourn, and was known for his dress sense; he had served as an officer in the Yorkshire Dragoons in the First World War.
7.
Patrick Macnee's younger brother James, known as Jimmy, was born five years later.
8.
Patrick Macnee's parents separated after his mother came out as a lesbian.
9.
Patrick Macnee referred to her in his autobiography as "Uncle Evelyn", and she helped pay for his schooling.
10.
Patrick Macnee was educated at Summer Fields School and Eton College, where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps and was one of the guard of honour for King George V at St George's Chapel in 1936.
11.
Patrick Macnee was later expelled from Eton for selling pornography to and being a bookmaker for his fellow students.
12.
Patrick Macnee studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, but shortly before he was to perform in his first West End leading role, which would have had him acting alongside Vivien Leigh, he was called up for the Royal Navy.
13.
Patrick Macnee joined as an ordinary seaman in October 1942 and was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in June 1943, becoming a navigator on Motor Torpedo Boats in the English Channel and North Sea.
14.
Patrick Macnee left the Royal Navy in 1946 as a lieutenant.
15.
Between these occasional movie roles, Patrick Macnee spent the better part of the 1950s working in dozens of small roles in American and Canadian television and theatre, including an appearance in an episode of One Step Beyond and The Twilight Zone in 1959.
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Patrick Macnee, though, became the lead after Hendry's departure at the end of the first series.
17.
Patrick Macnee played opposite a succession of glamorous female partners: Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson.
18.
Patrick Macnee co-wrote two original novels based upon The Avengers during the 1960s, titled Dead Duck and Deadline.
19.
Patrick Macnee hosted the documentary The Avengers: The Journey Back, directed by Clyde Lucas.
20.
Patrick Macnee presented the American paranormal series Mysteries, Magic and Miracles.
21.
Patrick Macnee reunited with Diana Rigg in her short-lived sitcom Diana in a single episode.
22.
Patrick Macnee had recurring roles in the crime series Gavilan with Robert Urich and in the short-lived satire on big business, Empire, as Dr Calvin Cromwell.
23.
Patrick Macnee was known for narrating various James Bond Documentaries on Special Edition DVD.
24.
Patrick Macnee narrated the documentary Ian Fleming: 007's Creator.
25.
Patrick Macnee featured prominently in two editions of the long-running British television series This Is Your Life: in 1978, when he and host Eamonn Andrews, both dressed as Steed, surprised Ian Hendry, and in 1984 when he was the edition's unsuspecting subject.
26.
Patrick Macnee appeared in several cult films: in The Howling, as Dr George Waggner and as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg in the rockumentary comedy This Is Spinal Tap.
27.
Patrick Macnee played Dr Stark in The Creature Wasn't Nice, called Spaceship and Naked Space.
28.
Patrick Macnee played the role of actor David Mathews in the television movie Rehearsal for Murder, which starred Robert Preston and Lynn Redgrave.
29.
Patrick Macnee was featured in the science fiction television movie Super Force as E B Hungerford, as a supporting character in the parody film Lobster Man from Mars as Professor Plocostomos and in the television film The Return of Sam McCloud as Tom Jamison.
30.
Patrick Macnee made an appearance in Frasier, and several episodes of the American sci-fi series Nightman as Dr Walton, a psychiatrist who advised the main character.
31.
Patrick Macnee appeared in two episodes of the series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and was a retired agent in a handful of instalments of Spy Game.
32.
Patrick Macnee made numerous TV commercials including one around 1990 for Swiss Chalet, the Canadian restaurant chain, and a year or so before, a commercial for the Sterling Motor Car Company.
33.
Patrick Macnee was the narrator for several "behind-the-scenes" featurettes for the James Bond series of DVDs and recorded numerous audio books, including the releases of many novels by Jack Higgins.
34.
Patrick Macnee recorded the children's books The Musical Life of Gustav Mole and its sequel, The Lost Music, both written by Michael Twinn.
35.
Patrick Macnee featured in two pop videos: as Steed in original Avengers footage in The Pretenders' video for their song "Don't Get Me Wrong" and in the promotion for Oasis' video "Don't Look Back in Anger", as the band's driver, a role similar to that which he played in the James Bond film A View to a Kill.
36.
Patrick Macnee played both Holmes and Dr Watson on several occasions.
37.
Patrick Macnee played Watson three times: once alongside Roger Moore's Sherlock Holmes in the television film Sherlock Holmes in New York, and twice with Christopher Lee, first in Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady, and then in Incident at Victoria Falls.
38.
Patrick Macnee played Holmes in another television film The Hound of London, along with the Canadian television film Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Temporal Nexus.
39.
Patrick Macnee is thus one of only a small number of actors to have portrayed both Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson on screen.
40.
Patrick Macnee married his first wife Barbara Douglas in 1942.
41.
From 1973 to 1991, Patrick Macnee owned a home in the Deep Well neighborhood of Palm Springs, California.
42.
Patrick Macnee dictated his autobiography, which he titled Blind in One Ear: The Avenger Returns, to Marie Cameron.
43.
On 25 June 2015, Patrick Macnee died at Rancho Mirage, California, his home for the previous four decades, at the age of 93.